How guest worker visas could transform the US immigration system

The United States can create a more humane immigration system; in fact, it's been done before, says policy analyst David J. Bier. Pointing to the historical success of the US guest worker program, which allows foreign workers to legally enter and work in the country, Bier shows why expanding the program to Central Americans could alleviate the border crisis and provide new opportunities for immigrants.

By October 2018,

Juan Carlos Rivera could no longer afford

to live in his home in Copan, Honduras.

As the "Dallas Morning News" reported,

a gang was taking 10 percent
of his earnings from his barber shop.

His wife was assaulted
going to her pre-K teaching job.

And they were concerned
about the safety of their young daughter.

What could they do?

Run away?

Seek asylum in another country?

They didn't want to do that.

They just wanted to live
in their country safely.

But their options were limited.

So that month,

Juan Carlos moved his family
to a safer location

while he joined a group of migrants
on the long and perilous journey

from Central America

to a job a family member said
was open for him in the United States.

By now we're all familiar
with what awaited them

at the US-Mexico border.

The harsher and harsher penalties
doled out to those crossing there.

The criminal prosecutions
for crossing illegally.

The inhumane detention.

And most terribly,
separation of families.

I'm here to tell you
that not only is this treatment wrong,

it's unnecessary.

This belief that the only way
to maintain order

is with inhumane means

is inaccurate.

And in fact, the opposite is true.

Only a humane system
will create order at the border.

When safe, orderly, legal travel
to the United States is available,

very few people choose
travel that is unsafe,

disorderly or illegal.

Now, I appreciate the idea

that legal immigration
could just resolve the border crisis

might sound a bit fanciful.

But here is the good news:

We have done this before.

I've been working on immigration for years

at the Cato Institute

and other think tanks in Washington DC

and as the senior policy adviser
for a republican member of Congress,

negotiating bipartisan immigration reform.

And I've seen firsthand

how America has implemented
a system of humane order at the border

for Mexico.

It's called a guest worker program.

And here's the even better news.

We can replicate this success
for Central America.

Of course, some people

will still need to seek
asylum at the border.

But to understand how successful

this could be for immigrants
like Juan Carlos,

understand that until recently,

nearly every immigrant arrested
by Border Patrol was Mexican.

In 1986,

each Border Patrol agent
arrested 510 Mexicans.

Well over one per day.

By 2019, this number was just eight.

That's one every 43 days.

It is a 98 percent reduction.

So where have all the Mexicans gone?

The most significant change

is that the US began issuing

hundreds of thousands
of guest worker visas to Mexicans,

so that they can come legally.

José Vásquez Cabrera was among
the first Mexican guest workers

to take advantage of this visa expansion.

He told "The New York Times"
that before his visa

he'd made terrifying
illegal border crossings,

braving near deadly heat
and the treachery of the landscape.

One time, a snake killed
a member of his group.

Thousands of other Mexicans
also didn't make it,

dying of dehydration in the deserts
or drowning in the Rio Grande.

Millions more were
chased down and arrested.

Guest worker visas have nearly ended
this inhumane chaos.

As Vásquez Cabrera put it,

"I no longer have to risk my life

to support my family.

And when I'm here,
I don't have to live in hiding."

Guest worker visas actually reduced
the number of illegal crossings

more than the number of visas issued.

Jose Bacilio, another
Mexican guest worker, explained why

to the "Washington Post" in April.

He said, even though
he hadn't received a visa this year,

he wouldn't risk all of his future chances

by crossing illegally.

This likely helps explain why

from 1996 to 2019

for every guest worker
admitted legally from Mexico,

there was a decline in two arrests
of Mexicans crossing illegally.

Now, it's true,

Mexican guest workers
do some really tough jobs.

Picking fruit, cleaning crabs,

landscaping in a 100-degree heat.

And some critics maintain
that guest worker visas

are not actually humane

and that the workers
are just abused slaves.

But Vásquez Cabrera thought
a guest worker visa was liberating.

Not enslavement.

And he, like nearly
all other guest workers,

chose the legal path
over the illegal one, repeatedly.

The expansion of guest worker
visas to Mexicans

has been among the most
significant humane changes

in US immigration policy ever.

And that humane change

imposed order on chaos.

So where does this leave
Central Americans,

like Juan Carlos?

Well, Central Americans received

just three percent of the guest worker
visas issued in 2019,

even as their share of border arrests
has risen to 74 percent.

The US issued just one guest worker visa
to a Central American

for every 78 who crossed
the border illegally in 2019.

So if they can't get their papers at home,

many take their chances,

coming up through Mexico
to claim asylum at the border

or cross illegally,

even if, like Juan Carlos,
they prefer to come to work.

The US can do better.

It needs to create new guest worker visas

specifically for Central Americans.

This would create an incentive
for US businesses

to seek out and hire Central Americans,

paying for their flights
to the United States,

and diverting them from the illegal,
dangerous trek north.

Central Americans could build
flourishing lives at home,

without the need to seek
asylum at the border

or cross illegally,

freeing up an overwhelmed system.

Some people might say

that letting the workers go back and forth

will never work in Central America

where violence is so high.

But again, it worked in Mexico,

even as Mexico's murder rate
more than tripled over the last decade,

to a level higher
than much of Central America.

And it would work for Juan Carlos,

who said, despite the threats

he only wants to live
in the United States temporarily,

to make enough money

to sustain his family in their new home.

He even suggested
that a guest worker program

would be one of the best things
to help Hondurans like him.

Cintia, a 29-year-old
single mother of three from Honduras,

seems to agree.

She told the "Wall Street Journal"
that she came for a job

to support her kids and her mom.

Surveys of Central Americans
traveling through Mexico,

by the College of the Northern
Border in Mexico,

confirm that Juan and Cintia are the norm.

Most, not all, but most do come for jobs,

even if, like the Riveras,

they may also face
some real threats at home.

How much would a low-wage job help

a Honduran, like Juan or Cintia?

Hondurans like them make as much

in one month in the United States

as they do in an entire year
working in Honduras.

A few years' work in the United States

can propel a Central American
into its upper middle class

where safety is easier to come by.

What Central Americans lack
is not the desire to work.

Not the desire to contribute
to the US economy,

to contribute to the lives of Americans.

What Central Americans lack
is a legal alternative to asylum.

To be able to do so legally.

Of course, a new guest worker program

will not resolve 100 percent
of this complex phenomenon.

Many asylum seekers
will still need to seek safety

at the US border.

But with the flows reduced,

we can more easily work out ways
to deal with them humanely.

But ultimately,

no single policy has proven to do more

to create an immigration system
that is both humane

and orderly

than to let the workers come legally.

Thank you.

(Applause)