WEBVTT

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By October 2018,

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Juan Carlos Rivera could no longer afford

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to live in his home in Copan, Honduras.

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As the "Dallas Morning News" reported,

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

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

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

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What could they do?

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Run away?

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Seek asylum in another country?

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They didn't want to do that.

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They just wanted to live
in their country safely.

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But their options were limited.

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So that month,

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Juan Carlos moved his family
to a safer location

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

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from Central America

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

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By now we're all familiar
with what awaited them

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at the US-Mexico border.

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

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The criminal prosecutions
for crossing illegally.

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The inhumane detention.

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And most terribly,
separation of families.

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

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it's unnecessary.

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This belief that the only way
to maintain order

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is with inhumane means

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is inaccurate.

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And in fact, the opposite is true.

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Only a humane system
will create order at the border.

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

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very few people choose
travel that is unsafe,

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disorderly or illegal.

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Now, I appreciate the idea

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that legal immigration
could just resolve the border crisis

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might sound a bit fanciful.

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But here is the good news:

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We have done this before.

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I've been working on immigration for years

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at the Cato Institute

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and other think tanks in Washington DC

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

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negotiating bipartisan immigration reform.

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And I've seen firsthand

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

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for Mexico.

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It's called a guest worker program.

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And here's the even better news.

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We can replicate this success
for Central America.

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Of course, some people

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will still need to seek
asylum at the border.

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But to understand how successful

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this could be for immigrants
like Juan Carlos,

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understand that until recently,

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nearly every immigrant arrested
by Border Patrol was Mexican.

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In 1986,

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each Border Patrol agent
arrested 510 Mexicans.

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Well over one per day.

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By 2019, this number was just eight.

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That's one every 43 days.

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It is a 98 percent reduction.

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So where have all the Mexicans gone?

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The most significant change

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is that the US began issuing

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hundreds of thousands
of guest worker visas to Mexicans,

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so that they can come legally.

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José Vásquez Cabrera was among
the first Mexican guest workers

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to take advantage of this visa expansion.

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

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he'd made terrifying
illegal border crossings,

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braving near deadly heat
and the treachery of the landscape.

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

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Thousands of other Mexicans
also didn't make it,

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

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Millions more were
chased down and arrested.

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Guest worker visas have nearly ended
this inhumane chaos.

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As Vásquez Cabrera put it,

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"I no longer have to risk my life

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to support my family.

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

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Guest worker visas actually reduced
the number of illegal crossings

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more than the number of visas issued.

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Jose Bacilio, another
Mexican guest worker, explained why

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to the "Washington Post" in April.

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

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he wouldn't risk all of his future chances

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by crossing illegally.

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This likely helps explain why

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from 1996 to 2019

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for every guest worker
admitted legally from Mexico,

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

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Now, it's true,

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Mexican guest workers
do some really tough jobs.

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Picking fruit, cleaning crabs,

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landscaping in a 100-degree heat.

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And some critics maintain
that guest worker visas

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are not actually humane

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and that the workers
are just abused slaves.

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But Vásquez Cabrera thought
a guest worker visa was liberating.

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Not enslavement.

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And he, like nearly
all other guest workers,

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chose the legal path
over the illegal one, repeatedly.

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The expansion of guest worker
visas to Mexicans

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has been among the most
significant humane changes

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in US immigration policy ever.

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And that humane change

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imposed order on chaos.

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So where does this leave
Central Americans,

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like Juan Carlos?

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Well, Central Americans received

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

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

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

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for every 78 who crossed
the border illegally in 2019.

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

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many take their chances,

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coming up through Mexico
to claim asylum at the border

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or cross illegally,

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

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The US can do better.

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It needs to create new guest worker visas

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specifically for Central Americans.

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This would create an incentive
for US businesses

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to seek out and hire Central Americans,

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paying for their flights
to the United States,

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and diverting them from the illegal,
dangerous trek north.

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Central Americans could build
flourishing lives at home,

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without the need to seek
asylum at the border

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or cross illegally,

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freeing up an overwhelmed system.

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Some people might say

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that letting the workers go back and forth

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will never work in Central America

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where violence is so high.

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But again, it worked in Mexico,

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

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to a level higher
than much of Central America.

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And it would work for Juan Carlos,

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who said, despite the threats

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he only wants to live
in the United States temporarily,

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to make enough money

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to sustain his family in their new home.

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He even suggested
that a guest worker program

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

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

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seems to agree.

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

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to support her kids and her mom.

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Surveys of Central Americans
traveling through Mexico,

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by the College of the Northern
Border in Mexico,

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confirm that Juan and Cintia are the norm.

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

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even if, like the Riveras,

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they may also face
some real threats at home.

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How much would a low-wage job help

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a Honduran, like Juan or Cintia?

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Hondurans like them make as much

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in one month in the United States

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as they do in an entire year
working in Honduras.

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A few years' work in the United States

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can propel a Central American
into its upper middle class

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where safety is easier to come by.

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What Central Americans lack
is not the desire to work.

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Not the desire to contribute
to the US economy,

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to contribute to the lives of Americans.

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What Central Americans lack
is a legal alternative to asylum.

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To be able to do so legally.

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Of course, a new guest worker program

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will not resolve 100 percent
of this complex phenomenon.

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Many asylum seekers
will still need to seek safety

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at the US border.

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But with the flows reduced,

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

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But ultimately,

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no single policy has proven to do more

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to create an immigration system
that is both humane

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and orderly

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than to let the workers come legally.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)