Once Unthinkable, an Immigration Pause Gaining Mainstream Momentum

By Joe Guzzardi
December 14, 2015
 
Suddenly, talk of an all-inclusive immigration moratorium has expanded into the mainstream.  For years, Americans have been increasingly skeptical about the sustainability of the record numbers of immigrants that have arrived during the last five decades, mostly from Latin America and Asia. According to the Pew Research Center, if current immigration policy is sustained, another 103 million people will be added to the population during the next fifty years and will put America’s total residents at 441 million; 88 percent of the growth will be immigration-related. Polling, ignored on Capitol Hill, has consistently indicated that Americans want less legal immigration, and secure borders to eliminate illegal immigration.
 
The terrorism threat has vaulted Americans skepticism about the administration’s welcome-the-world immigration policy from quiet dismay to vocal disapproval. When federal agents learned that San Bernardino terrorist, Pakistan-born and Saudi Arabia-reared Tasheem Malik lied on her K-1 visa when she entered a non-existent home address, but still easily duped immigration officials, Americans realized that immigrant visa vetting is meaningless. Among the questions posed to visa applicants are these three that prove how worthless the background check is: First, “Do you seek to engage in terrorist activities while in the United States or have you ever engaged in terrorist activities?” Second, “Are you a member or representative of a terrorist organization?” Check “yes” or “no.” Third, “Have you ever or do you intend to provide financial assistance or other support to terrorists or terrorist organizations?” Reporters pressed State Department representative Elizabeth Trudeau about whether the visa process should be strengthened, and she replied that this process “happens around the world every day in our U.S. embassies,” an alarming comment under the circumstances.
 
Adding to Americans’ immigration hesitancy is a recent Center for Immigration Studies’ report based on Census Bureau data which found that in July 2014, the U.S. foreign-born population reached a record high 42.4 million. Ranked by percentage, the largest contributing countries to that growth are predominantly Muslim nations that have terrorism ties: Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Iraq, Egypt, Pakistan, India, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Ghana. The Department of Homeland Security reports show that President Barack Obama's immigration policy has issued 680,000 green cards to Middle Eastern countries during the past five years, a D.C. population.
 
Evidence of the Obama administration’s immigration follies has become so overwhelming that even long-time immigration advocates demand a temporary moratorium. Economist, syndicated columnist, and CNBC Senior Contributors Larry Kudlow wrote that the U.S. is at war with ISIS and accordingly should for the time being halt immigration and end visas. Arguing that “war changes everything,” Kudlow recommends overhauling immigrant and foreign visitor vetting, changing the screening process, designing a new visa application review standard, and stopping “this nonsense of marriage visa fraud.”

Kudlow, who last year promoted more immigration as pro-growth and at the core of conservative principles, also argued in his change of heart that the borders must be sealed, a promise Congress had made and broken dozens of times.  Acknowledging that tourism may be slowed, and international college enrollments may decline, Kudlow concluded that America “needs a wartime footing” to secure the homeland.

Immigration was designed to benefit America, and should be subject to frequent reviews to insure that its original intention is always prioritized. Implementing a temporary immigration pause is now in America’s best interests.