Should U.S. Adopt an Immigration Moratorium?

Many Americans might be shocked to learn that there used to be an actual border between the United States and Mexico that was actively policed by federal border security agents. Since President Biden took office in January 2021, however, he has signed numerous executive orders that have encouraged mass illegal migration into the United States.

Biden dumped certain Trump-era policies such as the Remain in Mexico policy which required asylum seekers to apply for admission to the United States from Mexico and reinstituted the “catch and release” policy which allowed migrants to be released into American society if they pinky-swore that they would show up for their asylum hearing some six or seven years in the future.

Although Biden did not require all border agents to give swag bags to each migrant swimming across the Rio Grande, he did order that construction on the border wall be paused indefinitely. On the bright side, however, Biden’s orders ushered in a new golden age for enterprising fentanyl smugglers and human traffickers who have earned billions of dollars bringing many of the nearly 8 million illegal migrants to the United States who have arrived over the past three years.

As the full impact of this human invasion has become apparent with so-called “sanctuary cities” such as New York and Chicago having to cough up billions of dollars to feed and house tens of thousands of migrants, many individuals (including even some Democrats who have awakened from their comas) have begun to question the wisdom of these non-border policies which are essentially throwing the nation’s doors open to the world’s unvetted masses.

It has also prompted a number of individuals to propose that the United States impose a moratorium on immigration to give the country a breather from the ongoing rush of humanity across the border so that it can track down all of the new migrants and determine who should stay and who should go.

The Mass Immigration Reduction Act of 2024 (H.R. 6940) was filed in the House of Representatives on January 10 and contained a moratorium on immigration.

Although the bill was referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary, it has not yet surfaced for a House vote. Moreover, it has received scant attention in the mainstream media — which is more philosophically aligned with the nihilistic “open borders” policy being so fervently pursued by the Biden regime.

However, the bill proposes a minimum five-year pause in most forms of immigration, including family-sponsored immigration and diversity lottery immigration. It also greatly reduces employment-based immigration to 5,000 individuals per year — who would presumably be persons having advanced degrees or special talents deemed to be of great value to the country.

Finally, it purports to deal with the century-old dispute over “birthright citizenship” by withholding citizenship from a newborn child unless at least one of the two parents is an American citizen or a national of the United States or an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United States.

It offers the added bonus of brevity as H.R. 6940 is only five pages in length.

Several arguments in support of an immigration moratorium have been summarized by Jason Richwine of the Center for Immigration Studies. He suggests that a moratorium need not mean zero immigrants but could permit noncitizen spouses and minor children as well as a small number of refugees as well as exceptionally brilliant individuals.

Another benefit is that it would bolster America’s culture by reducing the pressures that have increasingly burdened many of our national institutions and traditions due to the vast expansion of the foreign-born population which is increasingly resistant to assimilation and now numbers nearly 50 million individuals of vastly different cultural backgrounds.

According to Richwine, “If mass immigration results in the importation of cultures that are unsupportive, our national economy could become less innovative and growth-oriented.”

A drastic reduction in the number of migrants would also greatly ease the burden on American taxpayers who are shelling out enormous sums of money each year to provide for the care of these new arrivals. According to the House Committee on Homeland Security, “taxpayers have to front nearly a half a trillion dollars each year because the Biden administration is not stopping migrants at the southern border.”

For those who are not convinced that the federal government is run by financial wizards, the prospect of having to spend trillions of dollars in the future to accommodate an unrelenting wave of humanity is unsettling, particularly when the government now runs an annual deficit exceeding $1.5 trillion each year.

Unfettered immigration also hurts the fortunes of the most economically vulnerable working Americans. These individuals do not dine with Wall Street bankers and White House advisers, but are often displaced from their jobs by migrants willing to work under the table for sub-minimum wages.

Employers who complain about their inability to attract qualified workers are really saying that they do not want to pay the free market labor rates that these workers should receive. Hence, employers and the ironically-named “U.S. Chamber of Commerce” favor bringing in lower-priced foreign labor which results in the loss of American jobs.

Free traders who say that bringing in lower-wage foreign workers is a good idea ignore the wider societal costs that unemployed American workers and their families will suffer when they are forced to seek public assistance to make up for the loss of the family breadwinner’s income.

An immigration moratorium will help prevent working-class Americans from losing their jobs because it would shut off the supply of cheaper foreign labor.

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