"Immigration" is a subset of a larger "population management" policy issue. Terrorist acts ignite attention to such things as:
- Homeland security
- Law enforcement
- Immigration policy
- Population management policy
Answering the questions:
- What is the optimal size of the U.S. population?
- What is the optimal demographic mix?
- What is the optimal skill, knowledge, and experience inventory?
- What is the optimal trajectory?
- What is the optimal immigration size and rate?
- What is the nation's capacity to absorb, nurture, and utilize immigrant populations?
First, consider that immigration throughout the world is fueled by displaced persons. That is, wars and impoverishment put people on the move as they seek economic sustainability.
The United States is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as displayed below. The United Nations and the signatories have an obligation to address people who are displaced and made to flee their homeland. That does not mean that other nation must permanently accept migrants. It may mean that member states must create safe havens in the homelands from which people are fleeing. That requires both military and economic intervention.
Military intervention is needed to establish safe havens and to secure them by creating economically sustainable communities. In some instances, those actions will require the establishment of new governance as in "nation-building."
Therefore, add "foreign policy" to the list above because they are all integrated. The chances are that Hillary Clinton understands this complexity. Equally, Donald Trump doesn't get it. His spewing of simplistic ideas plays to the masses, but it won't get the job done in the complex world.
Immediately, Mrs. Clinton should agree with Donald Trump that there must be "extreme vetting." At the same time, the UN initiative calls for the U.S. and member states to absorb more immigrants. That is our obligation in the world.
To accommodate the number of immigrants from Syria, for instance, that Obama advocates, will require Congress to increase the vetting and immigrant management resources. Congress can't back away from the responsibility, nor can Obama or the next President expect the system to absorb more immigrants without beefing up the system.
Homeland Security and Law Enforcement are performing well, yet they should be asked what additional resources and support they need to identify and disrupt lone wolfs and domestic terrorists. Surely, there must be more screening, monitoring, and profiling.
As a reminder to Donald Trump, here are the rules of the road.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
"Article 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
Article 3.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 4.
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
Article 5.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 6.
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
Article 7.
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
Article 8.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Article 9.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Article 10.
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
Article 11.
(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.
Article 12.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
Article 13.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
Article 14.
(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 15.
(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
Article 16.
(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
Article 17.
(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
Article 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Article 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Article 20.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
Article 21.
(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
Article 22.
Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
Article 23.
(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
Article 24.
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
Article 25.
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
Article 26.
(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
Article 27.
(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
Article 28.
Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
Article 29.
(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 30.
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.
“Hillary Clinton wants to increase what [Obama has] let in,” Trump said Monday on Fox News. “He’s let in thousands and thousands of people. They don’t know — they can’t be properly vetted, there’s no way. Our leaders are — I don’t even say weak, I say stupid.”Calls for tighter curbs on immigration also came from a former Trump rival in Congress.
“Congress should act to prevent Americans who have travelled abroad for training from returning here, and to stop the flow of refugees from hotbeds of terrorism in the Middle East that President Obama is determined to bring to our country,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a former presidential candidate, said Monday.
The U.S. is accepting 10,000 refugees from Syria, and Obama wants the nation to accept 110,000 refugees from around the world next year.
That is a 30 percent increase from the total number the U.S. welcomed this year.
Not since World War II has the world been forced to grapple with a refugee crisis on this scale; more than 65 million people have been driven from their homes, and 21 million have crossed international borders.
The pressure to find a place for refugees is coinciding with deep fears in the United States over immigrants from the Middle East.
Trump called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States last fall, a position for which he was criticized but that appeared to help him in the Republican primary.
Hillary Clinton has called for accepting 65,000 Syrian refugees next year, and on Tuesday said she has “long been an advocate for tough vetting.”
But the Democratic nominee said the people fleeing violence in Syria are not the same kind of people who attacked the country on Sept. 11, 2001.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/296739-ny-attack-hangs-over-obama-push-for-action-on-refugees
Syrian Immigrants
Here is a question for the presidential nominees:
ReplyDeleteWhat is the nation's capacity to absorb, nurture, and utilize immigrant populations?