Clayton Christensen, a Harvard professor once wrote “It's easier to hold your principles 100 percent of the time than it is to hold them 98 percent of the time… Decide what you stand for. And then stand for it all the time.” There is no better summary of this principle than those three sentences.
Laws were created to protect our country and our way of life, but over time our society has seen an increase in the pressure to bend, ignore, or outright break rules in pursuit of “worthy causes.” While at first blush there doesn’t appear to be much downside to bending occasionally, doing so leaves behind unnecessary collateral damage in the form of unfairness, risk, cost, and polarization.
Immigration is a perfect case study to prove out the value of this principle. Our own Statue of Liberty proclaims “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” and there is no shortage of individuals answering that call. Across those awaiting a Green Card, a Visa or already in the country undocumented, there are ~20 million individuals seeking entry citizenship. With a population this large, there is no shortage of incredible people, backgrounds, and circumstances warranting entry, but alas, there is process for both normal and extreme circumstances which ensures immigration is equitable, safe and sustainable.
- Equitable: How can America, a land touting liberty and justice for all [citizens] rationalize a lottery (~32% H1-B visa selection rate), imposed taxes, a naturalization test and years of waiting for legal immigrants and an shortcut for illegal immigrants. The unequal treatment is neither fair nor American.
- Safe: Part of the legal immigration process are health screenings and immunizations intended, as stated by the government, to “protect the health of the United States population.” Ironically, COVID highlighted bipartisan support for this concept when a Trump-era immigration policy was continued by the Biden administration.
- Sustainable: Illegal immigration has very real costs to tax paying citizens. According to the FAIR organization and supported by several other estimates, illegal immigration likely costs the US ~$132,000,000,000 for health care, services, and enforcement, not to mention significant indirect costs. Furthermore, over time, non-enforcement exacerbates a situation by essentially rewarding those who break the law. The net result risks overwhelming existing infrastructure and organizations - just look at the southern border in 2021. Obama said it best: “Open borders is something that... as a practical matter, is unsustainable.”
From a political standpoint the net result of “non-enforcement” of laws is the polarization of our country. In a recent NPR poll only 44% of the country believes there should be a path for illegal immigrants to gain citizenship status. Given that views are generally aligned to parties, there is no surprise that non-enforcement, in this case illegal immigration, becomes a huge point of debate, rhetoric, and divisiveness.
This principle is not limited to immigration, it also touches marijuana, free speech, voting rights, homelessness, crime, and rioting just to name a few. As one supporting example, when California passed Prop 47 which reclassified theft under $950 from a felony to a misdemeanor in order to reduce incarcerations and then effectively failed to enforce the misdemeanors, theft became so rampant that multiple retailers had to change operating hours or close stores and eventually Gov. Newsome had to pass a new law to curb the rise in crime tied to Prop 47. We must past smart laws and enforce them.
The irony is that there is a simple answer, one that is core to our democracy and also one that can help unify our country: CHANGE THE LAWS! We control the vote and it usually only takes a simple majority (50.1%).
To be clear, this principle neither advocates for or against immigration or any of the other topics, rather that ending polarization requires we stop bending the rules and circumventing our own democracy/justice system.
There will always be situations which tug at our hearts and noble causes worthy of exceptions but bending laws is dangerous, costly, and a slippery slope. To be equitable, safe and sustainable, we need to pass or update laws which reflect our values and then enforce the laws we have in place – lets hold our politicians accountable.
