![]() ![]() They are key ingredients in a robust border security system. Legal immigration reform bills like the Dignity Act are not bleeding-heart humanitarian efforts. An investment in one strengthens the other. Instead, they are two sides of the same coin. The real lesson for those serious about border security is this: Border security and immigration reform are not opposing goals. Legal reforms have the benefit of unmasking the minority that are actual public safety threats. Manjarrez, a former border patrol agent turned academic, calls the masking effect. Today’s failure to create meaningful guest worker programs means that bad actors and those simply in search of a better life are difficult to distinguish. On top of this, if you have simple and established legal paths, then you are better able to sort out the bad actors trying to sneak across the border. Migrants are more likely to wait their turn. Border barriers have their place, but research shows they deter illegal immigration more effectively when migrants know future legal immigration is a possibility. The combination of increased legal pathways and border security efforts reinforce each other. ![]() If reforms like the Dignity Act can find a way through the political maze, they will represent a huge benefit to the country. ![]() The truth is, as Salazar emphasized at the Dignity bill’s original announcement, Republicans are confusing “amnesty with dignity.” The Dignity Act is a perfect example of how reforms to immigration rules can be combined with border security in a way that makes both Border Patrol and legal pathways more effective. When she asked them to give her a definition, none of them could. In 2022, when an earlier version of the Dignity Act was moving forward, Salazar noted that her fellow Republicans couldn’t pinpoint the amnesty in her bill. Republicans have their own sacred cow: the idea that any policy qualifies as “amnesty” if it even slightly opens the U.S. To be clear, it’s not just people on the left holding up immigration reform. ![]()
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