Third Way Dispatch

In yesterday’s New York Times’ editorial How to Lose the Brain Race, Steven Clemons and Michael Lind made a critical point about the proper goals of immigration reform. While it must be tough, let’s not forget about being smart.

Clemons and Lind rap Senator Diane Feinstein’s bid to revise the immigration reform package (the one that fell apart in the Senate last week). Feinstein wants to make it twice as expensive for foreign students to apply to study in American colleges and universities. As Clemons and Lind point out, in a global economy, this is a very bad idea. It would disadvantage America by sending to our economic rivals many of the talented people who would, through their innovation, create jobs and improve our economy. Do we really want to make it harder for Stanford graduates like Russian-born Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, and Taiwanese native Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo, to join our ranks?

Let’s face it, the main concern on the minds of Americans today when it comes to immigration is the 700,000 illegal immigrants entering America each year, with declining enforcement of our federal immigration laws. It is not the “threat” of talented foreign students matriculating in our universities.

George Bush and his cronies have made it painfully clear that toughness is not enough. When making decisions about how America deals with the world, we must also be smart. As we lay out in Tough, Fair, and Practical on Immigration, progressives should champion immigration policies that are tough on enforcement, fair to all parties involved, and practical in addressing the current state of illegal immigration in America. The smart way to accomplish these goals is not to put up barriers for bright and ambitious foreign students who want to contribute to America.