Dickc wrote: ↑Aug 16th, '21, 19:41
deadheadskier wrote: ↑Aug 16th, '21, 18:33
Increasing legal immigration and reducing illegal are not mutually exclusive concepts.
Exactly. We need to get the better and brighter to come. I remember some 15 to maybe 20 years ago a couple of news stories about some kids who had just earned their doctorate from MIT, Harvard, etc., and the like who applied for permanent resident status and they were told, NO, GO HOME. The quotas were filled. I always thought that policy was pretty stupid and shortsighted. We NEED those type of people!!!!
I agree with that, but I'm thinking about it a little bit differently.
Our labor shortages in this country purely from a numbers stand point are largely in the service and trades sectors.
We don't just need for the MIT grads to stick around. We need plumbers and carpenters and cooks too. For a lack of a better term, laborers. And we really don't have a vehicle to make that happen legally. So what do all those industries do? They end up hiring illegals and paying them under the table. That just exasperates the illegal immigration problem.
What if instead of sending international aid to foreign governments and hope they do the right thing by their people, we instead divert much of that aid to setup international trades schools that also provide language services. Those that attend and excel can "graduate" with a one year Visa that domestic companies can legally employ and if the workers prove themselves, they get to stay. Those that don't excel in those schools, now have a more marketable skill in their native home and maybe feel less desperate to caravan up from Central America or wherever with little chance to survive without the dole we all don't like paying to support.
There's a tremendous need to invest in developing domestic trade schools as well.
Again, not mutually exclusive needs.