Swiss voters went to the polls Sunday and resoundingly rejected capping the country’s rapidly growing population at 10 million by limiting immigration. Congratulations to the Swiss for staging a national conversation over immigration — something the United States urgently needs to do.
The Swiss have seen their population soar by more than 25% since 2000. The newcomers are, for the most part, workers from neighboring European countries, not migrants from the Middle East or Africa. Even so, the right-leaning Swiss People’s Party pushed for immigration restrictions, arguing that such rapid population growth strained housing, social programs, and Swiss identity.
But opponents of the measure, who dubbed it a “Swiss Brexit,” warned that stopping the free flow of Europeans into Switzerland would threaten its special relationship with the European Union, which buys over half of all Swiss exports.
Opponents also argued Switzerland has grown wealthy over many decades, despite a lack of natural resources, by attracting foreign innovators — including the immigrants who launched giant Swiss companies like Nestle, Swatch, and Novartis.
The United States should take a page from the Swiss and launch our own national conversation on immigration. Here, however, the critical issue is not just the number of immigrants but who gets in.
In the U.S., a staggering 47% of households headed by a noncitizen collect welfare benefits such as food assistance or Medicaid. Ouch. That’s almost double the dependence rate (28%) for households headed by someone born in the U.S., according to a June 16 report from the Center for Immigration Studies. Americans are fed up with taking in newcomers who need to mooch. It’s not sustainable.
Part of the blame goes to America’s crazy legal immigration laws, which give preference to newcomers with family ties — a child or other relative already here — instead of job skills, education, English-speaking ability, or interest in American civic life. Congress needs to scrap those laws, enacted in 1965, and give the nation a merit immigration system that will boost the economy and spare taxpayers. That’s what smart countries like Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Singapore are doing.
Another part of the blame for the scandalous dependence of immigrants on welfare is former President Joe Biden’s open-border policy. The border surge, from 2021 through 2024, brought in migrants significantly less educated and capable of supporting themselves than those who came before. The number of newcomers with no education beyond high school more than doubled from 2019 to 2023, according to a May 16 report from the Center for Immigration Studies.
The immigrants using welfare are not lazy. Most are working; in fact, they are more likely to be employed than U.S.-born adults, but their minimal schooling dooms them to earn little and become part of a permanent dependent class.
Adult male immigrants now earn 52% of what U.S.-born male workers earn, down from 62% in 2019, because of the Biden surge of unskilled, minimally educated migrants from Latin America. Ultimately, that will force down wages for low-skilled Americans, too.
The Biden administration’s surge was nothing short of treasonous, like napalming our towns and cities, leaving them with a growing dependent class and public debt.
The border is now closed. President Donald Trump showed it could be done, without any major immigration legislation, despite the Democrats’ pleas that “comprehensive immigration reform” was needed first.
Now it’s time for Americans to have a national conversation on immigration, like the Swiss just did. The Swiss wanted to make sure their laws served the best interests of Switzerland. Our laws should serve the United States, not the rest of the world knocking on our doors.
The current law, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, must be replaced with immigration standards that boost our economy and avoid dependence on public handouts.
A new Harvard/Harris poll indicates this is the opportune time. The public regards immigration as the most pressing issue after affordability (No. 1) and the economy (No. 2). It far outstrips concerns for health care, the U.S.-Iran conflict, the environment, or education.
So let’s get to it. Political polarization seems to be softening. A slim majority of Democrats polled (52%) now say their party is “against open borders.”
The Republicans, who risk losing control of Congress after the midterm elections, should seize the moment to divert the national conversation from the fringe controversy over Immigration and Customs Enforcement to merit immigration reform.
Who we let in will determine how we prosper as a nation.
Betsy McCaughey is a former Lt. Governor of New York State and Chairman & Founder of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths. Follow her on Twitter @Betsy_McCaughey.
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all the people who said closing the border couldn’t be done without “comprehensive immigration reform” (really amnesty) were dead wrong. President Trump proved that closing the border only required an administration who was willing to actually enforce the laws on the books. as for the 52% of democrats who say their party is against open borders: talk is cheap. What are those democrats willing to do to ensure the border stays secure?
Those who try to argue that we are a nation of immigrants should ask themselves,what good does it do to bring in millions of unskilled, uneducated people ,who need to be fed, housed, medicated and kids need school. Who is to provide all that and how? Are they willing to cut their salaries to help? Disaster of colossal proportions.
A recent poll shows that a significant number of Americans are in favor of deporting ALL illegal aliens. I’m one of them. Return them to their countries and let them go through the legal process to get back in. The vetting process should include seeing if they have skills that will enable them to live without here without govt subsidies.
Selection by merit? What a concept. How about merit for: voting (citizenship), military promotion, higher education admissions, job advancement and hiring, government contracts for services/products, teaching positions/tenure, etc.?
This is long overdue! Who will champion the cause?
Can we do a trade for all the lazy, crazy leftists, Marxists for “good” people that want to be here and want to contribute to making America great! I think a trade would be a wonderful start at getting the haters out!!!
We need to have strict rules for people who want to come to this country whether or planning to stay or not. They need to be vetted carefully. NO OPEN BORDERS…period! And stop with all the “claiming asylum”. That is a joke 99% of people who come here claim asylum and it is not true. Europe learned it lesson the hard way and are now in “a pickle” because of their lack of vetting. And we have a huge problem with all the illegal immigrants that the Biden Cabal invited here and paid their living expenses with OUR TAX MONEY!!! The Communist Dems put these criminal illegals above our own citizens. That should never have happened. We already have enough freeloaders in the U.S. We certainly do not need to import more!! Thanks to God for allowing Donald Trump to become president. I only wish he could serve another term.
Good idea, too bad it will never happen. There are far too many clapping seals to let this happen.