Oberlin professor, libertarian analyst tackle mass deportation, immigration

ELYRIA — A local professor and a libertarian policy analyst sat down on Monday for a discussion about immigration in the United States, detailing vastly different approaches to reaching the same basic conclusion. Both speakers in the second installment of the "In the Spirit of '76" speaker series, hosted by the Lorain County Civic Engagement Coalition, agreed that America's current immigration system is broken, that immigrants — legal or not — were a net benefit to the nation and that mass deportation as policy was both an inhumane and ineffective answer. Where they men differed was in the ideology that led them to these conclusions. The first speaker, David Bier, is the Director of Immigration Studies for the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank based in Washington, D.C. He shared the stage with Steven Volk, a professor emeritus at Oberlin College who specializes in Latin American history, and a self-described "progressive, perhaps a Democratic Socialist." But, from the beginning of Monday's discussion, hosted by fellow Oberlin professor Gina Perez, the men were united in their belief that mass deportation was not only poor policy but in contradiction of the "spirit of 1776." "All anyone is entitled to is to be treated on their own merits as an individual, not as some undifferentiated mass," Bier said. "When I think about the spirit of '76, that is what I think about, that all men are created equal and are entitled to certain rights. No, our rights do not come from our government. They come from our creator, and governments are created, empowered, to protect our rights." Volk and Bier both shared anecdotes of lottery-ticket chances of visas and decadeslong waits to even receive an interview for legal status. "The current legal immigration system is fundamentally and irretrievably broken, as David has said," Volk said. "Much of the current dysfunction regarding undocumented immigration can be attributed to its collapse." Bier argued that mass deportation strips individual immigrants, regardless of their legal status or criminal history, of their civil rights. Contrary to deporting only the "worst of the worst," as the administration of President Donald Trump has claimed, Bier said, current federal policy groups all immigrants together and seeks to paint them with the brush of criminality, and in turn deport them. Volk remarked that of the roughly 70,000 immigrants currently in detention in the U.S., 80 percent have no pending criminal charges against them. "(The federal government) should be looking for those people who actually cause harm to other people," Bier said. "It should have a discriminate policy, not an indiscriminate policy. Mass deportation does not make sense. … When we hear the justification, it is because they are the worst of the people who committed awful crimes and atrocities in this country. Well, once we get rid of those people, what is the argument for going after the rest? It really falls apart, even on its own terms." Volk said that any conversation about immigration had to center on the fact that immigrants, even those who break the law to enter the country, are human beings. Anything else, he said, would create a system that was not only discriminatory, but one that held the country back. He also said that he believed America had a moral responsibility to those who had helped to build it while living on the margins, and those who have been affected by its policies, pointing to foreign policy missteps and climate change which have exacerbated immigrant crises in Central and South America dating back decades. "So many communities around the United States depend on these immigrants, and the way I talk about that is not necessarily economic," Volk said. "We could talk in that way, there are lots of reasons too, but in terms of what they add to the cultural invigoration and renewal of this country is that sense of belonging that I think about… "There are many who say that the problem with immigration is that it is changing our culture. What I would argue is that our culture is always changing, and what our immigrant communities bring to us is a liveliness, is a generosity, is a willingness to be part of and to add to the communities that exist. And that, in my mind, creates a responsibility for those of us who benefit from that." Bier, for his part, made it clear that he did not believe immigrants were owed anything by Americans. While he said he did believe that the immigration system needed to be reformed to protect the individual rights of immigrants, he made his case for a more open immigration policy largely on the back of the economic benefit that immigration brings. According to the Congressional Budget Office, Bier said, immigration over the past four years was expected to reduce the country's deficits and debt by nearly $1 trillion. However, he said, immigration changes over just the past year are actually expected to add about $500 billion to that debt. Referencing his own research, Bier said the same trends could be seen across the country. Cato has found that over the past 30 years, immigrants have reduced state, local and federal deficits by $14.5 trillion. Even looking at only undocumented immigrants in that same period, Bier said, he had found they reduced deficits by $1.7 trillion. Contrary to what many Americans believe, Bier said, both legal and illegal immigrants produce economic value that vastly outweighs what they receive in government assistance. "We should want more workers producing more things for us, not fewer people producing less," he said. Bier said the belief that immigrants are a net drag on the economy is just one in a number of "myths and confusion" surrounding the issue of immigration in the U.S. In order to have a constructive conversation about how to move forward as a country, Bier said, these myths needed to be addressed head-on. For her final question, Perez asked Bier and Volk what signs of hope they saw either from their discussion or from the larger immigration debate in the country. Bier said that he felt that Americans were increasingly aware of the benefits immigrants in their communities brought, and that he found hope in the fact that the current immigration crackdown was the result of executive actions, not new laws or amendments which would need to be overturned. "There is a real impetus for change that will make people more aware of the value that people that come from other countries provide to this country," Bier said. "... Americans can just wake up and realize that this is actually a choice. We are choosing to have this broken system, this chaos. We do not need to choose that, we can choose a better way. And the more I talk to people, the more I feel that that is resonating with people." Volk said that he was moved by the protests and demonstrations in Minneapolis in the wake of immigration crackdowns and in the deaths of protesters at the hands of federal agents, as well as community actions in other cities facing crackdowns. "The hope that I have coming out of this moment is not in Washington, D.C., and we probably agree on that," Volk said, smiling at Bier. "But it is on the frozen streets of Minneapolis. It is on the streets of Chicago, it is on the streets of Los Angeles and if it comes here, it will be on our streets too. Because we are standing up for our neighbors, because we believe that each of us has the same spark of divinity within us." The Spirit of '76 speaker series, in recognition of 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, will continue to bring varying perspectives to Lorain County through a list of speakers every month through July. The next event will feature Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, CEO of Feeding America, at Elyria High School on March 18. Events are free and open to the public. Registration is required at loraincounty.com/e/spiritof76. For more information, call (440) 322-6300. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.