Immigration and America's Future: A New Chapter (Executive Summary)

Although United States has long relied on immigration to fuel productivity, maintain a competitive edge, and drive the dynamism that characterizes American society, the nation’s overburdened immigration system—the breakdown of which has manifested in an alarmingly large unauthorized population—is no longer serving America’s needs. Based upon a careful analysis of economic, social, and demographic factors driving today’s large-scale immigration, the culminating report of the Independent Task Force on Immigration and America’s Future seeks to design a new and simplified immigration regime that averts illegal immigration, and at the same time, harnesses the benefits of immigration for the future. Task Force proposals target reform in three key areas: admissions, enforcement, and integration.

In order to better meet family unification and labor market goals, the redesigned admission system features a new provisional visa program that bridges the transitional gap between existing temporary and permanent streams. The Task Force also calls for the creation of an independent Standing Commission responsible for making regular recommendations to Congress for adjusting immigration levels based on analyses of labor market needs, unemployment patterns, and changing economic and demographic trends.

Greater flexibility in immigrant admissions is balanced with enhanced enforcement mechanisms including mandatory employer verification, secure biometric Social Security cards, infrastructure improvements at ports of entry, and systematic efforts to constrain terrorist mobility. In addition, the Task Force responds to unauthorized flows, which seem to increase despite significant investments at the border, by recommending an annual evaluation of border enforcement effectiveness and investments in cost-effective “smart border” measures.

Finally, the Task Force gives prominence to integration as a critical dimension of the new immigration system. The plan acknowledges the critical economic and social role immigrants will play in America’s future by establishing a National Office of Immigrant Integration charged with leveraging state and local integration efforts, and seeks to address the existing unauthorized population by creating a path to legal status.