Jason Riley to Barack Obama: Let More Immigrants In

Writing in today's Wall Street Journal, Jason Riley cautions President Obama against "getting bogged down in a debate over 'amnesty.'"

Illegal immigration to the U.S. is primarily a function of too many foreigners chasing too few visas. Some 400,000 people enter the country illegally each year—a direct consequence of the fact that our current policy is to make available only 5,000 visas annually for low-skilled workers. If policy makers want to reduce the number of illegal entries, the most sensible and humane course is to provide more legal ways for people to come.

This could be done by creating viable guest-worker programs or increasing green-card quotas or both. The means matter less than the end, which should be to give U.S. businesses legal access to foreign workers going forward. The 1986 amnesty legislation didn't do that, which is why it didn't solve the problem.

Read the whole thing here. Last August, Riley sat down with Reason.tv to discuss his book Let Them In: The Case for Open Borders. Click below to watch.