PEMBROKE — Policy analysts from two of America’s leading think tanks debated the immigration issue Wednesday in front of an audience of about 250 students and faculty at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
“Immigration is one of today’s most pressing economic and political issues,” said moderator John Parnell, who represented the sponsor, UNCP’s School of Business.
Funded by the Charles Koch Foundation, the debate was part of the university’s Distinguished Speaker Series.
David Bier, of the left-leaning Cato Institute, argued for an open-door immigration policy to boost the nation’s population and economy.
Jessica Vaughan, of the right-leaning Center for Immigration Studies, advocated a “do no harm” policy, which would mean a reduction of the number of immigrants that raise wages for America’s lowest income workers.
There was no mention of President Donald Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or the government shutdown. A question about the $5.7 billion wall came from a student.
“A wall is a silly idea even if we wanted to reduce illegal immigration,” Bier said. “The money, $24 million a mile, could be better spent solving crime in the U.S.”
Vaughan did not go all in for a wall.
“Walls and barriers do work,” she said, adding, “in populated areas.”
Vaughan said U.S. wages would rise absent the competition from legal and illegal immigrants for low-wage jobs with U.S. citizens, who may not have a high school or college degree.
“There is no such thing as a job Americans won’t do,” she said. “That’s insulting.”
Bier countered with a North Carolina example.
“In 2011, the North Carolina Grower’s Association advertised for 6,500 workers,” he said. “At the time, there were 500,000 unemployed people in the state, but only 260 U.S. citizens applied for the jobs and only seven finished the season.”
The debaters took different views on crime. Bier claimed that areas with high rates of immigration all have lower crime rates.
“Of the 400,000 illegal immigrants arrested by the Border Patrol, 1,000 had criminal records,” he said.
Vaughan said that is 1,000 too many for victims of crime. She also opposed chain migration, where two-thirds of legal immigrants are family members of legal immigrants.
Bier said half of the legal immigrants are college educated.
When it came to welfare, Vaughan said too many immigrants take advantage of social programs that cost American taxpayers.
Neither think tank policy analyst had an ironclad answer to stop illegal immigration, but they made cases for more and less immigration.
Both sides took off several times on the issue of crime, with Vaughan saying human and drug trafficking, gangs and ID theft are problems that follow legal and illegal immigrants.
Bier countered, saying the rate of incarceration of immigrants is far lower than for U.S. citizens.
“We cannot solve the world’s problems through immigration,” Vaughan said..
The entire world and the U.S. will benefit from more immigration, Bier said.
Neither debater committed to a number of how much immigration should increase or decrease. Students peppered them with questions, using a smart phone application and a microphone.
