The Solution to US Border Woes Is No Secret
From the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, guest worker agreements with Mexico curbed undocumented border crossings and spurred growth. They could do so again today.
Legal pipeline needed.
Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty Images North AmericaPresident Joe Biden knows how to fix illegal immigration. As he told Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador last week, offering legal pathways for would-be migrants “is a proven strategy that fuels economic growth as well as reduces irregular migration.”
This is not controversial. With one glaring exception, presidents over the last four decades — Barack Obama, both Bushes, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton — have shared the understanding that a solution must acknowledge the powerful economic and demographic forces driving, and pulling, workers north across the Rio Grande.