U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, left, and Law School Dean Russell K. Osgood take part in a panel discussion in the Moot Courtroom of Myron Taylor Hall, March 27.
Frank DiMeo/University Photography
United States immigration policy should be more closely tied to America's economic needs, said U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), who visited the Cornell campus March 27 to speak to students in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations and to participate in a panel discussion on immigration policy at the Cornell Law School.
Smith, who chairs the Immigration Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, said individuals with a high school diploma or equivalent must be given preference as legal immigrants.
"Studies indicate that most future jobs in the United States will require more than a high school diploma," he said, in remarks to ILR Professor Vernon Briggs' class on Immigration and the American Labor Force.
Currently 80 percent of legal immigrants are admitted without regard to their education or job skills.
The congressman argued that U.S. immigration policy must attempt to meet the demands of the marketplace.
"America's colleges and universities will only graduate about 25,000 students this year with computer science degrees," Smith said. "Industry needs about 100,000 of these individuals a year. Immigration is one way we can meet this important business demand. Therefore we have a need for individuals with this sort of experience.
"Family reunification will remain a part of U.S. immigration policy, but changes must be made to give preference to immediate family members with a high school education or more," he said.
Smith said making a list of preferences for immigrants is nothing new. He noted that Canada gives preference to those with education who are under the age of 45 and can speak English.
"U.S immigration policy needs to serve America's needs and must be in the best interest of America," he told the ILR students.
At the Law School symposium, which was moderated by Dean Russell K. Osgood, who was a classmate of Smith's at Yale University, the congressman agreed with the other panelists, Briggs and Ithaca attorney Stephen Yale-Loehr, that the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) needs to be reorganized.
Briggs said he believes the INS should be returned to the Department of Labor, where it was founded. The INS was transferred to the Department of Justice in 1940 for war reasons. Yale-Loehr agreed that the INS needs to be reorganized, but he suggested it become its own agency.
The most forceful commentary came from Briggs during the 90-minute symposium, which attracted a standing-room-only crowd. Briggs, who has testified frequently before Congress on immigration matters, said U.S. immigration policy should center on the issue of "what can immigrants do for the United States, rather than what the United States can do for immigrants," he said.
Even though graduate student Kate Carpenter disagreed with Smith on some of his positions on immigration, she said "hearing from the congressman was an excellent learning experience.
"He brought a sense of reality to what we are learning in class on immigration policy," she said.
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