Earlier this month, the Supreme Court upheld the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration tactics, allowing ICE agents to continue deportation raids in Southern California that target people based on their language and race.
While illegal immigration is a real problem, and tightening security at the southern border is a necessary safeguard, the current administration’s combative approach is an overcorrection that undercuts one of America’s greatest advantages: our ability to attract and assimilate immigrants to fuel economic vitality and innovation.
Immigrants bring immediate talent, ideas and dynamism that reinforce our global leadership. While the process that brings immigrants into the country should be orderly and fair, completely shutting them out is a step toward strategic decline.
Too often, immigration debates are framed as a binary: open borders or total restriction. That framing is politically useful but practically useless. The real challenge is building a system that reflects our values, upholds the rule of law and meets the country’s long-term needs.
The need couldn’t be more urgent. In California, the population age 65 and older will increase by 59 percent over the next 15 years, while the child population will decrease by 24 percent. By 2030, one in five Americans will be over 65.
Across industries like agriculture, construction, elder care and tech, immigrant workers aren’t just helpful, they’re essential to our economy flourishing. Immigrants make up 20% of doctors, 30% of construction workers and nearly 40% of home health aides. We won’t have enough native-born workers to fill these roles if immigration is severely restricted.
But immigrants contribute far more than labor. Over time, immigrants pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits, helping stabilize Social Security and Medicare. In 2022 alone, undocumented immigrants paid an estimated $32 billion into these programs. Even recent humanitarian parolees are projected to reduce the federal deficit and add trillions to GDP over the next decade.
What truly distinguishes the U.S. is not just that we welcome immigrants, it’s that we successfully integrate them. America has built the most successful engine of immigrant assimilation the world has yet seen. Through education, entrepreneurship and civic engagement, immigrants and their children become part of the national story, learning our shared values and embracing our national identity.
America’s genius has been our ability to incorporate diverse influences while maintaining our essential character. This success isn’t automatic. It’s the product of policy: legal pathways to residence, birthright citizenship and a culture that rewards effort and fosters civic inclusion.
Despite polarization, signs of immigration pragmatism are emerging. Conservative lawmakers representing industries facing worker shortages are pushing for expanded legal immigration. Republicans like Andy Harris and Monica De La Cruz have co-sponsored measures to increase temporary visas for agriculture and tourism. These efforts reveal that lawmakers understand the essential role immigrants play in sustaining and growing key American industries. When done correctly, immigration policies can supplement the U.S. workforce while retaining our national cohesion.
Think tanks like the Niskanen Center have long advanced this kind of thinking: fact-based, values-driven and focused on reforms that are both principled and politically viable. The aim of this collaboration between policymakers, legal experts and other leaders is to emphasize the reality that lies between the two polarized sides of the immigration debate: Immigration isn’t a liability when it’s carried out transparently, fairly and strategically. It’s a generational advantage.
In a moment of rising global migration and political division, the U.S. still has the tools, the institutions and the moral clarity to lead. We don’t need to reinvent our immigration model. We need to recommit to what has worked and fix what hasn’t.
Deportation raids on the streets of California—that target people based on how they look and talk—are not in line with America’s principles, and they squander the very advantage that has fueled our national prosperity. Our leaders should not ignore how deeply immigration strengthens our economy and society. Nor must they choose between open borders and a hardline shutdown. A third way exists.
Immigration will help define the strength of democracies in the 21st century. If we can move past false binaries toward practical, durable solutions, America can lead the way.
Kristie De Peña is the Senior Vice President for Policy and Director of Immigration Policy at the Niskanen Center.
