What is the national government’s role in immigration?
About this video
The speaker explains that the Constitution says little about immigration, mentioning only naturalization as a power of Congress in Article I. He argues that immigration policy belongs mainly to the federal government because the nation needs a consistent policy affecting commerce and national security. He also gives his own view: America is a nation of immigrants who enrich society, but immigration should be lawful and borders better policed.
You'll be able to
- identify where the Constitution gives power over naturalization.
- explain why the speaker thinks immigration policy is mainly a federal responsibility.
- tell apart the constitutional facts in the video from the speaker's personal opinions.
Key words
- Naturalization
- The legal process by which a person born in another country becomes a citizen.
- Article I
- The part of the Constitution that sets out the powers of Congress.
- Police power
- A state's authority to protect the health, safety and property of people within its borders.
- Federal government
- The national government, including Congress, the President and the federal courts.
Transcript
There's very little said in the constitution other than naturalization. It doesn't mention immigration. It just talks about naturalization, and it's within Article 1, which means it falls within the powers of the Congress. The way that I would read this is that the state's authority with respect to decisions relating to immigration are virtually nonexistent. If they exist, they're very limited, and obviously, states have an obligation, relying upon their police power to protect citizens and property within their jurisdiction. But with respect to development of immigration policy, that is really something that's left to the federal government, primarily to the Congress. It is an obligation, primarily of the federal government to deal with immigration challenges because we need to be consistent terms of immigration policy.
I think this is something that's very important because it affects our commerce. It affects our national security. It affects a very essence of who we are as a country. We are a nation of laws, and I fully appreciate that and support that, but we're also a nation of immigrants, and the immigration population, I think they enrich our society.
We ought to encourage it, but we ought to encourage lawful immigration. I think most people would say, yes, I believe in immigration, it's got to be lawful. In a post-911 country, in a post-911 world. Like every other nation, we have to know who is in this country and why. The fact that there are people in this country in an unlawful status is really not a good place to be, quite frankly. It's a dangerous world out there. It's made even more dangerous by the fact that we, in my opinion, have not done a very good job in protecting and policing our borders.
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