COALITION RELEASES STATEMENT ON
BORDER MANAGEMENT
Tackling one of the most important and challenging immigration issues confronting our nation, i.e. how to manage the nation’s borders, the New Jersey Business Immigration Coalition has published a set of suggestions, shared in January with members of Congress and the Biden administration.
Recognizing that border management has been a preoccupation of both Republican and Democratic administrations and that it will likely remain a pressing issue for years to come, the Coalition set out to gather fresh ideas and new perspectives on the topic. Consulting with leading immigration experts, the Coalition produced a
“10-10” document, i.e. ten observations about the situation at the border and ten suggestions for a more effective approach to the problem.
As noted in the statement, the Coalition expects that cross-border mobility, after shrinking during the pandemic, will likely increase in the years to come; that additional legal channels need to be established for both temporary and permanent migration in order to fill labor shortages in the U.S. and reduce illegal entries; that an overhaul of the asylum system to prevent abuse and to achieve greater efficiency in processing applications should be a high priority; and that international collaboration to control migrant flows could work to the benefit of both migrants and governments.
The Coalition emphasized that it is not wedded to a single point of view, or to a specific set of recommendations. Rather it wants to promote creative dialogue grounded in facts and leading to lasting solutions supported by members of both political parties.
According to Coalition Co-Founder Katherine Kish, Executive Director of Einstein’s Alley, “the ability of people of different ideological persuasions and political affiliations to work together on immigration matters is a tradition that we’d like to revive.” The Coalition hopes that its statement might help to reduce politicization of border issues and galvanize bipartisan work on border reform.