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Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

McCourt Conference Explores Immigration Reform

CHARLIE LOWE/THE HOYA
CHARLIE LOWE/THE HOYA

Georgetown University sponsored a panel of ambassadors from Mexico, the Philippines and El Salvador to discuss immigration reform for the 20th Annual McCourt School Policy Conference at the U.S. Capitol this past Friday.

Although the McCourt School of Public Policy was endowed this year, it continues the conference series of its predecessor, the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, albeit with a different name.

Each year, millions of immigrants move to the United States in search of job opportunities, a higher standard of living and advanced education. Many have left Mexico for Texas, the Philippines for Hawaii and California, and El Salvador for other parts of the United States. As a result, immigration reform has become a key political debate in U.S. politics.

The ambassadors discussed how U.S. policy affects their countries, touching on social and economic effects, both positive and negative.

Neil Ruiz, whose career at the Brookings Institution focuses on international migration, served as the moderator for the event. In his introduction to the panel, he mentioned both the reasons that drive migrants from their countries of origin and those that pull them to the United States.

“Policy choices in the [United States] really focus on the inside, but we haven’t really looked at U.S. immigrants basically facilitating exchanges between two countries. … U.S. immigrants are economic ambassadors that contribute to two economies simultaneously. Immigrants contribute to the U.S. economy by providing highly skilled or highly labor-intensive work,” Ruiz said.

Although the immigration system is highly regulated with caps on visa and green card distributions, an increasing amount of immigrants are choosing to enter the United States illegally, causing the topic to become a heated point of contention. Per the Salvadorian ambassador, thousands of illegal immigrants live in fear of being sought out by officials and sent back to their native countries that are often immersed in economic hardship.

Many of these immigrants come from Latin American nations. Each of the three ambassadors at the conference about his respective nation and its government’s attitude toward immigration in the United States.

“This is a U.S. domestic issue, and we understand that, but we have, of course, a responsibility [to] our Mexican nationals,” Ambassador Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza of Mexico said. Mexico is aware of the border patrol issues, which was a query brought up by a Georgetown student in the conference’s question-and-answer segment. Icaza seemed confident, drawing upon statistics that showed a decrease in illegal immigrations over the Mexico-southern United States border.

“In 2012, this number came down. … In the 2013 fiscal year … Mexicans [migrating] were stable,” Icaza said.

Icaza maintained the changes will shape American society in years to come.

“The [United States] will grow more than Mexico demographically. … The U.S. population will grow 46 percent. … Latinos or Hispanics will grow 163 percent. … This will be a totally new shape of U.S. society, which is [actually] already here,” he said.

Although many Americans see the negative consequences of immigration domestically, the speakers cited consequences faced by the country of origin, with the loss of professional and skilled workers.

“Migration has its negative impacts on the Philippine social fabric,” Ambassador Jose Lampe Cuisia Jr. of the Philippines said.

Ambassadors also pointed out that immigration changes citizens who return to their native countries.

“When you see people going back to Mexico from the [United States] … the way they engage with the community is totally different. … They actually teach us [Mexicans] a lot, and are better citizens, and help their communities to do better in the sense that they were already doing that when they were here [in the United States],” Icaza said.

The speeches delivered by the ambassadors attempted to demonstrate the complexity of immigration from the nation of origin’s standpoint. “No matter if you are pro or against immigration, the [U.S. immigration] system needs to have reforms,” Ambassador Rubén Zamora of El Salvador said.

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