The Republican Party and the incumbent Democrats and their president have been fighting on the issue of immigration for the past six years.
There have been three significant points in the immigration battle since the 1924 Alien Exclusion Act.
First was the Kennedy immigration reform act of 1965. This opened immigration to all nations. Previous immigration favored only Northern Europe.
Second was the Reagan 1986 amnesty act.
The third was the large cross border migration of Mexicans and Central Americans from 2002 until 2010.
That leaves the U.S. now with over 42 million people born outside the U.S. to non-U.S. parents. About half of these are currently American citizens. This is out of 320 million Americans.
In California, 27% of the population is foreign born. In New York 22% are foreign born.
My blog title ‘A little late on immigration’ refers to the fact that 13% of Americans are immigrants.
This is the highest in a century. At mid century 1950 we were dropping from 7% to the low of 5% in 1970.
We have never had trouble with immigration at the current level. For much of the 19th Century, until 1910, foreign born were roughly 14% of America.
This is a pro commerce blog. I am particularly welcoming of people who want to live in America. They are entrepreneurial. Foreign born are 13% of America's population and they own 18% of America's businesses. They start 22% of all new businesses.
Our foreign born Americans are 20% of the top 500 CEO’s. The proportions are even higher in high tech and high tech top management.
I concede that we have a Southern Border problem, where we don’t control entry into the U.S.
That lack of a functional border presents many problems including crime and potential terrorism.
I wrote this blog to remind all my pro commerce allies that immigration is not just an issue about our Southern border but a bigger issue about American commercial vitality.
We need immigration for commercial vitality.