How Promoting a Merit-Based Immigration System can Help Alleviate the DACA Problem

The Supreme Court has yet to decide whether the Trump administration's decision to wind down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy was lawful. The eventual court decision will affect more than 700,000 individuals, most of whom are high-skilled workers, and enjoy overwhelming public support for permanent legalization of their status. In lieu of an amnesty program to regularize their status, which the author suggests may not be politically viable, he argues for an overhaul of the current immigration system to increase “merit-based” immigration and to secure the high-skilled workforce of immigrants necessary for our nation's economic health. Such a program would open up opportunities for well-educated DACA recipients to obtain permanent residence. In light of the fact that the US had millions of unfilled job openings, several large companies have urged politicians to consider the vital role foreign-born workers play in the US economy and adjust immigrant admission policy accordingly. The author recommends that high-skilled workers like DACA recipients should be given a path to permanent residency by installing a robust, broad-based merit-based immigration policy that matches US business needs. Consistent with the Trump administration’s “America First” policy, DACA recipients would be granted priority over foreign-born applicants for the new immigration slots created by such a program. (Julianne P. Weiss, Ph.D.)

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