The Immigration Solution: A Better Plan Than Today's

by Heather Mac Donald

Undoubtedly the United States needs a liberal and welcoming immigration policy, geared to the needs and interests of the nation. In this urgent new book, three astute observers argue that we have lost control of our southern border, so that the vast majority of our immigrants are now illegal Mexicans. Poor, uneducated, and unskilled, these newcomers add much less to the national wealth than they cost the taxpayers for their health care, the education of their children, and (too often) their incarceration. The Immigration Solution proposes a policy that admits skilled and educated people on the basis of what they can do for the country, not what the country can do for them.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Essays

224 pages, Hardcover

First published November 2, 2007

About the author

Heather Mac Donald is the Thomas W. Smith Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, and a New York Times bestselling author. She is a recipient of the 2005 Bradley Prize. Mac Donald’s work at City Journal has covered a range of topics, including higher education, immigration, policing, homelessness and homeless advocacy, criminal-justice reform, and race relations. Her writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, and The New Criterion. Mac Donald's newest book, The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture (2018), argues that toxic ideas first spread by higher education have undermined humanistic values, fueled intolerance, and widened divisions in our larger culture.

Mac Donald’s The War on Cops (2016), a New York Times bestseller, warns that raced-based attacks on the criminal-justice system, from the White House on down, are eroding the authority of law and putting lives at risk. Other previous works include The Burden of Bad Ideas (2001), a collection of Mac Donald’s City Journal essays, details the effects of the 1960s counterculture’s destructive march through America’s institutions. In The Immigration Solution: A Better Plan than Today’s (2007), coauthored with Victor Davis Hanson and Steven Malanga, she chronicles the effects of broken immigration laws and proposes a practical solution to securing the country’s porous borders. In Are Cops Racist? (2010), another City Journal anthology, Mac Donald investigates the workings of the police, the controversy over so-called racial profiling, and the anti-profiling lobby’s harmful effects on black Americans.

A nonpracticing lawyer, Mac Donald clerked for the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and was an attorney-advisor in the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a volunteer with the Natural Resources Defense Council. She has frequently testified before U.S. House and Senate Committees. In 1998, Mac Donald was appointed to Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s task force on the City University of New York.

A frequent guest on Fox News and other TV and radio programs, Mac Donald holds a B.A. in English from Yale University, graduating with a Mellon Fellowship to Cambridge University, where she earned an M.A. in English and studied in Italy through a Clare College study grant. She holds a J.D. from Stanford University Law School.

At the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation's 2018 annual meeting in downtown Los Angeles, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions called Mac Donald, “the greatest thinker on criminal justice in America today.”

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Posted at Shelf Inflicted

“A nation that cannot control its borders is not a nation.”
― Ronald Reagan


This collection of essays by Heather Mac Donald, Victor Davis Hanson, and Steven Malanga explores the economic and social consequences of illegal immigration and proposes sensible solutions for controlling and securing our borders.

While these essays were very readable and thought-provoking, I couldn’t help but notice what was missing. When I’m reading books like this, I like to know what works the authors have cited so I can do my own fact checking. Some of those works were mentioned throughout the text, but it would be so much easier for this information to be presented in one place.

On the plus side, this is a short book that covers a wide variety of issues in just enough detail to make this reader want to explore further.

I am liberal on a lot of issues, but my views on immigration tend to lean towards the right. I advocate the world’s nations have a right to maintain sovereignty and a strong cultural identity. I dislike the idea of open borders, so many of the ideas presented by the authors make sense to me. I also dislike the idea of building walls and increasing military presence at borders, because these solutions can be prohibitively expensive and I question their effectiveness in stemming the flow of humanity.

As an American of Puerto Rican descent, I took offense to Heather Mac Donald’s essay on Hispanic family values. While some of the facts presented may have been accurate, her use of anecdotal evidence and hostile tone left a bad taste in my mouth.

For instance:

“The fathers of these illegitimate children are often problematic in even more troubling ways. Social workers report that the impregnators of young Hispanic women are with some regularity their uncles, not necessarily seen as a bad thing by the mother’s family. Alternatively, the father may be the boyfriend of the girl’s mother, who then continues to stay with the grandmother. Older men seek out young girls in the belief that a virgin cannot get pregnant during her first intercourse, and to avoid sexually transmitted diseases.”

I know there are problems and challenges faced by Hispanic communities. I believe many of them can be addressed by learning the language of the host nation and assimilating into its culture. We are not doing immigrants a favor by offering bilingual education. It obviously hasn’t solved the high Hispanic dropout rate.

In her essay, “Mexico’s Undiplomatic Diplomats”, Mac Donald explores how Mexico provokes illegal immigration by its own corruption and interference in US internal affairs, especially pertaining to immigrants. (Why does the US need 47 Mexican consulates?) It can be read here:

http://www.city-journal.org/html/mexi...

The final essay by Steven Malanga offers a common-sense approach to immigration that serves US national interests.

- Preferences given to immigrants based on work skills and education. Countries such as Australia, Ireland and Canada have different methods of handling this. Stop admitting unskilled workers who provide little benefit for the economy.
- Restrict social welfare programs that attract immigration from poor countries and eliminate government benefits to those in the US illegally.
- Ensure businesses verify workers’ legal status before employing them.
- Fully enforce immigration laws that are already in the book.
- Increase efforts to secure borders.

If you stop feeding them, they will go away.



It is important to know who lives within our borders. Our national security depends on it.

***I know this is a controversial issue. Feel free to share your thoughts. All abusive comments will be removed.

[José-Antonio Orosco · Rating 1 out of 5]

Good insight into what the conservative nativists think i.e. Mexicans are a bunch of illiterate, gang bangers who like to throw their trash all over pristine central California, and have sex with their nieces (because somehow that is ok in Mexico--seriously, this is a conclusion one of the authors makes!)

[Kevin Keating · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very well-written book outlining what the United States needs to do about illegal immigration. If you need a primer on the problems that unfettered immigration is causing (circa 2007 - it's gotten worse now), this is a concise read. It also has a logical plan to replicate Australia and Ireland's plans - allowing in primarily those who have skills in desired industries and ending birthright citizenship to those in the country less than four years. Excellent writing. Seems like the 2007 solutions are even further away from reality today.

[Carole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I almost didn't bother with this book as it was published in 2007. However, it appears that nothing has been solved about our nation's immigration problems in the last 17 years. It's all still the same.

[David Robins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent; shows the enormity of the problem of (mainly) Mexican illegal (and legal) immigration and proposes solutions such as employee verification, reducing family chain migration, and skills-based criteria.

[Silvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was published in 2007 from articles written in the City Journal by some of my favorite thought leaders.

If you want to understand the US immigration situation, this book is for you. You may be surprised to hear how many of the more recent US immigrants are living and the problems they face and the burden they place on our budgets and services.

[Doug Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent analysis of a huge problem. Rational and reasonable solutions offered.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the American political debate many myths are thrown around by cheap politicians. What's good about this book is that it presents how poorly educated illegal immigrants not only do damage to the USA, but also themselves and their corrupt home countries, mainly Mexico. Most of this book is about the problems with poorly educated immigrants, crime, illegitimacy, and the creation of an underclass, with only the last chapter offering solutions. I wish this book was longer with more content on the solutions regarding immigration in the USA.

[Robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this one very educational about the political and economic side of immigrtion. It is an intellectual balance to the human rights side of the arguments around illegal and legal immigration.

[Joseph]

Just started this book but I have great respect for the authors. I expect an thoughtful evaluation of the issue.