The Economics of Immigration Enforcement

For an interesting analysis of legal and illegal immigration from the Economics And blog, borrowing from a conversation between Michael Kinsley and Andrew Samwick, click here.  A critically important thought, in my view, expressed in the commentary is this:  “. . . the real issue is not whether illegal immigration is good or bad, but what we should do about it.”  It appears that many politicians would build fences, increase raids and deportations, expand the Border Patrol, etc., etc.  The problem is that such efforts have failed to regularize the migration flow through legal channels and show no promise for success in the future.  Maybe it is time for us to look at reforming the current legal immigration routes?

While we are talking about the economics of immigration, The Economist’s View has an interesting story on George Borjas and bloggers as the equivalent of undocumented immigrants.

Hat tip to Jack Ayer for offering us some economics for the day!

KJ