Yglesias makes the economic case for increasing immigration at a moment when we have real labor shortages driving up costs. He's a "more immigration is good" anyway so this isn't surprising, but he's right that Americans - because of the pandemic and other reasons - are leaving the workforce and haven't been replaced. Especially in low wage fields like agriculture, there's a huge demand.
As far as solutions, he's a little light. But he mentions the idea that Trump dramatically scaled back legal immigration. Perhaps Biden could retroactively award the "missing" Green Cards from the Trump years.
Bringing legal immigrants from Guatemala and Honduras would serve two purposes. First, it would obviously provide the needed labor force to put food on our table. Second, it would incentivize staying in Guatemala and Honduras rather than trekking across Mexico and showing up, desperate, at the southern border.
This would, inevitably, invite a certain backlash from the Right, but if it's done via legal channels, I have to wonder if it wouldn't mute the xenophobic "Tek Rrr Jahbs" crew.
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