Is immigration good for America?

移民對美國有利嗎？

The federal government won't stop them at the border.

聯邦政府不會在邊境阻止他們。

You spend $5.5 billion a year to support them.

你們每年花費 55 億美元來支持他們。

There's a right way and there's a wrong way.

有正確的方法，也有錯誤的方法。

At the time, there were around 5 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

當時，美國約有 500 萬無證移民。

And most Americans saw immigrants as a burden on the country, taking jobs, housing, and health care, and thought immigration as a whole should be decreased.

而大多數美國人認為移民是國家的負擔，他們搶走了工作、住房和醫療，並認為應該減少整體移民數量。

Our country is invaded by immigrants who are like cancer cells.

移民就像癌細胞一樣侵襲著我們的國家。

That same year, Republicans ran on a tough-on-immigration platform and took control of Congress.

同年，共和黨以強硬的移民政策為競選綱領，並控制了國會。

Democrats were pushed to adopt tough positions on immigration, too.

民主黨人也被迫在移民問題上採取強硬立場。

We are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws.

我們是一個移民國家，但我們也是一個法律國家。

In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed a major piece of legislation, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, or IRA-IRA.

1996 年，比爾-克林頓總統簽署了一項重要立法--《非法移民改革和移民責任法案》，簡稱 IRA-IRA。

Its goal was to decrease the number of undocumented immigrants.

其目標是減少無證移民的數量。

It did the opposite.

結果恰恰相反。

Before the 1990s, undocumented immigration into the U.S. looked very different.

20 世紀 90 年代以前，無證移民進入美國的情況截然不同。

For one, it was usually temporary.

首先，這通常是暫時的。

People used to go back and forth across the border.

人們經常往返於邊境之間。

They would go north for the harvest, and they would return some money, and they would go back to Mexico.

他們會去北方收割，賺回一些錢，然後回到墨西哥。

And if they wanted to come live permanently in the U.S., there were a few legal channels, but not many.

如果他們想來美國長期生活，有一些合法管道，但並不多。

If they married an American citizen, they could get lawful status.

如果他們與美國公民結婚，就可以獲得合法身份。

Or if maybe their brother was a citizen already, he could sponsor them.

或者，如果他們的兄弟已經是公民，也可以為他們提供擔保。

Or an employer could.

僱主也可以這樣做。

And these could be done after they were already living in the U.S. undocumented.

而這些都可能是在他們已經無證居住在美國之後進行的。

Before 1996, the threat of deportation was relatively low.

1996 年以前，遞解出境的威脅相對較小。

People were commonly deported for committing a crime.

人們通常因為犯罪而被驅逐出境。

And it was mostly limited to major crimes, like murder or trafficking.

而且大多僅限於謀殺或販賣人口等重大犯罪。

But IRA-IRA, together with other 1996 laws, drastically expanded deportable crimes to even minor infractions, like shoplifting.

但《愛爾蘭共和軍與愛爾蘭共和軍法案》以及 1996 年的其他法律將可遞解出境的罪行大幅擴大，甚至包括商店行竊等輕微違規行為。

It was also retroactive.

它還具有追溯力。

So say it's 1976, and someone is caught stealing some albums from the mall.

假設現在是 1976 年，有人在商場偷了幾張唱片被抓。

They wouldn't be deported.

他們不會被驅逐出境。

Over the next 20 years, they'd never commit another crime.

在接下來的 20 年裡，他們再也沒有犯過罪。

But after 1996, they could be deported because of that old misdemeanor.

但在 1996 年之後，他們可能會因為以前的輕罪而被驅逐出境。

And not just if they were currently undocumented.

而不僅僅是他們目前沒有證件。

This applied to immigrants with lawful status, too.

這也適用於擁有合法身份的移民。

And previously, an immigration judge could decide if the deportation should even take place.

而在此之前，移民法官甚至可以決定是否進行驅逐。

Now things were a little more automatic.

現在，一切都變得更加自動化了。

Ignoring the fact that those deportations would be extremely harmful to U.S. citizen children or spouses.

無視這些驅逐對美國公民的子女或配偶極為不利的事實。

Deportations skyrocketed.

遞解出境人數激增。

And IRA-IRA created the framework for future laws that further expanded reasons people could be deported, especially after 9-11.

IRA-IRA 為未來的法律制定了框架，進一步擴大了人們被驅逐出境的理由，尤其是在 9-11 事件之後。

But IRA-IRA also made another huge fundamental change in the U.S. immigration system.

但是，IRA-IRA 也對美國移民制度做出了另一個巨大的根本性改變。

One of the aspects of 1996 law that is particularly strict, and I think in many respects inhumane, is the so-called 3- and 10-year bars.

1996 年法律中特別嚴格的一個方面，我認為在許多方面是不人道的，就是所謂的 3 年和 10 年的禁令。

Those 3- and 10-year bars made these legal pathways nearly impossible to obtain.

這些 3 年和 10 年的禁令使得這些合法途徑幾乎不可能獲得。

They work like this.

它們是這樣工作的

Anyone who's been undocumented in the U.S. for six months and wants to gain legal status first has to leave the country and be barred from returning for three years.

任何在美國無證居留六個月並希望獲得合法身份的人都必須先離開美國，並在三年內不得返回。

If they've been undocumented for more than a year, they're barred for 10 years.

如果無證件時間超過一年，他們將被禁止入境 10 年。

So if they want to get lawful status through a job, they first have to leave the U.S. for 10 years.

是以，如果他們想通過工作獲得合法身份，首先必須離開美國 10 年。

Or through their brother, leave for 10 years.

或者通過他們的兄弟，離開 10 年。

Or through their spouse, leave for 10 years.

或通過其配偶休假 10 年。

It's family separation by another name.

這是家庭分離的另一個名字。

The bars were intended to try to essentially create punishments that were so severe to deter people essentially from coming here.

設置鐵欄杆的目的，主要是為了制定嚴厲的懲罰措施，從根本上阻止人們來到這裡。

But as we've seen with many other deterrence-based policies, the practical effect is very different.

但正如我們在許多其他威懾性政策中看到的那樣，實際效果卻大相徑庭。

Instead, it incentivized people to stay in the U.S. undocumented.

相反，它鼓勵人們在美國無證居留。

Before IRA-IRA, Mexican immigrants who came to the U.S. unlawfully were about 50 percent likely to return to Mexico within a year.

在 IRA-IRA 法案出臺之前，非法來到美國的墨西哥移民約有 50% 的可能會在一年內返回墨西哥。

But after 1996, more people started staying in the U.S.

但 1996 年之後，越來越多的人開始留在美國。

There were around 5 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. before IRA-IRA.

在 IRA-IRA 法案之前，大約有 500 萬無證移民生活在美國。

Today, it's at least double that.

如今，這個數字至少翻了一番。

And we are somehow surprised by this outcome.

我們對這一結果感到莫名其妙的驚訝。

This is of our own doing.

這是我們自己造成的。

Laws like IRA-IRA shaped the way the U.S. focuses on immigration enforcement as a deterrent.

IRA-IRA 等法律塑造了美國將移民執法作為威懾手段的方式。

But really, it proves that stronger enforcement doesn't actually stop undocumented immigration.

但實際上，這證明了加強執法實際上並不能阻止無證移民。

The laws or the politics of the 90s didn't really change the reasons why people come to the United States.

90 年代的法律或政治並沒有真正改變人們來到美國的原因。

Today, views on immigrants are very different than they were in the 1990s.

如今，人們對移民的看法已與 20 世紀 90 年代大不相同。

Most Americans now see them as a strength, not a burden.

現在，大多數美國人認為他們是一種力量，而不是負擔。

But the laws created here haven't changed.

但這裡制定的法律並沒有改變。

Requirements and standards that were created decades ago that aren't responsive to our needs as a nation, they certainly aren't responsive to the needs of the immigrant population.

幾十年前制定的要求和標準無法滿足我們國家的需求，當然也無法滿足移民人口的需求。

The idea that if we only had more guns, if we only built a higher wall, that we'd solve all the problems,

認為只要我們有更多的槍支，只要我們建起更高的圍牆，就能解決所有問題、

I think we learned from 1996 that's not the way it works. It's not that simple.

我想我們從 1996 年的教訓中明白，事情不是這樣的。事情沒那麼簡單。