The Value of Immigrants

By Tom Campbell

California needs immigrants. Our high-tech sector is dominated by engineers and entrepreneurs who were not born in America. Our farms are worked by immigrants, some who came here legally, some who did not, but the overwhelming majority of whom add value to our state. If we deported immigrants working in nursing homes and health care facilities, neither would be adequately staffed.

Immigrants are doing well in our schools and universities, whether they arrived with papers or were brought across our border without them, carried in their parents’ arms. The absurdity of deporting immigrants who add value to our state and our country is clearly shown in the practice of deporting those whom we invite to receive advanced degrees at California’s universities—and then we force to leave. Paraphrasing a great California entrepreneur, Scott McNealy, we should staple a green card to every Ph.D. diploma from the UC system.

The above are statements on several public policy issues drafted by Tom Campbell, former US Congressman, former California State Senator, former Director of Finance for California, and currently Interim Chairman of the Common Sense Party. They are meant to initiate consideration of several important issues; they are not the official views of the Common Sense Party. Please feel free to submit your own thoughts on these issues on the Open Policy Discussion Page.