Nine Reader Views on the State of Immigration Policy

This is an edition of Up for Debate, a newsletter by Conor Friedersdorf. On Wednesdays, he rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.

Last week, I asked about your views on immigration. Harold’s personal history informs his support for it:

If current immigration policy was in place at the turn of the 20th century, I would not be here now. My great-great-grandparents immigrated from Croatia and Hungary, then both part of the Austria-Hungarian empire. They were serfs whose families worked the fields. As peasants they would ostensibly have had nothing to offer America other than their raw labor. They worked the mines of Pennsylvania to stake out a better life for themselves.

Five generations later, I have the opportunity to do the same and to contribute to America in a way that only incremental generational progress allows. My children—and, should they decide to have their own, my grandchildren—will carry on the legacy and continue to build something better. That is only possible because my ancestors were given a chance.

America is by no means running up against scarcity. Some 30 to 40 percent of food goes to waste by American consumers. At least in the small metro area where I live, there are 800 vacant houses, slowly decaying for lack of tenants. We can afford to accommodate more immigrants. Given our excesses, I’d say we are morally obligated to open