My name is Kamala Harris, and I am the Vice President of the United States.
Let me open by asking you a question: Who would like to work in the US?
[pause]
Who would like to work for any US employer, at any time, whenever you want, for up to nine months per year?
[pause]
Who would like to be able to do that for free?
[pause]
Well, I’ve got you there, because it’s not going to be free. Today, it’s not easy to get a work visa for the US. In the future, it will be easy, but not cheap. But I think the situation will be much, much better overall.
Let me give you a little history and tell you about where we would like to go.
In 1965, the US passed the Hart-Celler Act which ended the circular flow of Mexican migrants to the agricultural fields of California. But the jobs didn’t go away, and the Mexicans kept right on coming, as they had for decades. The border, though, became hard to cross, so migrants increasingly settled in the US without papers. Over time, these numbers became large and year-round and US employers became accustomed to hiring illegal labor. And that pretty much brings us up to date. Today we have ten million undocumented residents, seven million of them from Mexico and Central America. They are in the US illegally because they had no means of entering legally, even to take jobs most Americans did not want.
And they – you – are coming in large numbers again, both during the Trump administration and now during our administration. Why? Because the US has entered a period of demographic transition. Our older population is soaring and our workforce is stagnating. This is opening up vast numbers of jobs, particularly in the categories which can be filled by migrant workers. All of you know that. You know that if you can find your way across the border, you’ll immediately find not only work, but work which pays well.
So what should the US do? Some feel that we should strengthen border enforcement. And some feel that we should be a more humane and welcoming nation, and you know that we are trying to be true to those values in the Biden administration. But all that does not solve anything. It is just more of the same system we have used for more than half a century. The system does not work. It never has.
We need to try something new.
We can end illegal immigration by creating a legal channel for migrants to work in the United States. And that’s our goal. But the question remains, under what circumstances should we allow migrants in? Allowing everyone in will create massive unemployment and downward wage pressures among migrants and undocumented residents. So that won’t work.
We can reduce the number of migrants by charging a tax – a visa fee – to enter and work in the US. But what should that fee be? How many visas should we issue?
Well, if we want Republican support – and we cannot pass this legislation without it – then we have to close the southwest border to illegal immigration at a minimum. Consequently, we have to issue a sufficient number of visas to accomplish that goal, but we probably won’t get many more, at least at the beginning.
But that’s not enough. We also must prevent incoming migrants from creating unemployment and reducing wages. We can do that by issuing those visas at a market price – the price at which you value them. I think all of us here – all of you here – know that the right to work in the US on demand for the employer of your choice is a very, very valuable right. Think about the maximum amount you would be willing to pay for that right, and that’s pretty much how much it will cost. However, if you have passed a background check and can find a US employer willing to pay you enough to make it worth your while, you can come work in the US – come and go as you please – anytime you want. No need for caravans, asylum claims, cartel payoffs, trying to evade Border Patrol, or worrying about deportation. None of it. You decide when you want to work in the US and when you want to be here.
Let me touch briefly on technology, because it is so central to the whole system. We are going to run the system on smartphones like the iPhone, and we'll make sure you have one. This will enable you to keep in touch with employers and it will be your primary interface with the government, for example, to renew your visa or to let us know that you have left the US so we do not charge you for those days. It will also allow us to be in contact with you. We want to create the most transparent, best protected migrant labor market – forget 'migrant', the best labor market of any sort, period – anywhere in the world. We’ll be in contact with you every month to see how you are doing, and you will have to opportunity to sign up for legal services to protect you from visa, workplace and sexual harassment issues, among others. Help will never be more than a touch of the button away.
You’ll need an official bank account where you will be paid. But we will arrange that your family can draw from that same account here with small transfer charges. No more high Western Union fees. And you’ll have health insurance in the US under Medicare. So, yes, the visa will be expensive, but it will come with lots of great features designed to keep you safe, healthy and in control of your own life. It is the future, and it is better. A lot, lot better.
We will be asking Congress for one million of these market-based visas over three years. Perhaps 200,000 of these will be destined for Guatemala. That’s not everything, and almost certainly not enough from the Guatemalan perspective, but it is still a large number and a good start.
Now, let me give you the warning you've been expecting in this speech. You know that the Vice President of the United States is not going to visit Guatemala without some hard conditions. Here it is. If you are detained by US Border Patrol or any other US law enforcement agency after July 1st of this year – about one month from now – you will be barred from the new program for at least five years. And that’s true not only for Guatemalans, but for every other nationality as well, including Mexicans, Hondurans and Salvadorans.
Of course, you’re not going to just take my word for it. So here’s the calendar. We will be working through the details of the program for the balance of the year and hope to have legislation about this time next year. If you’re thinking of taking a shot at the border after the end of June, keep it in mind.
Finally, we have an important condition which will influence the governance of your country. All countries participating in the program will have to accept incentives for their executive and legislative branches that link their pay to the economic growth of the country. In plain words, your political leaders will be incentivized – heavily incentivized with performance pay – to maximize economic growth while minimizing the amount of debt the government takes on. In the medium term, these sums will be paid by the United States from your visa fees under the supervision of the International Monetary Fund and the US Treasury. The faster the economic growth here, the more your decision-makers will be paid.
At the end of the day, the best protection the US can have against illegal immigration is not fancy visa systems, but prosperity in your country. No matter how many visas we issue, that will not solve Guatemala’s problems. We need this country to grow faster. A lot faster. We want the Guatemalan economy to double in size over the next decade. If we reach that target, you will not be so interested in working in the US and we will have less of a problem with migrant labor. We want to make sure your leaders are fully committed to accelerated growth, and we’re going to pay them generously for it. The incentives will be aligned to produce a rapid increase in prosperity here.
Let me conclude by again saying how pleased I am to be here today. With God’s blessing, it will mark the beginning of a new era, both for those of you who want to work in the US and for those of you who choose to work here. We look forward to a better future – a better future for all of us.
Thank you.