Improving Immigration to the United States
America should begin immediately allowing only the most intelligent immigrants to remain in the U.S. and apply for citizenship.
Immigrants at risk in their home countries are eligible for asylum under U.S. immigration laws and international agreements. The immigration rules for everyone else seeking American citizenship should change significantly based on intelligence and continuing advances in automation.
Jobs are increasingly done by machines. This trend will continue to accelerate. The number of immigrants is increasing at the same time there is a reduction in jobs available due to automation. In time, many will not be able to contribute to the economy and will be completely dependent on welfare to survive.
In 2020, the World Economic Forum projected that by 2025, 85 million jobs might be lost, but 97 million new jobs may be created as the division of labor changes between humans, machines, and algorithms.[1] In 2023, the World Economic Forum now projects that by 2027, 83 million jobs may be lost, and 69 million new jobs may be created. The report shows that machines do 34 percent of all business tasks, while people are doing 66 percent, at present.[2]
The U.S. will experience significant demographic changes over the next two decades. By 2030, all baby boomers will be over age 65, and one in five Americans will be of retirement age.[3] Due to our aging population, immigration will represent 75 percent of the overall increase in our population by 2033. The remaining 25 percent will be the net amount of natural increase (the excess of births over deaths). By 2043 and beyond, all population growth will come from immigration.[4]
There are those that argue that America must have immigrants to harvest our crops and perform other low-skilled jobs. To meet this need, America should introduce the guest worker program.
The guest worker program will allow us to bring in workers temporarily to do low-skilled jobs such as seasonal work. For example, guest workers can harvest our crops and return home at the end of the season.
Guest worker programs operate effectively in over 50 countries worldwide, to include most of Western Europe, the Gulf states, Canada, Australia, and other regions.
Guest workers should not be allowed to bring their families unless they are guest workers also.
Guest workers are not permanent residents.
Guest workers will not be able to apply for citizenship.
Guest workers are not eligible for Social Security or Medicare.
Will we always need guestworkers for our crops? Automation in harvesting US crops is accelerating quickly. This is driven by severe labor shortages, worker safety, increases in efficiency, and automated harvesting done by autonomous tractors and drones for planting, monitoring and spraying, robotic harvesters for fragile crops like blueberries, strawberries, etc., and machines that sort and process produce with impressive accuracy.
The US Immigration and Naturalization Test should screen citizenship applications to ensure that, regardless of background, America gets the smartest people. The test must be rigorous. The U.S. citizenship test had a 94% pass rate until the Trump Administration toughened the test effective October 2025. This revised test increases the number of questions asked and the score required to pass. The passing score should be set sufficiently high to retain only the best and brightest.
At present, there are immigrants with green cards that have been here for decades and have not passed the Naturalization Test. These are the least desirable immigrants. Our current rules allow immigrants with over 20 years in America to be given the Naturalization Test in their native language. That is the opposite of what is needed.
At present, the Department of Homeland Security offers illegal immigrants $1,000 and a plane ticket home. There is another incentive to encourage them to take this offer. For illegal immigrants who do not take this offer, following deportation, they will be ineligible to participate in America’s guest worker program.
Conclusion
Immigrants at risk in their home countries are eligible for asylum under U.S. immigration laws and international agreements. The immigration rules for everyone else seeking American citizenship should change significantly based on accepting only the best and brightest.
[1] “The Future of Jobs Report: 2020,” World Economic Forum, Centre for the New Economy and Society, 2020,p. 29, https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2020/.
[2] Attilio Di Battista, “The Future of Jobs Report: 2023,” World Economic Forum, Centre for the New Economy and Society, May 2023, pp. 6,9, & 28, https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2023/.
[3] Ibid., “Demographic Turning Points for the United States: Population Projections for 2020 to 2060.”
[4] “The Demographic Outlook: 2022 to 2052,” Congressional Budget Office, July 27, 2022
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