Albert Einstein immigrated to the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany. This year, millions of Syrians are seeking refuge in neighboring countries in the Middle East and Europe... but do experts support maintaining and perhaps expanding the traditional American openness to nearly one hundred thousand refugees per year?

As the 2016 presidential campaign kicks into high gear, voters are hearing calls from many candidates to step up immigration enforcement and secure the border. Such calls are not new, and the suggested methods for doing so–border walls, employment verification, and even increased deportations–have been part of the debate over immigration for decades.

What is the goal of immigration policy? The state of public debate and media coverage would lead you to believe that the United States has a broken immigration system and that the remedy should focus on securing the southern border to achieve zero illegal immigration.

The US immigration debate often feels like the movie Groundhog Day because the same arguments and legislative proposals are replayed in an endless loop. Yet even though the national conversation about immigration policy remains almost unchanged during the past twenty-five years, the immigration enforcement system has been transformed.