We have a broken immigration system. While this problem is nothing new, it will take a comprehensive approach to tackle the root of it. Hard-liners like to beef up border security and penalties for hiring illegal immigrants. Secured borders and employment verification are important, but if other problems such as the war on drugs has taught us anything, an enforcement-only approach to issues does nothing to fix the core of the problem.
In fact, a 2011 report from the Pew Research Hispanic Center claimed “unauthorized immigrants”—which includes both undocumented immigrants and those who’ve overstayed their visa expiration—totaled 11.2 million, something the Border Patrol can do nothing about. People who overstay their visas are hard to track because of limitations in the system. In addition, the Department of Homeland Security usually focuses only on those who pose a “national security risk.”
The real problem at hand is the massive backlog in our immigration system. Current proposals by President Barack Obama and some members of the Senate call for immigrants to get in at “the back of the line” or until the border is “secured” before legalizing unauthorized immigrants. It’s a fair compromise, but to prevent future waves of illegal immigration, the federal government will need to fix the quota system that created the backlog we have today. Each year, there are 226,000 family-sponsored visas and 140,000 employment-based visas available. There are no such numerical limits for immediate family members such as spouses and children younger than 21. With the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, each country from whence immigrants come is only allowed to contribute 7 percent of the total permanent residents, or green cards, issued each year. This might seem fair when you first read it, but take a deeper look to see what problems it has caused.
Currently, the greatest source of immigration to the U.S. comes from Mexico. The backlog for permanent resident petitions in pending status from Mexico alone is 1.4 million If Mexico has much greater demand for legal immigration to the U.S. than a smaller country, such as Israel, and they’re both only allowed to make up 7 percent of all total legal immigrants, then there will likely be plenty of room for Israelites to come to America almost immediately, while Mexican nationals have to wait much longer before receiving visas. In fact, a Mexican family seeking to come to the U.S. may wait as long as 100 years in the worst cases. It’s hardly a fair wait for Mexicans while someone from another country can get in seemingly instantaneously.
As a result of this, immigrants from countries with huge backlogs, such as Mexico and the Philippines, will contribute greater numbers of illegal immigrants. It’s similar to the basic economic law of supply and demand. In economics, if supply doesn’t reach equilibrium with the demand, prices increase. With immigration, when the supply of visas doesn’t meet the demand for them, it leads to more people crossing the border without authorization.
In order to correct this problem, we need to overhaul our immigration system entirely. Limiting each country to a quota based on outdated laws from the 1960s hurts our immigration system. Access to the U.S. needs to be easier. The harder it is for someone to come here legally, the more likely they are to risk entering the country illegally.
We need to replace the quota system with a system based on the demand from the country they’re coming from. Get rid of the 7 percent limit entirely and make it a “first come, first serve” immigration system, regardless of the country of origin. That would allow immigrants from countries such as Mexico and the Philippines who have waited for more than 10 years to enter before someone from the U.K. who applied last year.
If congressional lawmakers are serious about fixing our immigration system, they’ll need to move away from the hardline rhetoric of the past used to score political points. It’s time to address the system by fixing what is actually wrong with it.
