The Solution to Our Broken Immigration System

By: Austen Wyche

Immigration is one of the most discussed issues in politics today. Republicans want border security and limited immigration, while the Democratic Party wants increased immigration and an easier process to immigrate. There is a long history behind immigration, continuing difficulties in the United States immigration system, and absence of action to effectively solve the issues entailing the system. Many major complications point to the notion that the guest worker visa system needs significant overhauling. Both sides on this issue have gone too far to push for their causes, without offering a solution for a major problem that has continuously been happening for years. Here is the proper way to fix immigration in the United States. We can solve issues in our failed system if we invest in border security, find a pathway to residency for undocumented immigrants, and improve the legal immigration process.

Before I begin, I would like to clear up a common misconception. The misconception in United States politics is that people who come to the country, particularly without authorization, are criminals who intend to harm U.S. citizens. The majority of undocumented people who come to the United States do not commit crimes, with the rate of crime by immigrants being 40% lower than native-born Americans. People who come to the United States illegally are often fleeing from poverty, economic instability, war, and crime in their native nations. We must remember when having the debate over this issue that these are people with families and lives. Neither crossing the border nor overstaying a visa are felonies under United States law. There must be a solution to solve illegal immigration, by allowing the process of immigration to be easier. Legality and morality are not equally important. Morality is on higher ground.

In the United States, the immigration system has a history of being complicated and, for a long time, discriminatory. The process of becoming a United States citizen often takes a number of years. Let’s get a bit of the context behind the history of immigration. Following the Civil War, due to the increasing number of freed enslaved people, states across the country began to implement rules that limited, and oftentimes banned, immigrants from Asian and African nations from settling in their jurisdictions. Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which prohibited the immigration of all Chinese laborers. After the events of World War I, extreme xenophobia in the United States began to play into the immigration policies enacted. Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1917, which stopped immigration from all Asian countries and implemented literacy tests. Additionally, the Immigration Act of 1924, which established quotas based on the census, effectively gave out 70% of all visas to immigrants from Western and European nations. During WWII, Mexicans began coming to the United States due to labor shortages, eventually settling and establishing families. Due to the influx in the Mexican population of the United States, the government under Dwight D. Eisenhower implemented Operation Wetback (a derogatory term for Mexicans in the United States); this was an operation carried out by Immigration and Naturalization Services to deport undocumented Mexicans in the United States. The program resulted in the mass deportation of by estimates 300,000 - 1,100,000 Mexicans in the U.S., many of those with birthright citizenship. Many died in the process of deportation, with no protection measures implemented by the United States. Finally, in 1965, the Immigration and Nationality Act was passed in 1965, getting rid of the racial quotas that favored white immigrants over those from Asia and Africa. The racist history of immigration in the United States was extensive and continuously disadvantaged those of color.

In 2013, the Senate passed the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, which passed in a 68-32 vote, with bipartisan support. This bill’s goal was to improve border security, give undocumented immigrants living in the United States a pathway to citizenship, increase and reform guest worker programs for workers, transform the legal immigration process by increasing the number of immigrants given green cards, and decreasing the backlog of cases at USCIS (the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services), which will allow the number of employer-based green cards to rise. This bill, however, was not taken up by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives due to the fact that it provided so-called “amnesty” to undocumented immigrants. This bill needs to be passed by Congress. It is the only solution to the broken immigration system in the United States.

The first issue of immigration in the United States is our borders. To make sure that we protect our borders, we need to invest in technology that allows Custom and Border Control to stop people attempting to enter the nation illegally. Technology is the only way to improve border security, a wall would be ineffective. According to the Cato Institute, the full construction of a wall would face legal and physical challenges due to Native American land, rivers, and mountains. There are additionally underground tunnels across the border that transport people, which cannot be stopped by constructing a wall. To physically stop people from coming into the country through the border illegally, we must employ more Border Patrol agents, construct fencing, increase mobile surveillance, and invest in technologies such as watchtowers, ground sensors, and contraband detectors. Through the bill that I mentioned earlier, Congress would allocate funds to Customs and Border Patrol to implement these changes. This would help prevent the illegal smuggling of people and drugs across the border, but it is important to note that most of the people that come into the United States who are unauthorized, came in legally. Since 2007, immigrants that overstay their visas have outnumbered the number of immigrants that enter by crossing the border. During FY 2017, Border Patrol apprehended over 300,000 immigrants at the border, while over 700,000 foreigners overstayed their visas (out of the 52.7 million issued every year, 1.3%). Building a wall would not fix or address the issue of visa overstayers, who make up 42% of undocumented immigrants. Two of the most overstayed visas are the B1 and B2, for business and tourism, which account for the majority of visa overstayers. The only way to implement change to decrease visa overstays is to allow additional immigrants to come, through green cards, to settle permanently in the United States.

In the United States, there are an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the country. The solution to this issue cannot be mass deportation; this would be completely impossible and ineffective. The economic impacts of mass deportation would result in a 4.7 trillion deficit over the next ten years and would devastate the stock market by increasing the unemployment rate. Undocumented immigrants pay over 26 billion dollars in income taxes and 13 billion in Social Security (despite the fact they are not eligible for benefits) to the federal government each year. The notion that undocumented immigrants do not pay taxes, is simply false. Additionally, deporting unauthorized immigrants has an adverse effect on their children, many of whom are citizens, financially and psychologically (8% of births in the United States are to undocumented immigrants, millions per year). The only way to properly solve the problem of undocumented immigrants in the United States is to establish a Registered Provisional Immigrant (RPI) status. Undocumented immigrants who have not committed any felonies would be given a work permit and social security number, as well as protection from deportation. While under RPI status, immigrants can travel out of the country, go to college, or go to work without fear of deportation. After ten years of paying back taxes to the IRS, the immigrants under RPI status would be allowed to apply for a green card. This would effectively allow ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to focus on those in the nation that do harm, not those trying to have a better life for their family. Roughly 9 of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States right now would be eligible for RPI status, which would only be granted to those with no criminal record. RPI status is a provision of the Senate bill, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, which will significantly reform the role that ICE plays in our immigration system. Immigrants recently deported with no criminal record would also be permitted to apply for RPI status to re-enter the country and reunite with their family. This is the only way to allow those unauthorized in the country to come out of the shadows and live a life free of fear.

In 2012, President Obama signed an executive order establishing the DACA Program (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), which granted a work permit and protection from deportation for undocumented immigrants, known as “Dreamers” that came to the United States as minors. According to the Anti-Defamation League, there are roughly 800,000 DACA recipients in the United States, many of whom have attended college, gone to medical school, and attended higher-level education. Over 20,000 DACA recipients are on the frontline as essential workers during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Every single DACA recipient came to the United States through no fault of their own, therefore they should be allowed to reside in the nation. Some DACA recipients came to the country before they were even a year old, so there is no reason their deportation can be justified to be their fault. DACA recipients have passed background checks, and only those that have no criminal records are allowed to apply to the program. In September 2017, President Trump announced that his administration would end the DACA program, sparking lawsuits from a number of organizations. Due to the lawsuit, the Supreme Court decided in the Department of Homeland Security v. The University of California Regents (June 2020) that the Trump Administration wrongfully rescinded the Obama-era program, but they stated that the Administration can attempt to rescind the program the proper way. The DACA program is safe, but only for 6 months since the Trump Administration announced they will rescind the program the correct way. Congress must enact legislation to protect Dreamers from deportation, and they must do it now. Through the comprehensive immigration bill, Dreamers would receive legal status. President Obama additionally enacted DAPA in 2014, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, which would have provided a work permit and protection from deportation to those who have children that are United States citizens; it was blocked by the Supreme Court in United States v. Texas. It is estimated by the American Immigration Council that 4.1 million U.S. citizens that are children have an undocumented parent(s), who could have been eligible for DAPA. Due to this, roughly 3.7 million undocumented immigrants would have been protected under the program through their children. Congress must do its job and grant protections for DACA and DAPA-eligible individuals. The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act passed by the Senate in 2013 will give DACA and DAPA potential beneficiaries RPI status, which will grant them stability and freedom from deportation, allowing them to live life with prosperity.

The legal immigration system in the United States is fundamentally broken. At USCIS, there is a backlog of immigration cases to an average of 5 years in most countries, but in countries with high populations like India, it is 49 years. The backlog at USCIS is despicable, and the limits on immigration the United States places on particular nations, cause many people to remain in their home countries. The wait to immigrate from India to the United States is so long that the Cato Institute has estimated that roughly 200,000 Indians will die before they receive their green cards to move to the United States. The United States grants roughly 7,000 green cards to Indians per year on EB-2 employment-based green cards, but there is a backlog of about 706,000 applicants. The United States must increase the number of immigrants that we allow to reside in the nation per year and allocate additional funding to USCIS, as this will help alleviate the backlog of cases and improve the economy. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Proposals, increased immigration will help the economy grow, as immigrants work at higher rates, and their children show significant upward mobility. The United States should be granting additional green cards to those wishing to move to the country, as it will help with diversity as well as the economy. By granting additional green cards to countries with large numbers of applicants, such as Mexico, India, and the Philippines, will lower the amount of illegal immigration and visa overstays. The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act will do just that.

There are a number of guest worker programs that the United States has for immigrants, including the H-1B and H-2B visas for immigrants to come. H-2B visas are for immigrants who want to work in the United States agricultural industry. According to the Farm Bureau, about 50-70% of the agricultural force in the United States are unauthorized. The United States relies on the labor of undocumented immigrants to help our economy, but simultaneously attempts to deport them. We need reform the HB-2 visa to allow immigrants in the agricultural industry to gain legal status. The H-1B visa program is a visa that gives U.S. companies the right to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations such as technology and engineering. Most companies in the United States, such as Apple, rely on foreign workers on the HB-1 visa. The amount of HB-1 visas given in the US is about 500,000. Many on the visas have been in the country for years and have children born in the United States. Through the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013, the backlog at USCIS would be significantly reduced, and the number of HB-1 visas will be increased by over 100% percent to 205,000 issued per year rather than 65,000 to help industries in need of foreign skilled workers. New green cards and visas for foreign-born entrepreneurs would be implemented to benefit the economy and increase the amount of jobs. There would additionally be an establishment of a merit-based visa through a point-based system that rewards green cards based on education, employment, and length of residency. The H-2B visa would be replaced with a new agricultural program that would offer “blue cards” to undocumented immigrants to work with legal status , and a non-immigrant guest visa for guest workers. The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act would provide a significant overhaul of the legal immigration system. The United States is in desperate need of skilled and unskilled foreign workers in this nation and by reforming guest worker visas, we can improve the economy and provide workers for critical industries.

I would like to leave on this note. The United States immigration system has failed those who wish to make this country a better place, and it is our job to elect officials that will solve the issue of immigration. The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act will help do that, but there are many other issues with the immigration system from refugees and asylum, to the family separation crisis. Additionally, there are many complications we must address with ICE and their role in humane immigration enforcement. To learn more, read Khushi Patel’s article here on how we need to reform the agency. To solve these issues, we must act on it and demand our representatives to fix this broken system. It should not be harder to immigrate, but easier, as it helps our country and our economy. No matter what side you identify with, there is a solution to this issue that grants both conservatives and liberals the provisions they prefer. Find common ground and solve the issue at hand. We should view immigration, not as a problem, but an opportunity the United States should seize.

Edited by: Khushi Patel and Vaishali Ojha

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