The Broken Immigration System in America

When we revisit the history of immigration into America we can see that this nation was

built by the hands of foreign nationals from all over the world. After the attacks of 9/11 U.S.

immigration laws and policies have become more restrictive to new comers and even less

humanitarian to people in need of basic resources and protection. In this paper I will present how

the lack of a comprehensive immigration system triggers the excessive expenses of our

Homeland Security system by creating chaos and refusing adequate and humanitarian support to

new comers.

“Four major principles currently underlie U.S. policy on legal permanent immigration:

the reunification of families, the admission of immigrants with needed skills, the protection of

refugees, and the diversity of admissions by country of origin”1. In terms of family reunification,

U.S. immigration laws and policies is very restrictive in regards to the amount of people

admitted on a yearly-based quota. These numbers are not taking into consideration the reality of

current immigration patterns nor does it take into consideration the necessities of distinguish

populations such as the Filipinos, Chinese, Indians, and Mexicans. In order for the system to

work better per country ceilings should not be the same percentage for each country. The

countries named above should have a higher amount of available visas rather than 7 percent of

the world wide population.

I believe that one of the issues currently affecting the creation of better and adequate

immigration laws and policies to help decrease backlogs is the idea of immigrants as inferior to

U.S. citizens. Just like in the 1800’s new immigrants were considered culturally and physically

1
Congressional Research Service Report on U.S. Immigration Policy on Permanent Admission p. 1
“strange” current groups of immigrants such as Hispanics are considered intellectually and

culturally inferior vis-à-vis American citizens.

Indisputably, there is a connection between the inadequacy of the current legal

immigration system and the illegal one. According to the CRS report on unauthorized aliens

residing in the United States since 1986 Mexicans comprise the largest population of

unauthorized aliens. This situations has triggered the implementation of stricter security means

in the south border including the increase of border patrol officers, however, it has not prevented

illegal immigration from happening. My idea of how the system should work is reform our

immigration policies adjudicating 60% its weight to immigration and 40% to security. I believe

securing the border is necessary to prevent the trafficking of illegal narcotics and smuggling of

aliens. However, the issues of crossing the border illegally do not comprise the threat of

terrorism for U.S. soil. Hence, the immigration reform should include some type of treaty

between the U.S. government and Mexican government to prevent and identify “Coyotes” and

criminal organizations before they reach American soil.

On the other hand, securing the border and reforming immigration means that we will

need more resources and options for Mexican immigrants. Taking into consideration the NAFTA

treaty between Canada and the U.S., I think it would be beneficial if the U.S. government

implements and creates a system where low-skilled workers with intentions of crossing the

southern border could apply for temporary agricultural/low-skill work visas at the border port.

This initiative would take into consideration all the grounds of inadmissibility in order to grant

permission of entry. Allowing Mexican workers to apply for their documents at the border in an

inviting manner would decrease the amount of individuals paying coyotes to smuggle them

throughout the border, decrease the amount of people dying in the process and, hence, decrease
the expenses of CBP in deporting undocumented immigrants. This visa category should be

classified as both non-immigrant and immigrant visa. Only after two years of working in the

U.S., presenting documentation of filed taxes, and other requisites established by the state can

the workers get re-interviewed by USCIS in order to determine if he can adjust status or should

be returned home. That determination will be subject to the social and economic contributions to

the American society by of each individual.

Nonetheless, before we could implement or even create these types of visas Homeland

Security needs to create an adequate entry-exit system that allows them to track non-immigrants

and workers under these visas. One of the failures of our current immigration system is that it

loses track of non-immigrants and then it punishes them for overstaying their visas. Bars should

be eliminated for purposes of non-immigrants who overstay. It is obvious that this policy was

deployed with the intention of preventing overstays but the reality is that it has created a non-

resolvable situation. Bars should be only kept for major threats such as terrorists, traffickers and

smugglers.

On the other hand, business related H-1B visa caps are not enough to supply the demand

for work especially for professionals in the STEM field. However, since the category includes

other professions with higher degrees such as nursing and managing, I consider the cap should be

defined by professions. In my opinion 60% of the cap should be adjudicated to STEM

professions, 20% of the caps for college & university, and scientific research and development

and the remaining 20 % between the other categories such as schools, managing, hospitals, etc.

As a response to the issue of preserving jobs for Americans, the Department of Labor must work

in conjunction with USCIS to set a numerical standard of all the jobs available in each category
using the data of the last fiscal year. My suggestion is that 30 % of American jobs go to foreign

workers without distinction or preference of the sending country.

Working towards the decreasing of caps backlogs should indisputably become a matter of priority

for the immigration reform bill. With the lack of available visas for individuals of sending countries such

as China, India, and Mexico the necessity of finding illegal means to enter the country has contributed to

the increasing of visa fraud and misrepresentation. “Almost 60 percent of confirmed fraud cases (9,200

out of 16,000) were referred to Fraud Prevention Units in Brazil, China, Dominican Republic, India, and

Mexico in fiscal year 20102”. A big percentage of fraud cases have been found in applications for

temporary jobs under H and L visas. In several cases, petitioners have created phony companies and

positions to comply with the requisites of the Department of Labor. However, DOL has not been

proficient in identifying fraud before USCIS grants the work visas.

Surprisingly, visa fraud inside U.S. is even more common than visa fraud abroad. “In 2010, State

issued 482,052 immigrant visas. That same year, 21,013 immigrant visa applications were referred to

Fraud Prevention Units and 4,984 (or about 24 percent) were confirmed as fraudulent”3. Many of this visa

fraud cases were related to marriage fraud which I think is in part a fault of the immigration process rather

than the security process. I have participated as an interpreter for petitioners and beneficiaries in

Adjustemnt of Status interviews and I can say that the decision of the case depends on the subjectivity and

individual culture of the interviewing officer. There are irregularities in the process. Some officers

separate the couples before interviewing them together, other officers do not. Depending on the location,

some district offices will allow interpreters to translate for the beneficiary; in other cases the officer will

allow the citizen to translate for their spouses. In short, screening policies are not being followed the

same way throughout the country and this is one of the reasons for which our immigration system needs a

reform.

2
Report to Congressional Requesters. P. 15
3
Report to Congressional Requesters P.19
 In regards to humanitarian support to asylees and refugees, the DHS has been unable to

provide adequate support to foreign nationals in search of protection. Since I work with

undocumented immigrants mostly from Central America I am aware of the current issues that

need to be taken into consideration in the immigration reform bill. One of the issues is the

intimidation that asylum seekers feel on behalf of CBP. I have met families that have fled their

countries because of political persecution but were not able to apply for asylum because they

were afraid to cross the border and search for a law-enforcement officer that could help them.

Moreover, the lack of resources to support asylum-seekers- in this case asylum officers- in sites

besides the southern border is critical in creating chaos in the process of receiving new comers.

“Some assert that asylum has become an alternative pathway for immigration rather than

humanitarian protection provided in extraordinary cases” (Wassen, 2011, p.28). Nonetheless, if

our immigration system had the adequate resources to assess each application we wouldn’t have

to deal with fraud cases and the services provided to real asylum seekers would not jeopardize

the credibility of our immigration system and the application of international human rights.

Lastly, the immigration reform needs to take into consideration that humanitarian rights

are being violated when civil and criminal violations are considered equally threatening for non-

U.S. citizens. It is ridiculous that the government of the U.S. –one of the world powerful

countries- lacks immigrant camps or provisional jails for immigration laws offenders outside our

current criminal prisons. Treating immigrant laws offenders like terrorists is not the answer to

solve the patterns of illegal immigration or to secure the border. Rather it is an inhumane way of

receiving new comers that want to live and contribute to this county through laboring. In

conclusion, our current immigration policies should make a distinction between criminals and

desperate immigrants who possibly have no other means of making living in their countries.