Immigration for the 21st Century
Image by: Araceli Arroyo
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Image by: Justin Valas
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Congress has been debating immigration reform for over 20 years without any significant legislation passed since 1996. It is no longer enough to discuss minor fixes to our broken immigration system. We need a major overhaul.
The Immigration and Nationality Act that creates the basic structure of the US immigration system was passed on January 15, 1965. That date was before 70% of Americans were even born (Source 1). Much has changed in our nation and in the world since 1965. The United States in 1965 was at the height of the civil rights movement against racist, unfair, and discriminatory laws. That same year Congress implemented an immigration system that prevented any country from using more than 7% of US immigrant visas. This cap has caused increasingly long backlogs for citizens of India, China, Mexico, and the Philippines to immigrate to the United States.
In 1965 there were no cell phones, Internet or handheld calculators. Our 1960s era immigration system encourages government inefficiency and actively hurts our economy and our standing in the world. Imagine a time when you couldn’t file online, schedule appointments with a phone call, or contact an agency to correct a mistake. Immigrants don’t have to imagine this inefficiency because that describes the US Citizenship and Immigration Service as it exists today.
In our modern world, we expect our government services to be responsive to market forces of supply and demand rather than dictated by a Congressional compromise from many years ago. But our current immigration system is hampered by Congressional decisions made in a different era. Our government turns away tens of thousands of highly-skilled, highly-educated workers every year. This waste of global talent and economic opportunity exists because Congress got the number of annual H1B visas wrong back in 1990 (Source 2).
American companies should be allowed to hire the best qualified people from all over the world based on a free and fair labor market, without the government artificially restricting the number of people who may be hired in the United States.
America should create an immigration system for the 21st century that is quick, efficient, and uses technology to improve services. Our immigration system should allow people to complete simple, straightforward forms online to enter the United States, extend their stay, get permission to work, obtain permanent residency, or apply for US citizenship. It is unacceptable for these types of applications to require years of waiting when it takes only minutes for immigration officials to review these petitions.
The US immigration system for the 21st century should also uphold our values as a nation. We believe that families belong together. Spouses, children, parents, brothers and sisters of US citizens and residents should have the freedom to visit, work, and reside in the US without years-long waits for visas.
Currently, it is easier for a foreign citizen to get a visa to come to Disneyland than it is for the spouse of a US citizen to get permission to visit their in-laws.
People should be treated equally in our immigration system. The government should not discriminate against an individual based on factors beyond their control, like their country of birth. Equally qualified men and women from around the world should have the same opportunities to visit, live, work, and become a part of America’s melting pot.
Our 21st century immigration system should also recognize that people aren't perfect. Our current system imposes harsh and harmful penalties on those who miss a deadline or fall out of status. Our new immigration system should provide multiple ways for people to correct their status for missed deadlines, mistakes, or changed circumstances.
Our current system has created an unsustainable underground economy for millions of undocumented people. This situation needs to be fixed in a way that doesn’t tear our society apart.
Our modern times also reveal a need for flexibility for our foreign policy. In the last three weeks, over three million Ukrainian citizens have been forced to flee their homes to other parts of Ukraine or neighboring countries like Poland and Hungary. The United States has accepted only a tiny fraction of the world’s refugee population, despite the number of refugees reaching historical levels (Source 3). President Biden and our NATO allies have refused the call by Ukrainian President Zelensky to close the sky over Ukraine. At least we should open our doors to women and children fleeing Russian invasion.
Our country is a nation of immigrants. We are strong because we welcome the world to our shores and provide opportunities for all to succeed. Our immigration system should be radically redesigned to meet the needs and values of our modern world. At the very least, our country’s system of immigration should help America compete for the best and brightest people from all over the world instead of putting artificial obstacles in the way.
Sources
https://www.statista.com/statistics/296974/us-population-share-by-generation/. The Baby Boomer generation (born 1946 to 1964) is 21.45% of the population. Silent Generation (born 1928 to 1948) is 6.61% of the population. And Greatest Generation (before 1928) is only 0.4% of the US population.
The United States allows 65,000 H1B visas for the entire country in a fiscal year, plus another 20,000 visas for master’s or higher graduates of US universities. The number of H1B applicants has exceeded that number every year. https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/h1b-visa-program-fact-sheet#:~:text=Since%20the%20category%20was%20created,higher%20learning%20(Figure%201)
See https://www.unhcr.org/refugee-statistics/ showing that Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees with 3.7 million. Columbia is second with 1.7 million, then Uganda, Pakistan, and Germany – all with over 1 million refugees in 2021. By comparison, the United States accepted 11,411 refugees in fiscal year 2021.