History of US Immigration Law and Reform

History of US in-migration right and Re radiation diagramAlejandro Bojorquez is a Mexican citizen who has been waiting decades to be reunited with his family in this joined States through issuance of a family-sponsored green invoice. Alejandros father, Jesus Bojorquez, first accommodated a family sponsored green card petition for his son when Alejandro was tho 14 familys old (Gonzalez, 2013). Alejandro is now 33 classs old and he could smooth wait until 2018 before he receives his family sponsored green card everywhere c unlessable to the wait clip for the endorse category he is shortly in. This will make his wait for issuance of his green card twenty years, however, this length of judgment of conviction is non that uncommon. Alejandro Bojorquezs family is not al star. Similar situations be be seen every day due to the current shortage of family-sponsored endorses procurable. In the past, the united States in-migration frame has made it a priority to pack famil ies kept to operateher however, due to shortage of family-sponsored endorses available, the bout of endorse gathers concord rapidly increased, withstanding families separated for umpteen a(prenominal) years. Congress must see the light the family in-migration virtues and the family visa process to start reuniting families again, before families twist stark(a)ly broken. History of in-migration Lawsin-migration rectitudes in the coupled States date back to the early 18th Century. During the 18th and early 19th Century, the joined States welcomed free and open in-migration and did not perplex concrete in-migration laws effect in place under legislation. In the 1880s, the number of immigrants immigrating to the unify States was rising, and economic conditions were becoming worse. Therefore, Congress implemented legislation and passed the General in-migration bite of 1882 (U.S. Citizenship and in-migration Services, 2012). The General in-migration operation of 1882 hardened a fifty cent head tax oneach immigrant. Addition solelyy, this playbarred the opening of any immigrant presumed to be an idiot, lunatic, convict, ora public charge (U.S. Citizenship and immigration Services, 2012). Thefirst laws enacted that began prohibiting accepted immigrants from coming to the unify States was the Chinese Exclusion pretend of 1882 and the extraterrestrial being ContractLabor Laws of 1885 and 1887 (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2012). TheseActs were the first immigration laws that significantly dictated a restriction oncertain immigrants immigrating to the unite States. The Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited entry ofChinese immigrant workers due to the belief that the Chinese immigrants were victorious American citizen jobs, and the Alien Contact Labor Laws prohibitedAmerican employers from recruiting immigrant workers to work for trim d admit wagesthan the American workers. Pursuant to the Immigrant Act of 1891, the United States fed eral government began the control, inspection, admitting, rejecting, and processing of tout ensemble immigrants trying to be admitted into the United States (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2012). Due to the rent to have a single agency enforce and regulate the impertinently immigration laws, the Act in deal manner created the Office of the Superintendent of Immigration in the treasury Department, also known as the Department of Commerce and Labor. This name changed in 1895 to General of Immigration (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2012) The Superintendent over axiom the United States Immigrant Inspectors who were stationed at the port of entry, Ellis Island. Ellis Island was open up by the United States Immigration Service on January 2, 1982 (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2012). The Naturalization Act of 1802 allowed any court of record to naturalize a new American citizen (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2012). However, immigrat ion laws began to change in the early 1900s. In 1906, Congress enacted the Basic Naturalization Act of 1906. This Act was intentional to add uniformity to the naturalization process. This Act also step uplined the essential rules and regulations that governed the United States naturalization process for the absolute majority of the 20th Century. The 1906 Act created the farmingal Naturalization Service. Accordingly, Congress put the Federal Naturalization Service to put downher with the Bureau of Immigration, which changed the name to the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2012). In the early 1900s, the United States admitted more than 14.5 million immigrants (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2012). The large amount immigrants being admitted began to raise c one epochrns as to the type of immigrant they were due to many an(prenominal) of the immigrants not being able to teach or write. Therefore, it was determined that in that location needed to be stronger immigration laws in place. In 1917, Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1917. This Act required that immigrants being admitted into the United States be able to read and write in their native language (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2012). This was a way to catch the undesirables from being admitted in to the United States. However, large amounts of immigration slowed when World contend I began. When World War I ended, mass immigration to the United States began again. Therefore, stricter immigration laws were put in place. Immigration legislation of the Immigration Acts of 1921 and the Immigration Acts of 1924 placed a numerical narrow on immigration for the first time in United States history (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2012). Each nationality received a certain quota based on numbers in the United States census and was referred to as the national- inventorys quota system. A visa was required to be admit ted into the United States. If immigrants tried to be admitted and did not have a valid visa, they were not admitted it. The Immigration Acts of 1921 and the Immigration Acts of 1924 severely restricted the amount of immigrants allowed to be admitted into the United States. Immigrants from all over the world began to master into the United States illegally. Congress needed to do something about the amount of illegal immigrants coming into the United States, therefore, they passed the Labor Appropriation Act of 1924 (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2012). This created the Border police which secured the borders between inspection stations and on the coast.In 1952, Congress combined all of the previous immigration andnaturalization regulations into the Immigration and stadiumity Act of 1952(INA). This removed all of the racialbarriers in spite of appearance immigration and naturalization and retained the nationalorigins quotas (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services , 2012). However, civil rights activists viewed this Actas discriminatory as a quota system that placed a numerical limit on visasissued by national-origin was not equal treatment. Consequently, in 1965, amendments were made to the Immigration andNationality Act of 1952 which created the Immigration and Naturalization Act of1965 (U.S. Citizenshipand Immigration Services, 2012). ThisAct removed the earlier quota system that placed limits on the number ofimmigrants by their nationality.Instead, the Act established a new preference system that was de sign(a)to reunite families and draw skilled immigrants to immigrate to the UnitedStates. The preference system was supposed to put all immigrants on the samefooting art object immigrating to the United States. The preference system, exchangeable thenational-origin quota, places a limit to the number of immigration visas thatwere available each fiscal year. Throughout the years, modifications have been made tothe Immigration and Naturaliz ation Act of 1965, however, the framework of thisact remains still today. The 1965immigration policies argon illogical. introductory to the 1965 amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act(INA), the only(prenominal) thing that stood between families being reunited, was theamount of time it took for first family member that immigrated to the UnitedStates to get a job and save money to send back for their relatives toimmigrate. However, the passage of 1965 INA transcendd that way of immigrating and instead created the family preferencequota that places annual limits on the number of family visas that can beawarded each year by earth of origin and family preference. Currently, family-sponsored visas are themajority of visas wedded each year (Department of country of origin Security, 2017). Thus, the equality, organization, andpromptness of the entire visa process is vital.Ironically though, the United States current policies lack all ofthem. More recently, one of the about important immigrationlaws that has been put in place is the Immigration Act of 1990. This act changed American immigration law asit allowed more immigrants to come to the United States each year. Additionally, the 1990 Immigration Act began theyearly lottery of visas and it encouraged counties that do not have a strong nominal head in the United States to apply for a visa in the lottery (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2012). The lottery system assigns visas to immigrantsrandomly. Previous immigration laws didnot allow immigrants from a certain nationality, origin or country to attainvisas. The 1990 Immigration Act changed those immigration policies. In 1996, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration ResponsibilityAct (IIRIRA 96) was signed into law by former chair aeronaut Clinton. This Act made immigrating and adjustinglocating in the United States very hard for immigrants and United Statescitizens. The IIRIRA 96 made more immigrants, evenlegal immigrants, suppo rtable and less immigrants legalizable (U.S. Citizenship and ImmigrationServices, 1996). The provisions in this Act increasedpenalties on immigrants who had violated the United States law in some way. IIRIRA 96 needs to be reformed. Prior to 1996, undocumented immigrants were able to obtain legal status if they hadbeen in the United States for at least seven years and could come out extremehardship if they were to get deported. This was basically the back door togaining law-abiding status in the United States. After the passage of IIRIRA 96, theback door closed. The only way for anundocumented immigrant to gain lawful presence with a green card was by havingan immediate relative (United States spouse or child over 18 years) file apetition. IIRIRA 96 defined unlawful presence.This act has provisions that place a three-year ostracise on immigrants whowere in the United States for more than six months (180 days) unlawfully, and aten-year ban if the immigrant becomed in the United States for more than one yearunlawfully (8 U.S.C.A 1182, 2013). Inorder to adjust the immigrants status, they would have to travel back to theircountry of origin to have the visa appointment.This created tremendous difficulties for the families of undocumentedimmigrants whose immigrant spouse or parent had to leave the United States toapply for their visa. Once the immigrant would leave the United States, they would trigger an unlawful presence ban. Under United States law, the USCIS is permitted to waive the unlawful presence ban through filing for an I-601a provisional unlawful presence waiver (8 U.S.C.A 1182, 2013). In order to file the waiver, the applicant needs to be able to demonstrate that denial of the waiver and their excessive time abroad would result in extreme hardship of the immigrants U.S. citizen spouse or parent. The problem with the I-601a provisional unlawful presence waiver is that it does not include guidance for how extreme hardship is defined. Therefore, m any families were placed in the taciturnity and separated for many months to years because they did not provide enough extreme hardship. The lengthy separation caused emotional and financial hardship of families waiting for the waiver to be approved. Prior to 2013, families were separated for many months to many yearswaiting for their visa and their I-601a provisional unlawful presence waiver tobe approved. Under the ObamaAdministration, President Obama made an executive order regarding the I-601aprovisional unlawful presence waiver and decreasing the backlog (8 CFR 103, 2013). Under his order, U.S. citizens were allowedto file their petition and an I-601a provisional waiver while continuing toreside in the United States. Once bothwere approved, a visa appointment would be scheduled in the immigrants countryof origin and a visa would be issued within weeks. Besides including immediaterelatives of U.S. citizens, it also included immediate relatives of legal durable residents, work v isa petitions, and diversity visa applicants. These changes decreased the backlog and reunitedrelatives more prompt. With the improvements of the I-601a under the Obama administration, itwas hoped that there would be clarification and updated regulations to makeclear what is considered to be extreme hardship and how it was defined. However, that was not the case and it isstill vital for DHS to propose regulations that will make extreme hardship moreclear. Regardless, the improvements thatwere made in the I-601a waiver was a huge step for immigration reform as itgreatly reduces the amount of time family members are separated from those thatthey love the most. Currently there are harmful anti-immigration laws that are damaging bow economies. atomic number 13 and Arizonahave both passed harsh anti-immigration laws to try to dismantle the amount ofundocumented immigrants that are living in their nations. The idea of these laws was to make theeveryday life sentence of the undocumented immigrant so difficult that they would chooseto go back to their country, however, the laws implemented did far worsedamage. For Arizona, the passing of The Support Our Law Enforcementand Safe Neighborhoods Act, S.B. 1070, in 2010 was extreme. S.B. 1070 was the mostcomprehensive, strictest and most controversial anti-illegal immigration lawput in place in the United States for a wide time. S.B. 1070 includes provisions which addpenalties in simile to the enforcement of immigration law that includetrespassing, harboring and transporting illegal immigrants, alien registrationdocuments, employer sanctions, and human smuggling (Morse, 2011). This law has been criticized most due to theencouragement of racial profiling of anyone who looked like a Mexican. A boycott of Arizona began immediately afterpassing of this law, which appeal Phoenix Arizona 141 million dollars in touristand business in the first four months after passing the Act (Khan, N,2015). The atomic number 13 Taxpayer an d Citizen Protection Act, Alabama H.B. 56, of2011 is an anti-illegal immigration law aimed to remove illegal immigrants fromthe state of Alabama. This law cancelledout to be the strictest illegal immigration law in the nations history, evenmore strict than Arizonas S.B. 1070, as it attempt to regulate every part ofimmigrants lives in the State of Alabama.Areas regulated included interfering with immigrant childrensschooling, preventing immigrants from renting, entering contracts, and working,obstructing lawful access to public benefits, and require law enforcement toverify immigration status (ACLU, 2017).Shortly after the passage of H.B. 56, the citizens of Alabama began tosee that the law was causing more damage than good. Particularly, it was harmful to Alabamasagriculture industry. Due to Alabamasanti-immigration law, agriculture farmers lost a significant amount of income.Chad Smith, an Alabama tomato farmer, estimated that he would lose up to$300,000 a year due to lack of imm igrant farm workers that were in Alabama(Baxter, 2012). Additionally, the H.B.56 is tearing families apart to the point that undocumented immigrants arefacing the choice on whether to take their United States born children withthem to their country of origin, or leave them behind to allow them to have abetter future. Anti-immigration laws implemented in states have been proved not towork in both the example of Alabamas H.B. 56 and Arizonas S.B. 1070. These laws legalized racial profiling,frightened immigrant children, and damaged both states economies. Both of these laws should be either repealed,replaced or reformed with more effective laws that will not racial profile,tear families apart and deter immigrants from residing in those states and theUnited States. Petition for Lawful front man The 2016 Current Population Survey (CPS) notes that there arecurrently more than 84.3 million, or 27 percent, of immigrants living in theUnited States, which include legal, illegal and their U. S. born children ofimmigrants (Zong & Batalova, 2017). Each year, the United States admitsmore than one million legal standing(prenominal) residents (Department of motherlandSecurity, 2017). The Immigration andNationality Act (INA) authorizations American citizens and legal permanentresidents to immigrate their spouse, children (under the age of 21), or parentsto the United States. The family visa process has three main steps. The first step is for the petitioner to file anapplication. The United States citizenor legal permanent resident relative needs to file a Form I-130 Petition forAlien Relative and a Form I-485 practical application to Register indissoluble Residence orto Adjust Status with the USCIS. If theimmigrant is an immediate relative of the United States citizen, the visaprocess can move forward. However, ifthe immigrant is not an immediate relative, they will be put in the family visabacklog to wait for their priority date for visa issuance to become available.It is ofttimes thought that once an immigrantsForm I-130 is approved, the immigrant can be immediately admitted to the UnitedStates. However, that is not the case. The case of Bolvito v.Mukasey discussesthe issue that once the Form I-130 is filed and approved by the USCIS, a visais not mechanically provided and thanksgiving does not automatically grant lawfulstatus of the immigrant in the United States.Instead, the approval of the Form I-130 only marrow that the immigrant is in line to receive permission to enter the United States as long as they arenot found to be excludable under an separate immigration law. The approval of Form I-130simply means that the immigrant is free to move to the next step.When the immigrant reaches their priority date, they can then move to thesecond step. For immediate relatives,the second step comes within months after the Form I-130 is approved. The second step is to determine if theimmigrant can apply for their visa at the USCIS offices inside the United States, or a United States consulate in the immigrants country of origin. If the immigrant was lawfully admitted, they willbe able to apply for their visa at a USCIS office in the United States. If the immigrant is unlawfully present, orare not currently present in the United States, the immigrant will have toapply for their visa in their country of origin, regardless of whether they arecurrently residing in the United States. The third step is when the visa is issued to the immigrant. In order for a visa to be issued, theimmigrant must prove that they are not allowable under 8 U.S.C.A Sec. 1182. Immigration violations, crimes, mentaldisorders, unlawful presence, national security concerns, public charge, andinfectious diseases are all grounds that may bar the immigrant from the UnitedStates for a period of time. If the third step is a success, the immigrantwill be admitted to the United States as a lawful permanent resident. If the third step is not successful, thereare other hoop s that need to be jumped through before the immigrant will beadmitted into the United States.Consequently, the immigrant will be placed in the backlog for months toyears. Current Backlog Most of the legal permanent residents the United States admits eachyear are immigrants that are already residing in the United States due to theircurrent visa status or they are residing as undocumented immigrants. Nearly two-thirds of them qualify as membersof an American family that have already adjusted their status to legalpermanent residents through a family-sponsored visa or they are currentlywaiting in the backlog for their family-sponsored visa to be issued (Departmentof Homeland Security, 2017). The backlog of family-sponsored visas begins with the number of visasthat are allowed to be issued each fiscal year surpasses the amount offamily-sponsored visas being applied for.In 2015, 1,051,031 Lawful Permanent Residents were admitted to theUnited States (Department of Homeland Security, 2017). However, out of the 1,051,031 legal permanentresidents admitted, 44.03 % were immediate relatives of United States citizensand only 20.4 % of them were from the family sponsored preference categories(Department of Homeland Security, 2017).The remaining visas went to the employment based visas, refugees,diversity, asylees, and other types of visas. As of November 1, 2016, 4,259,573family-sponsored immigrants were still waiting in the backlog for their visa tobecome available (U.S. Department ofState, 2016). Pursuant to 8 U.S.C.A. 1151(c)(2009) Worldwidelevel of immigration, the worldwide level offamily-sponsored visas allowed to be given can be the maximum of 480,000 and isto be no less than 226,000 per fiscal year.The variance in the maximum amount of visas allowed and the minimumamount of visas allowed to be issued each fiscal year is due to that certainimmigrants are not subject to the worldwide numerical limitations. Under current immigration law, there iscurrently not a limit set for the amount of immigrant visas that can be givento immediate relatives of United States citizens. According to 8 U.S.C.A. 1151(b)(2) (2009),immediate relatives is defined as the children, spouses, and parents of acitizen of the United States. This meansthat spouses, children and parents of United States citizens do not have toworry about the numerical limitations and are able to get a visa issued to themright away, as long as they are not excludable.However, relativesto United States citizens and legal permanent residents who are not consideredto be an immediate relative and apply for a family-sponsored green card aresubject to the current numerical limitations of worldwide visas. These relative immigrants have to wait inline and are placed in a backlog until their place in line is ready for avisa. 8 U.S.C.A. 1151(a)(2) (2009)places the annual numerical limits allowed per nation. Currently, the total numerical limit forfamily-sponsored visas for relatives other than immedi ate relatives is 226,000per fiscal year (8 U.S.C.A. 1151(a) 2009).There is not onlyone line to wait in, there are multiple lines.The lines are divided into family-sponsored preference categories thatset limits depending on the accept relationship the petitioner has with theimmigrant, age of the immigrant, and country of residence. According to 8 U.S.C.A. 1154 (2014) Procedure for granting immigrant status, the current family-sponsoredpreferences are as follows First (F1) unmarried sons and daughters of U.S.citizens Second (F2A) spouses and children of legal permanent residents and(F2B) unmarried sons and daughters (21 years or age or older) of permanentresidents Third (F3) married sons and daughters or U.S. citizens and Fourth(F4) brothers and sisters of adult U.S. citizens (U.S. Department of State, 2017). According to 8U.S.C.A. 1152 (2000) numeral limitations on individual(a) foreign states,each country is only allowed to receive 7% of the worldwide immigrant visalevel prov ided under 8 U.S.C.A. 1151 (2009).Some countries have a higher amount of visa applicants each year. For example, China, Mexico, and thePhilippines have a higher amount of applicants each year and most familypreference categories force these visa applicants to wait two decades or moreto have their visa approved. As of April, 2017, the wait time for the firstfamily-sponsored visa preference category for Mexico was 22 years. The National Visa come to is currentlyprocessing visas for May 22, 1995 (U.S. Department of State, 2017).Due to the numerical limitation forvisas per country, visa applicants from countries with a high immigrationdemand (Mexico, China, and the Philippines) have to wait a long period of timefor their visa to become available. There arecurrently two different backlogs that family-sponsored visa applicants areplaced into while waiting for a visa to be issued to them. The first backlog is the administrativebacklog, also referred to as the processing backlog (Vaughan, 2015).The administrative backlog is given to visa applicants due to the lackof resources that are available from Congress to the specific agency handlingthe visa processing (Vaughan, 2015).Therefore, USCIS is not able to effectively direct the large volume of visaapplications that comes in each year. Theseapplicants are put in queue until resources are made available. Theadministrative backlogs could easily be eliminated if the United Statesgovernment would provide adequate resources to those agencies. The second, andmore grave backlog is the shortage of visa backlog. The shortage of visa backlog begins with theannual number of visas available to be distri just nowed each year. Due to the current visa demand being higherthan the 480,000 visas available to be issued each year pursuant to 8 U.S.C.A. 1151 (2009), family-sponsored visa applicants get placed in the backlog andhave the possibility of waiting as long as twenty years or more for their visato be issued. Congress passing aco mprehensive immigration reform that will meet the current visa demands andcut down on the current backlog, is the only solution. INA does notspecifically state that immigrants who have visa applications pending cannotvisit the United States to visit, however, in order to do so, they would haveto qualify for a non-immigrant or employment visa (Cruz, 2010). Both these visas require the immigrant tostate that they have no immigrant intent.If the immigrants fail to disclose their pending immigrant visa, theywill risk being denied into the United States.Thus, if immigrants are waiting for their visa to be issued in theircountry of origin, they typically they are not allowed to visit their family inthe United States until they become a legal permanent resident. A lot can happenwhile an immigrant waits in the backlog for their visa to be approved. If they want to reunite with their familysooner, they may enter the United States illegally. They also may choose to get married, and thena putt ing them in an even longer backlog (Cruz, 2010). Moreover, the petitioning relative or theimmigrant could die before the visa was issued.Current United States immigration laws do not account for thesecircumstances. Alejandro Bojorquez was put in the endless shortage of visa backlogwhen he was only 14 years old. At thattime, his father was a legal permanent resident. As a permanent resident, his fatherpetitioned for Alejandro and his mother to gain lawful entry to the UnitedStates through a family-sponsored visa petition on January 8, 1998 (prioritydate) (Gonzalez, 2013). Nevertheless,Alejandros backlog increased when he attained the age of 21, as the UnitedStates government automatically moved him to the F2B category for unmarriedadult children 21 years and older, and that line was much longer. In January of 2013, Alejandros father became a naturalized UnitedStates citizen, and Alejandro was again moved into another family preferencecategory. This time, Alejandro was movedinto the F 1 category for unmarried adult children 21 years and older of UnitedStates Citizens. Currently, for the FLpreference category, the National Visa Center is processing priority dates ofJune 15, 1995 (U.S. Department of State, 2017).Reform of current immigration laws is needed to eliminate loopholes likedescribed above that keep family members apart for more time than initiallyrequired. Clearly, the timely family reunification process is not working wellfor U.S. Citizens or legal permanent residents and their immediate familymembers. Currently, there are 423,373adult children over the age of 21 still waiting in line for their visa and thepriority date to come (U.S. Department of State, 2016). Forcing families to be separated from eachother for many years, while trying to gain lawful status in the United States,puts major emotional and financial strain on them. Many immigrants insure themselves facing eitherfamily reunification or keeping the life that they have set up in the UnitedSta tes. Immigration ReformImmigrants come to the United States for the promise of freedom andthe many opportunities the United States has to give. However, current immigration laws keepfamilies separated and the incoherent laws make it hard for immigrants toattain a visa. Current immigrationregulations and statutes in the United States need to be reformed on both thefederal level and the state level. TheUnited States needs a comprehensive immigration reform and a path tocitizenship for the undocumented immigrants already residing in the country. There are socialconsequences for immigrant families who are waiting in the backlog for theirvisa to become available. The unexplained time an immigrant family has to wait for their visa disruptsfamily relationships. This is due tospouses and children residing in their country of origin for an uncertainperiod of time. Children who are waitingfor their family sponsored visa are often staying with grandparents and developa sense of abandonment, wh ich results in destructive behaviors (Cruz,2010). The immigrants opportunity todevelop language, cultural, and economical ties to the United States are alsodelayed due to the undetermined wait for a visa to be issued. Therefore, many immigrants waiting in thebacklog immigrate to the United States illegally to ease these social consequences. More than 6,000 immigrant children arearrested at the Mexican/United States border each year while attempting toreunite with their parents in the United States (Cruz, 2010). Comprehensive immigration reform willeliminate the social consequences of the family visa backlog. Currently there are 11 million undocumented immigrants residing in theUnited States (Cohn &Passel, 2016). Legalizing these undocumented immigrantswould boost the economy and the federal and state tax revenue. In 2010, the United States collected 11.2 one thousand million dollars of tax revenue from undocumented immigrants. This tax revenue is beneficial to both thefederal govern ment and individual states. A comprehensive immigrationreform that would legalize the current undocumented immigrants would benefitthe United States economy and American workers. Employers need to have alegalized workforce. transaction ownersfrom farm workers to hotel workers have worker lacking immigration status. A compressive immigration reform would putall workers, Americans and immigrants, on a level playing field which would resultin increased wages. Higher wages wouldmean more consumers spending, and a huge benefit for the United Stateseconomy. The federal government wouldaccrue $4.5 billion to $5.4 billion in additional net tax revenue in threeyears if the 11 million undocumented immigrants were legalized (Hinojosa-Ojeda,2010). Immigration reform would keep families together. According to a 2011 study, more than 5,100children were in bring up care because their parents were undocumented and hadeither been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or deported(Co rtez-Neavel, 2016). ICE completedtheir own assessment in the years 2010 to 2012, which they recorded removing204,810 parents of U.S. citizen children under the age of 18 (Cortez-Neavel,2016). Removing undocumented immigrantswith United States citizen children only leaves more family on welfare. The trump administration plans to deport between two and three million undocumented workers (Cortez-Neavel, 2016). If President Trumps words hold true, the children of the undocumented immigrants being deported will either go to a relative, if one was available, or be placed in foster care. Comprehensive immigration reform that includes legalizing the undocumented immigrants is the only way to keep families together and these children out of foster care and off welfare. Reforming of current immigration laws will also createmore jobs. According to the U.S. SmallBusiness Administration (SBA), one out of every ten immigrants owns a businessand 620 out of 100,000 immigrants start a business each month (Fairlie,2012). This means that immigrants beingadmitted into the United States will be employing workers, paying(a) taxes andcontributing to the economy. Theseimmigrants will become strong members of a community and their societies. A comprehensive immigration reform thatencourages more high-skilled workers to be admitted to the United States will inflect the economy, innovate and provide workforce stability throughout thecountry. Opposition of Immigration ReformFrom look for, it appears that some Americans seem to not favor theidea of comprehensive immigration reform. Many individuals who opposeimmigration reform believe that all of the immigrants who are undocumented cansimply go back to their country and get in line for a green card (Nowrasteh, 2016). It isjust not that easy. For most of theundocumented immigrants in the United States, there is no line available tothem as they do not have a family member in the United States who can petitionfor their legal entry. Since t here is nocurrent remission in the United States and IIRIRA dismantled the grandfatheredadjustment of status, undocumented immigrants either have the choice to stay inthe United States and fear deportation, or go to a country that many do noteven know. The cost of immigration reform is a major concern ofcongress. In 2013, the HeritageFoundation stated that immigration reform was estimated to cost the UnitedStates 6.3 billion dollars from start to finish (Harris, 2013). The 6.3 billion dollars represents the totalcost of immigration reform, which includes revising the family visa process,border security, and creating a piece of ground for citizenship for the currentundocumented workers in the United States (Harris, 2013). However, that number does not even includethe Trump Administrations proposed border seawall. The Department of Homeland Security estimatedthat the proposed border wall would cost the United States 21.6 billion dollars(Ainsley, 2017). Congress needs to takeinto co nsideration the broad range of areas that the estimated cost of reformcovers when determining if it costs too much.What the estimatedcost of reform fails to represent is what comprehensive immigration reform willdo for the United States. Due to thecurrent broken family visa process, there are consequences which overturn from theinability of families being able to reunite in a timely manner. A comprehensivereform of current immigration laws will allow for many families to be put backtogether. Families lean on each other intime of need. They help each other raise the children, and help with the periodicfinances. When a family is waiting for one of their family members to beprovided with their visa, they often have to apply for state aid as they cannotafford food, childcare, housing, and their everyday bills (Vaughan, 2015). Eliminating the backlog will get families offof welfare. The Trump Administration has categorized undocumented immigrants as athreat to the American workers.Pres ident Trump claims to be on the side of American workers and he vowsto deport the undocumented workers that are taking jobs away from the whiteworking class. This argument resonateswell with the white working class supporters who are fight with poor jobs,low wages and unemployment. However, deportation of these immigrants is not theanswer for the following reasons.First, there is not any documented proof that undocumented immigrantsare taking the jobs of the white working class.Undocumented immigrants rarely compete for employment against anAmerican worker, immigrants compete against other immigrants (Nowrasteh, 2016). Second, six states that account for 40percent of the goods and services produced in the United States have thelargest amount of undocumented workers, as undocumented workers often work asfarm help, which is low wage employment (Nowrasteh, 2016). If PresidentTrump does as he has promised, there will be a shortage of farm workers and theemployers will have to offer high er pay to get new employees. The higher pay will be passed to consumers atthe super market. Those that oppose immigration reform believe that the United Statesneeds tighter border security. TheDepartment of Homeland Security and Congress should tackle the problems at theborder and they should provide Border Patrol with the means to protect theUnited States border adequately. TheTrump administration has signed executive orders directing federal agencies tobeing constructing a wall on the U.S./Mexico border and he has directed theDepartment of Homeland Security and local law enforcement to enforce the lawsof the United States strongly. PresidentTrumps words were hostile and all they did was seclude immigrant communitiesand families. The immigrants will goback to the shadows and again fear the police.The will not learn into American culture any longer as there willbe no incentive Nowrasteh, 2016). Those that oppose immigration reform believe that granting amnesty tothe 11 million undo cumented immigrants will create and encourage more illegalimmigration to the United States. Thisview is not true. Actually, recentnumbers show that the number of immigrants go through the border illegally hasdecreased (Cohn &Passel, 2016). Therefore, granting amnesty to theundocumented immigrants who currently have their life and family in the UnitedStates will in point deter future illegal immigration and keep familiestogether. Amnesty is admission of thatthe immigration laws of the past are not working and they need to bereformed. greatness of Immigration Reform to theResearcherReforming the immigration process is important to the researcher dueto the fact the researcher has been through the family visa process, stuck inthe backlog, and the researcher has saw firsthand the effects currentimmigration laws have on families. In2010, the researcher was separated from her spouse for a period of 11 monthswaiting for her maintains visa to be approved.The researcher initially had to f ile a Form I-130, Petition for AlienRelative and Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or toAdjust Status for her spouse, and because the researchers spouse was broughtthe United States as a teenager, her spouse needed to go to his country oforigin, Mexico, to complete the visa process at the United States Consulate inCiudad Juarez. The researchers husband accrued more than 180 days of unlawfulpresence. While crossing the UnitedStates/Mexico border to go to his scheduled visa appointment in Ciudad Juarez,the researchers husband immediately triggered a ten-year ban created by IIRARA96. The ten-year ban was able to be removed by filing a I-601a, provisionalunlawful presence waiver. The researcher had to prove the hardship that she would face if shewould have to live separate from her husband for ten years. The process was a difficult one for theresearcher, as she was not able to utilize legal counsel and prepared all thedocuments alone. When filing the I-601a, the Un ited States Consulatein Ciudad Juarez immediately backlogged the petition for lack of extremehardship. The researcher knows firsthand how difficultthe current immigration laws are on both immigrants and United States citizensas she has gone through them. Though there have been some decent changes to the immigration lawsthat directly affected the researcher and her family in 2010, a comprehensiveimmigration reform that eliminates that backlog and revises thefamily-sponsored visa process is still important to keep families together. Congress needs to reform the familyimmigration process to being eliminating the backlog of other family preferencecategories besides the immediate relative category. Children over 21 of U.S. Citizen or legalpermanent residents are just important. Importance of Immigration Reform to the LegalProfessionThere is noquestion that immigration reform is important to the legal profession. With immigration reform, there will beimprovements to our laws. Prior to the 20th century, there was notmuch need to immigration counsel.However, when the federal government of the United States began enactingimmigration laws and restrictions immigration lawyers evolved. With the constantly changing laws, nearly allimmigrants will need to use an immigration attorney to assist them with theincreasing amount of new restrictions that affect immigration law. Without adequate counsel, the United Statesfundamental concepts that circumvolve around fairness and equality becomedamaged. According to 8U.S.C.A. 1362 (2016). Right to counsel, Immigrants are able to secure legalcounsel in immigration proceedings, but at no expense to the Government. It is vital for immigrants to have qualityrepresentation, as the type of representation an immigrant often has determineswhether the immigrant will be able to be reunited with their family in a timelymanner, given an employment visa, or is granted asylum. Immigrants often are not fluent in theEnglish language. In order for immigrants to not be at a disadvantage in their immigration proceeding, it isnecessary to have adequate counsel. The United Statesis a nation of immigrants, however, since 9/11, immigration laws andimmigration reform has become a heated political issue, mostly due to fear. Current administration in the United Stateshas been trying to reverse many of the immigration laws that allow refuges intothe United States (The White House, 2017). Doing this has incited racism andfear throughout the United States. The Trumpadministration has tried to place bans on certain immigrant nationalities,predominantly Islamic countries, from entering the United States (The WhiteHouse, 2017). This ban presented legalchallenges, as the United States government cannot act arbitrarily with havingsupportive evidence to back up their reasoning.Immigration reform is needed to amend immigration laws to prohibit theseclusion of certain immigrants from the United States. ConclusionFor Alejandro Bojorquez, waiting for his visa priority date to be availablehas been long and difficult process.Alejandro has been waiting in the backlog because the currentimmigration laws only provide a certain amount of visas to be allocated to eachcountry. The majority of the yearlyvisas allocated to family-sponsored immigrants go to spouses, minor children,and parents of United States citizens (immediate relatives), followed byspouses and children of legal permanent residents. He has been waiting since he was 14 yearsold to be reunited with his parents. Alejandrois like millions of other family-sponsored visas applicants whose priority datekeeps getting pushed back due to the increased amount of family visas that arecurrently being applied for. Thehardship of separation is hardy and he awaits the day he gets a call from hisdad and he says yeah, you made it (Gonzalez, 2013). Alejandro Bojorquez is just one of the millions of examples ofimmigrants waiting to be reunited with their families. Current immigration laws in the United Statesneed to be updated due to the fact that they are set up to do more harm thangood. Congress needs to update thenumber of visas that allowed to be given each fiscal year, change theindividuals that are considered to immediate relatives, and create a wait timethat does not surpass five years. 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