Trump poised to reform America’s failed immigration policies

U.S. immigration policy is a joke — a bad joke that President-elect Donald Trump estimates costs our economy $113 billion per year and hurts millions, including both U.S. taxpayers and non- U.S. citizens waiting in line to come here legally.

Our next president knows we can do better...

These days, however, the U.S. immigration system incentivizes illegal immigration over lawful entry to our country. To give just one example, a record 4.4 million foreign citizens are currently on the immigrant visa waiting list, according to the U.S. State Department. The largest category – nearly one-third – are from Mexico, and 98 percent of them are sponsored by at least one family member already living in the United States. Incredibly, the average wait-time for a Mexican citizen to obtain a visa to enter the U.S. legally is now more than 18 years...

Why wait to settle here legally...?

One culprit is the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (ICRA), which gave amnesty to millions of illegal aliens who had resided in the US before 1982, while relaxing federal criminal penalties for employers who knowingly hire those who arrive later...

Various political favors and one-offs by the Obama Administration to political supporters have further boosted illegal immigration.  Some of these end-runs around Congress-enacted immigration laws are open and notorious, such as supporting self-declared “sanctuary cities.”...

... the Central American Minors program, which allows illegal aliens to bring in family members to our country from El Salvador and some other countries regardless of prior deportations or felony convictions. Never mind that 77,000 legal applicants from El Salvador, none of whom has been previously deported or convicted of felonies, are already waiting in line.

... The Center for Immigration Studies reports that the United States is currently home to more foreign-born people than any other nation on earth. In 2015, 46.6 million people living here – including an estimated 11.3 million illegal aliens – were born in other countries, up from 23.3 million in 1990...

... In 2013 — the most recent year in which data are available — one in every four criminals sentenced to federal prison in the United States was an illegal alien who, after committing at least one felony in our country, was deported but returned illegally to commit more crimes.

According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, the average criminal alien in federal custody had already been deported 3.2 times before returning to our country...

... Securing that [US - Mexico] border is just plain common sense. According to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, of the roughly million people crossing illegally each year, half say they plan to do so again if apprehended.

... Among many other recent international examples, when Israel finished its security fence along its Egyptian border in 2013, 36 people were caught trying to cross compared with 10,440 the year before...

Troy A. Eid is a Denver Attorney and was Colorado’s 40th United States Attorney, appointed by President George W. Bush, from 2006-09. He was the first Arab-American named to any U.S. Attorney position in American history.

CAIRCO Note

* As we all know, "comprehensive immigration reform" is code for amnesty for illegal aliens. We do not need it; it is not required. All that is necessary is to enforce existing immigration law, secure our borders, and make e-Verify mandatory.

CAIRCO Research

Border security and porous United States - Mexico border fence

Chain migration and family reunification

How many illegal aliens reside in the United States?