Our Immigration Laws
It goes without saying that the United States is a country of immigrants. It is. If you’re not a Native American, you or your ancestors were born somewhere else in the world.
Because of the freedoms accorded citizens and our diverse and strong economy and high living standards, people from everywhere have immigrated to the US.
Let’s be clear, however, that while current laws are ‘generous’ to the acceptance of immigrants they do not allow for ‘open’ borders. We have government agencies charged with the tasks of patrolling our borders and enforcing our laws, namely US Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) – both under the Department of Homeland Security.
There are a number of ways to enter the US legally. Here’s a synopsis of the alternatives:
- FAMILY-BASED IMMIGRATION
This is the easiest way to gain legal entry. A spouse, son or daughter, parent, brother(s) or sister(s) of citizens are eligible. So are adoptions by citizens. There is no limit on these numbers. Those relatives of non-citizens who are “lawful legal residents” can bring a spouse and any unmarried children under 21. These immigrants sometimes can sponsor non-immediate family as well.
- WORK VISAS
Employers can sponsor immigrants to work in the US temporarily. There’s also the H1b visas, granted to foreigners with needed technical skills. Currently H1b visas can be granted for 6 years but are limited to 65,000 annually to those with bachelor’s degrees or higher.
- STUDENT VISAS
There are 2 types: F visas – allowing foreigners to pursue advanced education, and M visas for nonacademic or vocational studies. F and M visas allow holders to bring their children. Both types are for a specified period of time with proof that they are able to pay all tuition and living costs during their stays, and neither are permitted to work.
- INVESTOR VISAS
Two types here: EB5 visas are granted to – and can carry permanent status – entrepreneurs with at least $900K to invest in starting a business – and holders are eligible for citizenship after 5 years; E2 visas are issued to investors will less than that required for EB5 but are coming from countries where the US has E2 treaties. An E2 visa cannot by itself lead to a green card.
- VISA (Diversity) LOTTERY
Up to 55,000 permanent visas are granted annually to immigrants from countries with less than 50,000 immigrants in the last 5 years – and no one country is allowed more than 7% of the total awarded. A computer-generated program selects the winners.
- MARRY A CITIZEN
Foreigners who marry a US citizen are granted green cards.
- ASYLUM SEEKERS
People may also show up at a U.S. port of entry and seek asylum if they can prove they have been or could be persecuted in their home country because of their race, religion, nationality, participation in a certain social group or because of their political opinions. Anyone who seeks the same protections from outside the U.S. is considered a refugee. Anyone who is illegally in the United States can also seek asylum protection.
Laws place a limit on the total number of immigrants in all categories at 675,000. However, there is no limit on asylum seekers or direct family members, ergo the number is flexible.
Visas issued to travelers and tourists are not considered immigrant visas and are not counted in the immigrant statistics.
In 2019, there were 1,031,765 legal immigrants admitted to the country. Of those 377,522 were family related – over a third of the total. I add here that total number has been over 1 million/year since 2007.
In FY 2019, 38,687 individuals were granted refugee status – 46,508 asylum status. Total annual asylum visas averaged 25,161 between FY 2007 and FY 2018.
Compare those numbers with what’s been happening recently at the southern border. In 2019 there were 1,148,024 who entered via the border checkpoints. In 2021, the year the current administration took office, 1.9 million were checked in, a record. In 2022 the number will certainly exceed that record – maybe double the well over one million processed so far through June. In 2021 people processed at the border came from over 130 countries. So, it’s not just people from the Northern Triangle.
In addition to those numbers, border patrol estimates 200 thousand plus evaded the checkpoints in the last year.
The now normal routine for an illegal immigrant at the border is to say the magic word “asylum.” They use what works. Border patrol is so overwhelmed with processing it has no time to ‘patrol.’ Most southern border immigrants now aren’t even given a deadline to show up in court for a hearing to review and rule on their claim to ‘asylum,’ and are just asked to check in with US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) when they are settled.
It’s also normal for this administration to tell us the border is closed and under control.
The truth is the border is wide open, and the numbers don’t lie. Mexican drug cartels are in more control of the border than we are. The truth is there are not 130 countries persecuting their citizens. Technically, immigrants with temporary status are not eligible for any services for free, but many are receiving government services, including health and education.
Because of that fact, few illegal immigrants file for any other official immigrant status – making those obeying the law look ludicrous.
We have little need for our immigration laws since Biden took the WH, so I guess this review of the law is mute – until we get a president (and a Congress) who takes the oath of office seriously and enforces the law.
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Have a great and prosperous week.
Hug somebody.
References:
https://abc7news.com/visa-lottery-student-work-asylum/3658889/
https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/asylum-united-states
https://www.jetpunk.com/users/quizmaster/charts/legal-immigration-to-the-united-states-by-year
https://news.yahoo.com/illegal-immigration-soars-under-biden-200400500.html
SPIDER Bites
NPR announced recently it was setting up a new “Disinformation Reporting Team.” Critics suggest the first task of such a team would be to investigate itself. The purpose of taxpayer supported NPR was/is education, not news reporting. So, why is NPR, using its 90 university-based stations, in the “news” business to begin with? It’s not like America needs it for that purpose. But apparently now NPR is going to tell us what represents ‘disinformation’ in the news. Isn’t that just wonderful? Just like the NPR news that Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation. Interesting this announcement comes on the heels of the dead-on-arrival attempt by Homeland Security to set up a “Disinformation Governance Board.”
In the House last week, a bill was introduced that would add 4 seats to the Supreme Court. Sponsors were quoted as calling the current makeup “a Supreme Court at crisis with itself and with our democracy.” They went on to say, “basic freedoms are under assault from the 6-3 conservative supermajority on the bench.” While I would presume this bill has a snowball’s chance in hell, fact is the move to expand SCOTUS is now on the record.
The Indiana mall that has a rule prohibiting people from carrying guns inside was fortunate there was a man inside with a gun who shot and killed a[nother] deranged person who started randomly shooting people – killing 3. The “hero” is being disparaged by some ‘fantasists’ who refuse to see how gun control laws don’t work?
I mentioned the under the radar, global minimum corporate tax last week.. The administration – primarily Yellen – has been working on Congress to adopt it. Once again hats off to Sen. Manchin for putting the US incorporation of the deal in limbo – at least for the time being. US multi-national companies are at the highest risk for increased taxes as we go into recession. Despite that, we should be the one where companies want to locate – not encouraging them to go elsewhere. Globalism – a myth looking for sanity.
The mayors of NYC and D.C. are publicly complaining about Texas and Arizona busing illegal immigrants to their cities – taxing their resources and abilities to provide support – room, board, and health services. Hmmm. I understand the West Wing has lots of room. And if Congress can send hundreds of billions to Ukraine, why not put more money into mass illegals?
Citizens Against Government Waste issued their 2022 Congressional Pig Book last week. In it they cite 5,138 earmarks so far this year, an increase of 1,702.8% over the 285 in FY 2021, costing $18.9B. Pork barrel spending was banned in 2007 but came back again in March 2021.
President Biden came down with COVID last week. Did he not follow he own directive to federal employees and contractors to be vaccinated or fired? Oh, he did. Well, I guess what he described as “the pandemic of the unvaccinated” is over and people can have their jobs and military careers back. Not.
Jobless claims rose last week for the first time in 8 months. Ford is laying off 800 workers so it can build EVs. “Green,” don’t you know? More jobs we’re told.
Just in time for the election, the administration is now proposing a $37B bill to support police recruitment and retention. Here we go again, local police are not a federal government responsibility, as K-12 education and a laundry list of others are not.
