National Interests and Common Ground in the US Immigration Debate: How to Legalize the US Immigration System and Permanently Reduce Its Undocumented Population

Abstract

The conventional wisdom holds that the only point of consensus in the fractious US immigration debate is that the system is broken. Yet, the US public has consistently expressed a desire for a legal and orderly immigration system that serves compelling national interests. This paper describes how to create such a system. It focuses on the cornerstone of immigration reform, 1 the legal immigration system, 2 and addresses the widespread belief that broad reform will incentivize illegal migration and ultimately lead to another large undocumented population. The paper begins with an analysis of presidential signing statements on seminal immigration legislation over nearly a century. These statements reveal broad consensus on the interests and values that the United States seeks to advance through its immigration and refugee policies. They constitute additional common ground in the immigration debate. To serve these interests, immigration and refugee considerations must be "mainstreamed" into other policy processes. In addition, its policies will be more successful if they are seen to benefit or, at least, not to discriminate against migrant-sending states. Not surprisingly, the US immigration system does not reflect the vast, mostly unanticipated changes in the nation and the world since Congress last meaningfully reformed this system (27 years ago) and last overhauled 1 Effective legal immigration policies constitute the cornerstone of reform because, without them, the immigration enforcement system and any eventual legalization program will not be able to deliver on their promises. 2 The paper treats US refugee admissions as a form of legal immigration. The National Interests Served by US Immigration and Refugee Policies All the partisans in the immigration debate agree that US immigration and refugee policies should serve the nation's interests, begging the question: What interests? Presidential

Fixing What’s Most Broken in the US Immigration System: A Profile of the Family Members of US Citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents Mired in Multiyear Backlogs

“…Immigrant families have been under sustained pressure by US immigration laws and policies, particularly since 1996 (Kerwin 2018). The Trump administration has intensified this pressure by failing to establish meaningful enforcement priorities and by instituting border enforcement tactics that tear children from parents and seek to consign families to indefinite detention (Kerwin, Alulema, and Nicholson 2018).…”

“…In the first quarter of FY 2019, for example, USCIS processed 3,886 Record of Abandonment of Lawful Permanent Resident (I-407) forms (ibid.). However, Census data reveal that far larger numbers of legal noncitizens emigrate each year (Kerwin and Warren 2017, 318-19). Reissuing visas that have been formally abandoned and, if possible to track, those of LPRs who have emigrated without filing an I-407 would reduce backlogs without increasing family-based visa quotas.…”

“…The legislation should also advance the cutoff date for the US registry program, 13 which provides LPR status to US residents with good moral character who arrived prior to a statutorily set entry date, and who are not inadmissible on security or other grounds or ineligible for citizenship (Kerwin and Warren 2017, 322-23). The registry cutoff date, which is now January 1, 1972, has not been moved forward since the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.…”

Communities in Crisis: Interior Removals and Their Human Consequences

“…Of the nearly 11 million US undocumented residents, 1.9 million have lived in the United States for at least 20 years, 1.6 million for 15 to 19 years, and 3.1 million for 10 to 14 years (Warren and Kerwin 2015, 99). Nearly 3 million undocumented residents arrived at age 15 or younger (Kerwin and Warren 2017, 321). “When we come, we think we will be here for only two or three years. Look at me now, I have been here for more than half my life.” - Mother of three US citizen children and wife of deported immigrant…”

“… 21 Overall, the US undocumented population includes 3.9 million parents of US citizens and LPRs, and roughly four million with a close family relationship to a US citizen or LPR that qualifies them for a visas, but who languish in backlogs (Kerwin and Warren 2017, 320-21). …”