preview

Comprehensive Immigration Reform And The United States

Good Essays

Comprehensive immigration reform has been a pressing issue in the United States (U.S.) for decades. Immigration reform was one of the major platforms the President used to campaign and draw an unprecedented amount of Latino support. Six years after those promises were made, Congress and the President continue to disagree about the methodology and necessary framework for such reform. Each has proposed different approaches to solving immigration. Conservatives have pushed for stricter enforcement of current immigration laws as well increased deportations without exceptions. The President and his fellow Democrats have aimed for an immigration theory that can appeal to humanitarian and economic perspectives.
Within the last decade, the focus …show more content…

To fully understand why immigration reform is such a highly contested measure, it bears analyzing current laws and previous reform attempts. Part of the reason why immigration reform has been so difficult to achieve is due to the vast number of current laws and regulations. Currently the U.S. has many different classifications for incoming immigrants and varying quotas. Incoming documented immigrants are classified in four ways: family based immigration, economic immigration, refugees and asylum seekers, and diversity immigrants. There is an annual limit of 675,000 permanent immigrants worldwide, with Congress and the President setting limits for refugee seekers (Immigration Policy Center). Family-sponsored visas are limited to 226,000 visas per year. Family immigration allows citizens and permanent residents to sponsor family members, spouses, unmarried minor children and parents, for visas, under qualifying conditions. There is also preference given to the adult children and siblings of citizens and the spouses and unmarried children of permanent residents (Immigration Policy Center). In the search for workers, the U.S. allows workers to immigrate for a temporary or permanent basis. Workers are divided into categories and the majority are for highly skilled workers, who are sponsored by an employer.
Refugees are allowed to immigrate to the U.S. based

Get Access