Migration policies are failing, migrants are strugling - ‘broken’ national immigration system

It's broken for DREAMers who have no way to normalize their status. It's broken for Indians on employment visas who face 12 year waits to get a green card. It's broken for asylees who get turned away at the border instead of getting an actual chance to prove their claim.

America takes in a lot of immigrants but per capita the US lags behind Canada, the UK, Australia, Norway, Sweden, and many other countries that have adopted points-based immigration systems and largely done away with arbitrary caps on the number of visas granted by country of origin.

 

The UK points-based system specifically can be kind of confusing and racist (by design) these days. Among other things, it's been criticized for potentially not allowing in a lot of highly skilled workers that the UK wants/needs. But it's arguably less racist than the American system as it stands currently.

 

True. The DREAMER problem is a problem only because of GOP hate though. There are few practical difficulties.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/mayor-adams-drops-bombshell-says-191000626.html

Mayor Adams drops bombshell, says migrant crisis will ‘destroy’ NYC
NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams predicted Wednesday night that the influx of more than 110,000 migrants will “destroy” New York City and continued his demands for the federal government to step up efforts to address what he called a “national crisis.”

From what I read only small # of migrants are put on bus by states, majority are taking bus on their own.
Many migrants have been grateful for the free transportation, because they often have little money left by the time they complete a months long trek to the U.S.-Mexico border.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/07/us/migrant-buses-texas-nyc-los-angeles.html

The Texas busing program has sent about 34,740 migrants to other states since April of 2022, enough to populate a small city. But that is a paltry subset of the hundreds of thousands who have crossed the border during that period, most of whom have probably also made their way to destinations outside Texas.

Biden to be a no-show at 9/11 ceremony in NYC amid feud with Adams over migrants
https://www.yahoo.com/news/biden-no-show-9-11-225400680.html

 

Those who take voluntary busses to support networks they know of in advance near where they must report for immigration hearings are not the busses people are complaining about.

It's when people are lured onto busses on false pretenses and trafficked across state lines to an unknown destination, arriving without any support services, that has people outraged.

 

The organizers of migrants in Central and South America lure onto caravans on false pretenses and trafficked across country lines? many conspiracy theories there.
These caravans grew larger and larger—ballooning from a few hundred migrants in early 2017 to thousands in 2018—Pueblo Sin Fronteras never once promised money or asylum to anyone did realize they were dealing with something bigger than they could control. Who’s mobilizing the new wave of caravans? Migrants don't know who’s organizing the very caravan they joined.
Border Patrol agents report that when they apprehend these people at the border, the kids look malnourished and the adults look haggard, as though they’ve survived famine and war. Many need immediate medical attention. Migration born out of desperation, street smarts, news from relatives or friends who have relatives in US and incomplete information about U.S. border laws in search of greener pastures or running from disasters, poverty, and bullies.

 

Since they and Ron DeSantis did the same thing, they're both human trafickers.

 

Human trafficking, also known as trafficking in persons, is a crime that involves compelling or coercing a person to provide labor or services, or to engage in commercial sex acts.
The coercion can be subtle or overt, physical or psychological.
Exploitation of a minor for commercial sex is human trafficking, regardless of whether any form of force, fraud, or coercion was used.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/federal-judge-again-declares-daca-223400635.html
Federal judge again declares that DACA is illegal with issue likely to be decided by Supreme Court.

Congress could have solved this long time ago by creating qualifications for permanent status in the Dream Act to include having lived in the U.S. for a certain length of time and meeting certain educational, vocational work or military service requirements.

 

Any sentence that starts with "Congress could" should really say "Republicans won't."

The Party of No does not pass laws they want, only focus on Democratic ones they don't.

 

From 2013 to 2019 Democrats had majority in Congress and from 2015 to 2019 Democrats had majority in both houses the Congress and the Senate.

 

Democrats need a majority in both halves of Congress (the House and the Senate) to do anything because Republicans long abandoned the idea of bipartisanship.

https://www.newsweek.com/mitch-mcconnell-grim-reaper-395-house-bills-senate-wont-pass-1487401

From 2013-2015: House was Republican, Senate was Democratic
From 2015-2017: House and Senate was Republican
From 2017-2019: House and Republican was Republican
From 2019-2021: Senate was Republican and House was Democratic

The last time the Democrats had a majority they could do something with was 2009 and they passed the Fair Pay Act, the TARP Act, the Affordable Care Act, and numerous other pieces of consequential legislation.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/liberals-mugged-reality-migration-170500713.html

 

Would the country be better off if (a) all undocumented aliens received amnesty and legal status, or (b) we actually rounded them all up and deported them to their home countries?

 

I think amnesty is overdue, should it come with better control of borders and improvement of migration apparatus?

 

Something like DACA but backed up by legislation would be nice. The migration apparatus does need major improvements. That too would require legislation. Immigrants need to be put to work sooner rather than later. They want to earn their way. Let them get jobs and start building their American dreams. The little experiment in Florida doesn't seem to be going too well. They are having trouble finding folks to help clean up and rebuild after the hurricane, at least that was what was stated in one article that I read.

 

It took me 8 months to get a work permit after I landed on my K1 visa. If you're here on an H1B visa your spouse doesn't automatically have a work permit. There's some kind of weird protectionism in place where the US deliberately wants to make it hard for immigrants to seek employment.

 

Some are concerned about taking jobs away from American workers. That is where I assume those kind of policies come from. Governments can make some big stupid mistakes sometimes. Immigration is an important reason that the USA has become such a strong vibrant economy. Still many here, especially in the Republican party, do not recognize or appreciate the importance of immigration.

Another example of a really screwed up policy was the one child policy in China. Their economy is sufferings for it and it will only get worse when the older generation starts retiring and there isn't sufficient population in the younger generation to support the older retired generation. China doesn't really have much immigration so that can't help them although it will help us in the USA with a similar issue.

 

That's exactly it.

The government won't approve an employer to hire someone on an H1B visa until it is demonstrated that a US resident cannot be found for the position. In reality, they don't get turned down a lot.

Trump uses H1B labor almost entirely, especially the low-skill jobs. You would think that would be hard to prove. He might need to now, given the tight labor market. But he did it when unemployment was high, too, as a way of paying lower wages.

China's population is actually dropping. The one-child policy has made it impossible for many urban men to find wives. Thus, many are headed back to the villages where the policy was ignored more frequently and the numbers are better for them. This, in turn, hurts their economy because it takes skilled workers right out of it.

 

Migration to gain asylum is a global/international problem, but countries seem to have to manage it on their own. It needs international/global solutions, and until that happens, thousands more will drown in the Mediterranean, the Rio Grande, the Caribbean. Others will freeze to death in refrigerated trucks or bake to death in unrefrigerated trailers launched by human traffickers. Citizens will be angered about having the schools, sidewalks, parks, and other resources supported by their taxes go to care for hordes of asylum seekers who just show up--or who are bused in as a stunt from another region. The fact that these same citizens care about the welfare of the asylum seekers does not negate their anger over the use/misuse of their local resources.

A person in such dire straits that they flee their own homeland under fear of their lives would be glad to receive sanctuary anywhere that is safe. Kenya, Estonia, Costa Rica, Vietnam--there are more than 200 nations in the world; surely there are some (besides the usual Western Europe and USA destinations) where Venezuelan, Syrian, Ukrainian, Haitian, and others who have to flee their countries can have asylum.

Global problems require global solutions. Without such, they will get worse.