America’s legal immigration system is largely based on family relations, which means that you can get into this country based on whom you know, rather than what you know. About two-thirds of legal immigrants come here because they have some relative who has already been granted legal status. Although our immigration system also grants visas to some based on their skills, such visas tend to be limited to high-tech sectors and make up a small part of our overall legal immigration.

Proponents of our family-based system argue that it encourages “family valuesâ€