Legal Immigration Waiting List Long, Records Show

By Doug Thompson
The Morning News
ROGERS -- Mauricio Herrera's sister is on the waiting list to immigrate to the United States legally. She has waited since 1996. She still has more than five years to go, under current law.

Herrera immigrated illegally in 1984 at age 15. He is now a U.S. citizen and an attorney in Rogers. His law practice includes immigration law, and the rest of his family, including his parents, now live in the United States legally.

"There are only two ways to immigrate legally: Family or employment-based. Employment-based requires a bachelor's degree or better," Herrera said in an interview. "There are 65,000 employment-based visas issued per federal fiscal year. This year, they were issued April 1. All of them were gone in two days."

Family members wait on a list that stretches back to Jan. 1, 1985, according to the May 2007 "Visa Bulletin" from the federal government. Siblings living in the Philippines who applied for immigration on Jan. 1, 1985, are having their requests considered now.

The most recent applications being processed, according to the list, are unmarried children and spouses of legal permanent residents, who applied on April 8, 2002, whatever their national origin. Spouses of U.S. citizens get their visas faster, but still go through a process of waiting a year-and-a-half before the visas become permanent, Herrera said.

There are at least 4 million people on the list of visa applicants, said U.S. Rep. John Boozman, R-Rogers, who represents Northwest Arkansas' 3rd Congressional District.

Herrera looks at the list and sees a backlog that should be cleared. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., looks at the same list and asks whether the United States is extending the prospect of immigration to too many people.

Tancredo is the founder of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus and a candidate for president. He's a vocal opponent of President Bush's proposals to liberalize immigration law.

There are 20 million people living in the United States illegally, Tancredo said. Give them a path to citizenship and they'll take it, he said -- giving their relatives standing to apply for legal immigration.

Boozman said the estimated number of illegal immigrants living in the United States ranges from 8 million to 20 million: "Let's take the low end of that. Let's say there are 8 to 10 million. Everybody agrees that if they became citizens, the number of people who would then be eligible for legal immigration as family members under existing law would increase by at least 60 million over the next 20 years."

Herrera, Tancredo and Boozman were interviewed separately. Both Herrera and Tancredo said there is no way for an unskilled immigrant with no family who are U.S. citizens to legally get permanent residency in the United States.

Herrera got his workplace skills by going to college at night, studying computers. The company that hired him then sponsored him for permanent U.S. residency after he'd been living in the United States for years.

Herrera came to the United States after briefly being pressed into the El Salvadoran army. During that country's civil war, "two members of the government defense forces came onto the bus I was on, picked me and another boy, and said we were going with them."

"Somebody who knew me saw this and told my dad. He came and convinced the soldiers to let me go."

Herrera does not know what happened to the other boy. When Herrera and his father got back, Herrera's mother announced that he and a younger brother were going to the United States. There was no debate. Five days later, he was in Los Angeles after taking flights to Mexico City, then Tijuana.

"My sister has a bachelor's degree and is a teacher. She makes less than $500 a month," Herrera said. "Construction workers with a second-grade education make double that here."

So does Herrera resent workers cutting in line while his sister waits? "There is no line for them," Herrera said. "Twenty million people coming in illegally doesn't make her wait any longer, because they don't have a college degree or aren't related to a U.S. citizen.

"There is nothing that can make living in the United States worse," Herrera said of living in Latin America. That is what drives immigration from that region, legal and illegal, to the United States. The only way to stop it is for economic conditions to improve in Latin America. "Until you can get a decent wage in those countries, it will continue," he said. There won't be decent wages there until the corruption in Latin American governments is brought under control, he said. Until then, a legal program for temporary workers might help, he said.

"It doesn't matter how bad it is here," he said. "It is worse there."

Tancredo disagrees: "If you don't give them a job or social service benefits, what will they do?"

"For a long time, slavery was something we couldn't do anything about," Tancredo said. "Then child labor was something we couldn't do anything about. It would cost too much. This is something we could control. First, we have to have documents that are not easy to fraudulently re-create. Then we have to hold employers responsible. It's all dependent on that -- whether we are willing to go after employers in a significant way. Then you must secure your borders. I remember when that debate first started. No one would agree you could do that. The border was 2,000 miles long, and so forth. Now we know we can, we've just realized we don't have the will."

Even if theoretically possible, is such a policy practically and politically possible?

"That is an excellent question," Tancredo said. He paused. "If we don't elect a president capable of this in the next election, the game is over. If we allow citizenship and all the benefits of that to 20 million people who want to bring their families here, we'll never be able to stop the tidal wave. The message we'll be sending is, 'Just get here. Don't worry about anything else.' Twenty million people will be a huge part of the landscape, and it will be impossible to change it," referring to laws regarding immigration of family members.

"That's why I'm running, to draw attention to this issue," Tancredo said of his presidential bid. "This is for all the marbles."

http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2007/ ... egally.txt