Thread: Long waits, onerous rules invite immigrants to break law

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/20 ... htm?csp=34

In 1989, Mohamad Abdo and his family, living in Lebanon, took their first step toward a dream of living in the USA. A relative, already here, petitioned for the family to join him.
Then they all waited. And waited and waited.

First came the inevitable delay caused by quotas that limit family immigration. Ten years passed before they even got permission to apply for visas.

Then the real frustrations started. For the next four years, they lived a paperwork nightmare as their application bounced around the immigration bureaucracy. In 2003, the Abdos finally were told they could come to the USA as permanent residents, with just one catch: Their eldest son, Raed, who was 8 years old when the process began, would have to stay behind. Because he had just turned 21, he no longer qualified to immigrate with them as a minor.

Welcome to the legal immigration system — a Byzantine world of bureaucratic bungling and unconscionable waits for those who try to play by the rules.

Unless you have a relative here, or a job waiting for you, or you're granted political asylum, there's virtually no legal way in. And if you do have a connection, you'll probably wait for a long, long time. Some people have stood on line for more than 20 years.

Small wonder so many people just skip the process and enter the country illegally, or come here on temporary visas and then stay. For all the screaming about illegal immigration, now focused on a bill in the U.S. Senate, the truth is that legal immigration is so difficult that it gives normally law-abiding people potent incentives to cheat. No immigration reform will work unless that changes.

Of those who choose the legal route, by far the largest group is people such as the Abdos, who have relatives here. At the moment, the waiting list is more than 4 million people long, allocated by country.

The Senate compromise attempts to deal with this by promising to clear the backlog within eight years. Until then, no green cards would be given to people now here illegally.

That's not entirely fair. It's still a long wait, and in the interim, immigrants here illegally could get safe harbor while those seeking legal entry wait outside. But it's at least a start. The 12 million people here illegally aren't going to be rounded up and deported in any case.

The Senate could do better, though. The bill fails to address the nonsensical age-21 glitch leaving Abdo and his family in Memphis and his now-adult son in war-torn Lebanon.

More broadly, it does nothing to help legal residents bring their children and spouses here more quickly, which is heartless. Nuclear families should be able to stay together.

An even larger question is whether the glacial immigration system is capable of trimming the backlog. The money is supposed to come later.

As Congress tries to fix the immigration mess, it needs to remember that any system of legal immigration as onerous and time-consuming as the current one is doomed to undermine respect for the law and encourage even greater levels of illegal immigration. And that people such as the Abdos, who've followed the rules, deserve fair treatment and an opportunity to realize their dreams.

This is the 'entitlement' mentality that is destroying our country. Ungrateful, they come demanding what 'their rights' to the opportunies bestowed by the 'goodie gods' of the US.
GIVE ME A BIG FAT BREAK WOULD YOU?

In 1989, Mohamad Abdo and his family, living in Lebanon, took their first step toward a dream of living in the USA.

Asuredly much of the world dreams to come here, but it's impossible, we cannot sustain all of those people. And if the present trend continues, America will no longer be a desired place because it will become another third world nation.

Good things come to those who wait!