Immigration Reform: Let's Focus on Merit, Not Family Reunion

Helen Raleigh
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Posted: Jul 29, 2017 12:01 AM




Close to 70% of our annual immigration visa quota is allocated to family-based immigrants. How did this happen?

The 1952 Immigration Act established a preference system to prioritize immigration applications for the first time in our nation's history. It gave first preference to applicants who had family already residing in the U.S. By the early 1960s, the call for immigration reform had gained wide support from the rebellious social culture as well as the success of the Civil Rights movement. After JFK’s assassination, the U.S. Congress took up the call for immigration reform by passing the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which is also known as the Hart–Celler Act—named after its two key sponsors, Senator Philip Hart of Michigan and Representative Emanuel Celler of New York. Senator Ted Kennedy also played a very important role. Without his support, this bill wouldn’t have passed.

The 1965 Act abolished the National Origins Formula that had been in place since 1921, and which had restricted immigration on the basis of proportion to the existing U.S. population. The Act kept the preference system introduced in the Immigration Act of 1952, which gave preference to family-reunion for relatives of U.S. citizens and permanent residents (a.k.a. green card holders), followed by employment-based immigrants, and refugees.

By the late 1960s, the influx of new immigrants from Europe had slowed down due to the post-war economic boom in Europe. Many Americans with European ancestry had already been in the U.S. for several generations by then, so there wasn’t a great need for family-reunion-based immigration. However, that was not the case for many people from Asia and Latin America. Until 1965, immigration from these regions had been restricted for more than a century. By removing the national origin quota system, the new immigration law opened the door for immigrants from these regions for the first time. Many immigrants took advantage of the family-reunion preference and sponsored their families to become legal immigrants in the United States.

Our immigration laws haven't changed much since the Immigration Act of 1965, which has had a profound impact on our nation’s demographics, culture, and politics. We continues to use the preference system set by the 1965 Act today, with family-based immigration utilizing 70% of the annual visa quota and employment-based immigrants using another 20%. In 1965, the U.S. population was 194 million, with 6% of its population, or a little less than 10 million people, as foreign-born immigrants. The Pew Research Center estimates that if we factor in the second- and third-generation offspring of immigrants, the post-1965 immigration wave has added 72 million people to the U.S. population, which is a little more than the population of France (67 million).

The overly emphasis on family reunion based immigration is problematic on three fronts. First, it’s unfair. It gives preference to blood relationships and family connections and discriminates against people who don’t have family connections, but do have knowledge, skills, and experiences and can contribute to our economy and be a productive citizen. The people our immigration system discriminates against today are the kind of people our nation has attracted since its founding. The current system also overlooks the fact that many people waiting in line for family reunion might qualify to migrate to America based on their merit but are instead stuck in the decade-long wait to be admitted on a family basis.

https://townhall.com/columnists/helenraleigh/2017/07/29/immigration-reform-lets-focus-on-merit-not-family-reunion-n2361754