5 Things That Suck About the US Immigration System

Many people, particularly those who rattle on about how they oppose "amnesty" for the "illegals" who are destroying our country, are completely misinformed about the actual policies that our federal government directs toward immigrants. The following are just five of the many things that are fucked up about our system.

1. For purposes of gaining legal permanent resident status (commonly known as/represented by a "green card"), it doesn't matter how long you have lived in the country legally.

You would think that if someone has been admitted to the US legally -- say as a student, or as a temporary worker -- and then has worked legally, paid taxes, conducted herself as a big fat nerd, etc, then at some point she will just be able to register for permanent resident status, and eventually apply for US citizenship. Right? I mean, surely if someone has lived and worked in the US for like 15 years and has kids who were born here and are US citizens, there must be an easy process to register oneself for permanent residency.

Nope! With very limited exceptions (including: facing the imminent threat of persecution in one's home country; having earned a Nobel prize; having lived in the US continuously since January 1, nineteen-freakin-seventy-two; or possessing a million dollars to invest in a new enterprise in the US (seriously)), most people need to be sponsored in order to get a green card. And the sponsor can't just be any US citizen or US permanent resident who can vouch for your cred; it must either be your employer, who must then be willing to spend thousands of dollars and see you through the process which could potentially take more than five years; or it must be a parent, spouse, child, or, sibling (though a US permanent resident can't sponsor a sibling, nor a married offspring, and if the offspring gets married after sponsorship, it's automatically voided).

Among the estimated 11 million "illegal immigrants" are many who have been admitted legally but whose status has eventually lapsed. Without sponsorship, you have to keep extending your non-immigrant status, but do you know that even if you have held that status for years, with the same employer, the government can whimsically one day decide not to extend it? That fucking blows!

2. With few exceptions, there is a six-year limit to holding H-1B status; and there is no grace period once your status expires.

H-1B is a non-immigrant, temporary worker status for those working in "specialty occupations." Silicon Valley is flooded with such people, with a computer engineer as the classic example. Despite these workers comprising the backbone to our high-tech industries, they must either get a sponsor within their first six years, or go. What complicates things is that the companies for whom they provide services rarely actually sponsor them for the H-1B, let alone a green card. The Googles, Ciscos, and Microsofts rarely want to take on that sort of responsibility, since they have short-term, project-by-project needs and the H-1B requires a permanent employer-employee relationship -- so what ends up happening is that there is a huge string of vendors, contractors, and sub-contractors leading from to the on-paper employer to the end-client where the worker is placed. This arrangement undergoes a lot of scrutiny by the US government precisely because the employer-employee relationship is often unconvincingly established, yet there is a huge amount of room for the worker to be exploited while caught up in the mix of all these numerous and often unscrupulous middle agents just trying to make a buck off of their work. But in the end, the big companies don't care; they will find someone or other through this chain to meet their staffing needs, and the worker can just go buzz off after six years if they haven't found a sponsor! For that matter, they can buzz off if they quit or get laid off, too, since there is NO grace period whatsoever!

3. If you entered the US without inspection, even as a child, you are unable to gain legal status of any sort under current law.

No, seriously. If your parents crossed over and brought you here when you were fucking three years old, you spent every morning in elementary school reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, and you stuff yourself with fast food just like the next red-blooded American, you are still out of luck. You may not have any further ties to your home country, but there is not even a temporary, non-immigrant status waiting for you, let alone a pathway to permanent resident status or US citizenship. There is literally nothing you can do, affirmatively, to protect your right to stay in the US. You just have to stay alert on the defensive so that you can apply for some form of cancellation of removal in the event that you are placed in removal proceedings.

(The narrow exceptions to this apply to those who had the green card process started for them prior to April 30, 2001 and therefore qualify under a special provision where they can adjust status by paying a penalty; or who qualify for asylum or some other relief based on fear of persecution in the home country.)

This very idiotic glitch in our law is what necessitates passage of the DREAM Act, which would allow nerdy youth a pathway to legal permanent resident status. There is nothing to lose and much to gain from allowing people of upright character who have grown up in the US to stay here legally; yet time and again, this Act has been proposed and has failed in Congress.

4. If you are legally married to someone of the same sex, ie the marriage was legally recognized in the jurisdiction where it was performed, you cannot use that marriage as the basis for any immigration benefits.

Sorry, men, but it does matter if you love him, or capital H-i-m. Our federal government has this law called the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) on the books which defines marriage as only valid between a man and a woman -- and for immigration purposes, this federal law trumps any state law which might legally recognize it. So much for separation of church and state.

There are an estimated 36,000 binational same-sex couples who are assed out of the option for the US citizen or permanent resident to sponsor the foreign national spouse. Opposite-sex partners, on the other hand, potentially have it much better; as long as the foreign national spouse entered the US legally, even if the legal status has long-lapsed, s/he can theoretically adjust status to a permanent resident status through a bona fide marriage to a US citizen. It should be noted, though, that if the person entered without inspection, there is no affirmative way in which to adjust status within the country (unless the green card process was initiated prior to April 30, 2001).

In addition to efforts to repeal the DOMA, which even Prez O has indicated an interest toward, there have been many efforts to pass the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA), which have time and again been shot down.

5. Once you have already overstayed your legally authorized status, our laws will actually discourage you from leaving.

In 1996, the incredibly stupid Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) was passed. Among its gems were provisions which created bars from reentering the US if you overstayed your legally authorized time in the country. If you overstayed your welcome by more than 180 days but less than one year, then you will be subject to a three-year bar from reentering the country. If you overstayed by one year or more, you will be subject to a ten-year bar from reentering. These bars are triggered upon departure. One question: If your goal is to stay in the US, and you know you'll be barred from coming back once you leave, then why the hell will you leave? You are taking a gamble by staying, but you are definitely abandoning the option of being back in the US any time soon by leaving.

Speaking of the gamble you are taking by staying, let's not kid ourselves into thinking that some people -- brown and Muslim perhaps -- don't have it riskier than others, particularly in a post-9/11 world. Countless families have been torn apart because of mere visa overstays.

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Really, these points don't even scratch the surface. There is much else to be discussed with respect to who we let in and on what timeline, and how we treat the foreign nationals who do come to our country. There is especially a lot to be said with respect to the consequences of alleged criminal activity (especially "drugs!"), the concept of mandatory (and indefinite) detention, and so much more.

The fact is that most of these 11 million people are just trying to make a decent life for themselves -- and yes, it would be nice if they could find a legal way to do it, but believe it or not, there isn't always a legal way to do it. Yet, the less likelihood that there is a viable legal path, the more likelihood that the person is working his/her ass off and doing work that US workers do not want to do, under illegal conditions that US employers do not want to change. The processing of meat in your fast food burger, the bussing of the table where you ate, the picking and transporting of the strawberries you bought at the supermarket, the changing of the sheets in your last hotel, the construction of that hotel -- these all are tasks that were likely performed by "illegals" whose employment conditions had little regulatory oversight, all so you could enjoy competitive pricing, and more so, so that the CEO's of those enterprises could take home a fat buck, only to turn around and lobby Congress to crack down on illegal immigration. Our economy thrives on this bullshit, and it's really about time to call it out.