Immigration Reform

Immigration reform is a constant topic for many individuals both in the legal field and outside the field. One of the reasons it is so popular is no one knows what is going to happen or when it will happen. It is ripe for speculation. Immigration reform may be a good thing or it may be a bad thing depending on what is your perspective.

For example, if you are against immigration then the REALID Act or IRAIIRA or the Patriot Act were all good things as these all made it significantly harder for aliens to immigrate to the United States. They all imposed new burdens and hurdles that must be overcome by the alien before entering the United States. At the same time an individual who likes these reforms probably did not like the amnesty that was granted back in the 1980s. A pro-immigrant individual probably liked the expansion of the Violence Against Women Act and its use for immigration, but disliked much of the reform that has occurred over the past twenty years.

It never fails to amaze me that most people seem to think that reform will make it easy for them to immigrate to the United States. There is nothing to say that immigration reform will be a beneficial thing for you, it could be the exact opposite. For all we know immigration reform may make it incredibly difficult for an individual to immigrate to the United States. With the current economy it is extremely possible that nativist or xenophobes will do everything in the their power to prevent meaningful immigration reform that will help alleviate the problems that are facing immigrants.

Until some kind of meaningful reform is actually implemented individuals will continue to wait years and potentially decades to come to the United States legally. Once this is resolved the amount of illegal immigration to the United States should decrease significantly as people no longer resort to unsavory methods to come to a better land and make a better life for themselves.