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Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio is retired bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y.

By Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio Catholic News Service Posted April 1, 2022

Can our broken immigration system be reformed? I believe it can be to meet our nations labor, family reunification and humanitarian goals, and it can be done on the basis of sound information.

America has been the land of immigrants. The Statue of Liberty and the poem, The New Colossus, by Emma Lazarus, have been symbols of our nation. Unfortunately, the golden door, referenced in Lazarus poem, has always been closed to many. Reform of the immigration system must be done on the basis of national interest and not prejudices.

Looking at the past 100 years, we see three periods. The 1920s had a national quota system excluding many Southern and Eastern Europeans, as well as Asians. 1965 saw the reform of that prejudicial law, which improved things.

1980 to 1990 saw the passing of the Refugee Act of 1980, which put the U.S. in conformity with the international laws on refugee acceptance. In 1986, the Immigration Reform and Control Act legalized almost 3 million people.

In 1996, concerns over continued undocumented immigration gave rise to new restrictive laws. Since 1996, more restrictive laws and policies were passed, with immigration increasingly framed as a national security issue.

Immigration policies should meet national needs. Unfortunately, these policies have been politicized. An evidence-based system should guide the political process and can bring about a just and fair system.

One challenge is the regulation of undocumented people. This population is misunderstood and often demonized. The majority, however, have sought to build a secure life and contribute to their communities. Since 2010, the number of undocumented immigrants has been decreasing.

Unregulated immigration is not good for the country or for those without status who are excluded from full participation in our nation. As we look at reform, we must distinguish between different types of migrants and expand legal pathways for labor and family migration, as well as refugees, those seeking asylum and other humanitarian flows.

Reform must begin by dealing with those without status, and any reform must be flexible and continuous. Immigration reform deals with the lives of people and our national identity. We cannot revisit reform every 10 or 20 years.

A major contributing factor of the undocumented population is the backlog in the family-based visa system, which can stretch for decades. Many people, tired of waiting for long periods of time, come to join their families rather than stay abroad. Also, having a functional asylum system is critical because of the turmoil in Central America and other countries.

There are many children who have been brought here by their parents. These native-English speakers are well-integrated and deserve a chance to be educated and contribute to our nation.

We must learn from both our past mistakes and successes. In the Immigration Reform and Control Act process, 300,000undocumented residents were not able to legalize. Legalization must be complete and meet the needs of all people in the U.S.

There is another older section of the immigration law that has been in effect since 1929, called registry. This provision allows people who arrived before a certain date to obtain status and eventually citizenship. In 1929, the entry date for registry was 1921. If immigrants had good moral character and had resided in the country since 1921, they could apply for permanent status.

This program recognized the equitable ties developed in the U.S. over a long period of residence. It has allowed many who have owned homes, started businesses and had American-born children to remain.

Congress last advanced the registry cutoff date in 1986 when it moved the date forward to Jan. 1, 1972. In order to use the registry program today, an immigrant would need to have lived in the U.S. for more than 50 years.

By changing this date to Jan. 1, 2012, Congress would be able to legalize the majority of the undocumented population. In addition to changing the registry date one time, Congress should allow this date to advance automatically into perpetuity.

This would prevent our nation from having long-term undocumented immigrants and one way to put the U.S. on the road to having an immigration system that is truly in the national interest.

***

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio is retired bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y. He writes the column Walking With Migrants for CatholicNewsService and The Tablet.

Originally posted here:
Reforming immigration for the national interest Catholic Philly - CatholicPhilly.com

This type of policy is exactly what we need to move forward. While state lawmakers continue working to tap into the states immigrant and refugee communities, it is also the responsibility of our representatives in Washington to move immigration reform that recognizes the substantial role that immigrants play in our states economic success. Recently, the president of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce highlighted the importance of retaining and recruiting a robust workforce to build back Georgias economy and that federal immigration reform is necessary to achieve these goals.

Today, one in eight Georgia workers is an immigrant, making up 13 percent of our total labor force and filling roles in industries ranging from farming and agriculture, manufacturing, food services, and health care, all of which are strained by the statewide labor shortage. Further, undocumented immigrants contribute $7.1 billion to Georgias economy annually, and over two-thirds have lived in the U.S. for more than 10 years. Beyond the fact that establishing an earned pathway to citizenship could add $149 billion to Georgias economy annually, our workforce would get the boost it needs.

Immigration reform can change lives as well as the trajectory of our economy. I applaud the ongoing efforts at the state level and urge Congress to take action at the federal level to modernize our broken system and ensure we bounce back stronger than ever. Lawmakers in Washington have the opportunity to pursue bills such as the Dream Act, Farm Workforce Modernization Act, and Bipartisan Border Solutions Act that would improve the legal immigration system, protect dreamers and essential workers, empower doctors and nurses, and protect the border. I encourage our leaders to work together and explore all opportunities for necessary and critical reforms to jumpstart the states workforce.

David Casas is director of grassroots operations, The Libre Initiative Georgia. He is a former Republican member of the Georgia House of Representatives from Gwinnett County.

Read more here:
Opinion: Georgia must explore immigration reform to keep workforce, economy growing - The Atlanta Journal Constitution

Immigration is woven into the fabric of American society. Its also complex, politically polarized and ever-evolving. This six-part, self-directed course will give journalists a thorough understanding of immigration and immigrants in the United States, as well as the skills and resources to produce strong, accurate storytelling.

Through readings and activities, you will evaluate and contextualize existing immigration research and the latest U.S. census data about immigrants. You will explore immigration enforcement practices, legal immigration processes, the policy positions of advocacy organizations, as well as the status of existing proposals and pending legislation for immigration reform. You will also learn key context for contemporary debates by reviewing the history of immigration laws and reform efforts from the first immigration law in 1790 which granted citizenship only to free white persons to the present day.

In addition to developing a foundational knowledge about immigration in the U.S., you will analyze examples of effective journalism and fact checks about immigration to hone your own story ideas, whether its quick turn-a-around articles to more extensive investigations.

You will think about how to get to know your local immigrant communities in their complexity Latino, Asian, Middle Eastern, European, African and how to approach them as a journalist. You will also develop strategies to obtain information and interviews from immigration officials, how to gain access to detention facilities, and persons in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

Whether youre looking to diversify your sources, tell more nuanced stories about your community, uncouple political rhetoric from policy proposals or simply level up as a well-rounded reporter, this immigration course is for you.

If you need assistance, email us at info@poynter.org.

People working in journalism who cover immigration, immigrant communities, labor, agriculture, government, education and more will benefit from this training. Anyone who wants to learn more about how immigration works in the United States is also welcome to enroll.

This self-directed course is free, thanks to the support of our sponsor, Catena Foundation.

See the rest here:
Understand US Immigration From the Border to the Heartland (2022) - Poynter

-> This article is part of Documenteds Glossary. We want to make it easier to understand the U.S. immigration system. If you want to know more about different visa types and immigration terms,please check our library here.-> To find useful information for immigrants, such as where to find free food or legal representation, check out ourmaster resource guide.

Also known as the McCarran-Walter Act, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (INA) was intended to reform immigration laws that had for a long time harmed U.S. international relations due to the quota and preference system introduced in the Immigration Act of 1924. However, rather than to fix the controversial policies that favored northern and western European countries, the INA reinforced them by upholding and codifying the national origins quota system.

Under the National Origins Quota System, annual immigration was capped at one-sixth of one percent of each nationalitys population in the United States in 1920, which resulted in 85% of the 155,000 available visas going to individuals of northern and western Europe.

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INA also removed previous laws that prevented Asians from immigrating and naturalizing. But it also imposed a 100-visa annual limit for every Asian country and created a quota system based on race, rather than nationality, in which an individual with one or more Asian parent, born anywhere in the world and possessing the citizenship of any nation, would be counted toward the national quota of the Asian nation of their race.

The low quota allotment and the discriminatory racial construction for how to apply ensured total Asian immigration remained very low.

Additionally, the Immigration and Nationality Act initiated significant reforms seen in later immigration acts that prioritized immigration by skill workers and family reunification.

Also read: IIRIRA: Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, explained

Read more:
How the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 Upheld Controversial Immigration Quotas - Documented - Documented NY

They keep coming. The numbers are climbing with no end in sight, claims an ominous voice over images of migrants crowded at the southwestern U.S. border. The implication of the 30-second spot sponsored by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which lobbies for lower immigration, is that the mass migration of people across borders is inevitable. On that point, even many immigration advocates agree. Only their interpretation is different: If large-scale population movement is inevitable, they argue, the receiving countriesand especially wealthy liberal democracies such as the United Statesneed fairer, more humane systems for processing people as they arrive.

The widespread assumption that immigration is inevitable shapes public discourse in other ways. To light a fire under Western governments only sluggishly moving to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, climate activists have cited a looming migration of people from countries prone to floods, fires, extreme storms, and desertification. Supporters of an internationalist foreign policy paint the many Ukrainians streaming across Europes borders so close on the heels of the 2015 influx of Syrian refugees as evidence of a foreordained future, in which those displaced by a surge in conflict will force open Europes doors.

But as I explain in my new book, 8 Billion and Counting: How Sex, Death, and Migration Shape Our World, this rhetoric does not match reality. It has, however, distorted the politics of the U.S. and other wealthy nations by galvanizing anti-immigrant forces while lulling progressives into complacency. In practice, national governments can and do exercise considerable control over how many people cross their borders. People fleeing conflict, displaced by environmental changes, or just hoping for a better life may try to come to liberal democracies. But those states dont have to take themand probably wont, unless immigration advocates convince the general public that an influx of newcomers is desirable rather than inevitable.

From the May 2021 issue: America never wanted the tired, poor, huddled masses

Even after Donald Trump, who pursued a zero tolerance immigration policy, left office, the U.S. has continued his restrictive approach using a policy known as Title 42, which, since March 2020, has allowed the U.S. to remove people who were recently in a country where a communicable disease was present. Critics see this as a border-enforcement mechanism masquerading as a COVID-19 measure; under first a Republican administration and then a Democratic one, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has used it to expel more than 1.7 million would-be immigrants and asylum seekers along the southwestern U.S. border. (Yesterday, the Biden administration floated the idea of lifting Title 42 in late May.)

Contrast recent American gatekeeping at the Mexican border with Colombias more welcoming response to the mass displacement of people from Venezuela, its economically and politically troubled neighbor. Colombian President Ivn Duque recently offered 10-year residency permits to nearly 1 million Venezuelans living in Colombia.

In Europe as in the Americas, individual nations differ significantly in their willingness to admit migrants. More than 1.1 million people applied for asylum in European Union countries in 2016. Although 61 percent of cases received a positive decision overalllargely driven by Germany, which issued approvals in 69 percent of its 631,000 casesFrance approved only 33 percent, the United Kingdom (then an EU member) 32 percent of cases, and Greece just 24 percent. But the welcome mat can just as easily be rolled up as rolled out. As citizens in many European democracies soured on immigration in the second half of the 2010s, even Germany denied more than 50 percent of first-time applicants in 2020.

The initial European response to Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion has been generous. But just a month into the brutal conflict, officials in Moldova, Ukraines smallest neighbor, are already saying that refugees are putting their country under strain. Past experience elsewhere in the world suggests that host nations resolve to support a huge exodus may not last as long as the crisis will.

Predictions of future human mobilityvoluntary and forcedfrequently focus on the dozens of push factors, such as crime and poor job prospects, that could drive people from their home country. The pressures that create emigration will continue in the future. Changing climates will make earning a living difficult for many people, and natural disasters will render some currently populated areas dangerous or even uninhabitable. The global retreat of democracy could yield more civil conflict and an increase in forced-displacement trends. But even if emigration from a troubled country is inevitable, immigration to a wealthy, peaceful one is far from it. Liberal democracies will not open their borders enough to accept all those seeking refuge.

Similarly, the pull factors that make a country attractive to migrants do not guarantee their legal entry. As Americas population ages, unless it can boost its fertility rate (which isnt looking likely), the country will have to either accept more immigrants to supplement native-born workers or else face the consequences of a shrinking labor force. Experts have made the same argument in Japan, where low fertility would seem to have made immigration an economic necessity. But Japanese voters and public officials continue to resist proposals to invite migrants from elsewhere in Asia. Although Japan has the worlds oldest population, immigrants make up only about 2 percent of its residents, and the country imposes significant institutional barriers to discourage immigrants from settling permanently.

Sovereign nations, for reasons of their own, can and do enact restrictive immigration policies even when doing so is not in their best economic interest. Domestic political concernsincluding those in response to fears of ethnic changecan prop up anti-immigration laws indefinitely. I have previously argued that, far from trying to keep immigrants out, the United States should build a wall to keep them in.

Perpetuating the narrative of inevitable immigration has consequences for a countrys politics. Demographic analysis frequently suffers from what psychologists call desirability biasthe data appear to show exactly what the observer wishes to be true. For those who wish to welcome migrantsor who stand to benefit politically from demographic changethe presumption that the flow will always continue may breed inaction and complacency.

Read: The nativists won in Europe

In the U.S., that presumption made the Democratic Party overly confident about its long-term electoral prospects. Many Democrats came to believe that long-term demographic trends would inexorably produce a Democratic majority, Elaine Kamarck and William Galstonboth policy experts who served in the Clinton administrationargued in The Wall Street Journal in February. The expectation was that decades of robust immigration from Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region would steadily increase the diversity of the U.S. population. As these Americans entered the electorate, they would join forces with other people of colorespecially African-Americans and Native Americansto strengthen support for the Democratic Party.

But voters political affiliations are not fixed. Although people of color make up a growing share of younger voters, many Hispanic voters of all ages are shifting to the Republican Party, seemingly out of frustration with the Democratic platform or party norms that seem divorced from their values on a variety of issues, including immigration.

Of course, the narrative of inevitable immigration can also increase some voters resolve to keep would-be newcomers out. Governments respond to those pressures. Many democratic countries have used extreme measures to deter would-be asylum seekers from crossing into their borders. Australia has created offshore processing centers that prevent migrants from ever setting foot on the countrys soil; the U.S. has followed a Remain in Mexico policy to keep Central American migrants at bay; and the EU criminalized rescues at sea in 2017. In lieu of permanently settling refugees, Denmark chose to issue temporary residency permits in many cases, a move supported by politicians on both the right and the left. And now that many Danes are ready for those Syrians to leave, Denmark has instituted a plethora of policies designed to force them to return home, including a jewelry bill entitling the Danish government to seize asylum-seekers assets to build the countrys funds.

Immigration advocates, including those in the private sector who are hoping that immigrants will fill skills gaps, need to push for legal changes to increase immigration, rather than simply assuming that immigration will happen no matter what.

This piece is adapted from Sciubbas recent book, 8 Billion and Counting: How Sex, Death, and Migration Shape Our World.

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The Mistaken Assumption That Immigration Is Inevitable - The Atlantic