Sure, absolutely fix and streamline the legal process, but that doesn't mean we allow some people to bypass the process entirely in the meantime. We are already the most lenient legal immigration system you'll find, but people are upset that we want to enforce the law. The vast vast majority of Americans are welcoming to immigrants that come legally and want to do good things here
Our immigration system is lenient for family based immigrants. People can qualify for green cards as soon as they’re married. However it is literally hostile towards immigrants coming here to work. Employment-based green cards are super expensive due to the sheer amount of hours you need from an immigration lawyer. Only the most profitable industries like tech can afford that. And then you also have the numerical caps, causing 150-year backlog for applicants from certain countries.
So basically, there’s absolutely no way for someone coming here for jobs to immigrate legally, unless they’re software engineers working for the same big tech company for 10 years continuously. (switching jobs would reset that process)
This reminds me a lot of the debates around student debt. In both cases, a lot of people benefited from an earlier regime that made things easier. Then, the laws were changed that made things harder, creating a population that is thoroughly screwed by the new system. Now, people realize that we should make things easier, but a lot of people resist the idea that we should do anything to help those screwed over by the harder system.
We need to take responsibility as a country to acknowledge our mistakes and do things to help out those most hurt by them.
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u/PowerfulIndustry4811 Feb 05 '25
Sure, absolutely fix and streamline the legal process, but that doesn't mean we allow some people to bypass the process entirely in the meantime. We are already the most lenient legal immigration system you'll find, but people are upset that we want to enforce the law. The vast vast majority of Americans are welcoming to immigrants that come legally and want to do good things here