Mark entered the United States when he was seven years old. He studied and finished high school in the United States. He was also able to enroll in one of the state universities in California. In June 2012, President Obama announced his administration’s policy called the Deferred Action to Childhood Arrivals (DACA) that will provide employment authorization to qualified young undocumented students. Mark was not too eager to apply for the immigration benefits because of uncertainty of the program should a new president be elected. He was apprehensive of losing the DACA benefits should a new president terminate the program.
Instead of applying for deferred action and employment authorization, Mark waited until after elections before deciding to apply. Now that election results are out and Obama has been re-elected, Mark is more inclined to file for benefits under DACA.
While Mark applied for benefits under DACA, there are thousands more who have put on hold their plans of filing for benefits. Mark represents many who have waited until election results are out before deciding to file. Undocumented students were not the only ones who had waited and held off their plans for availing of immigration benefits. Considering the constant threat of removal, many long time residents have instead decided to return to their homeland. Still others are hopeful that comprehensive immigration reform will be passed into law giving the more than 12 million undocumented immigrants a path to become legal residents.
Broken System
The increase in numbers of undocumented immigrants is a result of a broken immigration system. There are limited ways to legalize the stay of those who find themselves in undocumented status. Thus, the system is choked with millions of undocumented immigrants who for the most part are law-abiding and tax paying individuals who are vulnerable to mistreatment and unfair labor practices, as well as prosecution and detention.
For Filipinos, we know what the biggest problem is: the insane backlog for family petitions. It keeps families apart and forces people into extreme situations where they have to consider staying single their whole adult life; or, getting fed up and coming to America without proper visas.
The backlog also affects employment visas. The backlog for skilled workers makes it difficult for employers to attract the best and brightest from around the world, which undermines American competitiveness. The present U.S. immigration law is out of touch with 21st century economic realities. The U.S. has a large need for highly skilled professionals, and there is a shortage of US workers available to fill these positions. But Congress has kept a low cap on foreign workers. This only holds back America’s economic potential and competitive edge in the global economy. The system also only allows seasonal workers for low-skill jobs. But the need to fill these jobs is so great, that it would benefit the country if more workers were allowed to take these jobs on a permanent basis.
Top of His To Do List
In 2008, President Obama raised expectations of the immigrant community that he would pass comprehensive immigration reform. He admitted that his biggest failure is his inability to pass this law. Now that he is re-elected as President, one of his top to do list is moving forward with a comprehensive immigration reform. A top to bottom overhaul of the system is needed. There must be a legislation (1) allowing the undocumented a pathway to legal status, (2) allowing more foreign workers of all skill sets to fill the nation’s job needs, (3) eliminating the backlogs for family and employment-based petitions. Comprehensive immigration reform, in effect, will be restoring the rule of law and enhance U.S. security by creating legal channels to create a future flow of workers who are not undocumented. Enforcement policies must be adopted that cracks down on criminal activities and not on low priority undocumented individuals.
Bi-partisan Support
The failure to pass in the last four years a comprehensive immigration reform law is due to a unified opposition by the Republicans in Congress. The Latino and the Asian votes during the recent Presidential elections, however, have sent a strong message to the Republicans. If they want to broaden their base of support for the 2016 election, they cannot keep on alienating the Latino and the Asian American voters by not supporting issues important to them. This time, hopefully, in President Obama’s second term, effort to reform the immigration system will receive bi-partisan support from both parties.
(Tancinco may be reached at law@tancinco.com or at 887 7177 or 721 1963)
