Many of the complaints about illegal immigration in Alabama center on the unwillingness of millions of immigrants to obey U.S. rules and immigrate legally. But for those aspiring to live and work in America, especially for families in Mexico, it's not a simple matter of waiting for the proper forms. Even for those with family here, it can take decades and may be near impossible to secure the paperwork to enter the United States legally.
Last year 1.38 million Mexican citizens were waiting in line for a United States work visa or an immigration visa through a family member. But there were only 26,000 visas made available for Mexico last year.
The visa cap applies evenly to each country, but Mexico has by far the longest waiting list, according to U.S. State Department figures.
Even the applications now being processed for extended family, such as the Mexico-born adult children or the siblings of now-U.S. citizens date back to late 1992 and early 1993. In other words, the waiting period to legally imigrate to the U.S. through a family member who has become a citizen is now 18 years.
Boyd Campbell, a veteran immigration lawyer in Montgomery, said basic math complicates the debate.
"The dichotomy here from my point of view is that we complain about all the people here illegally but don't provide enough visas to enable them to come here legally," Campbell said.
However, there is one exception.
There are no limits on the number of visas for immediate family of U.S. citizens. That is defined as spouses, minor children or parents. And that process takes only about a year, experts said.
'Dream Act' debate
Entering the U.S. without permission is a misdemeanor under U.S. law. It is rarely prosecuted, federal officials say, and instead treated as a civil violation that can lead to deportation.
For someone who has entered the U.S. without authorization, whether as an adult or an infant, there is generally no recourse to change their immigration status while they are here illegally. A Pew Hispanic Center study estimated in a 2010 study that 300,000 people per year illegally entered the United States, 150,000 of those Mexicans.
Campbell said a measure before Congress that could alleviate some pressure is the so-called "Dream Act." The act gives illegal immigrants who entered the U.S. at age 15 or younger a path to citizenship if they maintain good character and complete college or join the U.S. military. The measure was debated in the U.S. Senate last year but did not move forward. The bill has been reintroduced this year, and a Senate hearing was recently held on it, but no vote has been scheduled.
"There is a fundamental misunderstanding in Congress about this," Campbell said. "Some senators and congressmen believe these children are criminals, but they completely disregard the issue of capacity. They didn't have capacity to commit a crime (given their young age), and it's a misdemeanor anyway."
But U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile, has been an outspoken critic, calling the Dream Act a loophole-laden mass amnesty. He played a similar role in helping defeat a broader immigration bill in 2006 and 2007 despite support from then-President George W. Bush.
"Americans want Congress to end the lawlessness, but this bill would have us surrender to it. It is a give-up type of approach," Sessions said in December.
Tougher laws
While the legal immigration process is complex and crowded, the law enforcement landscape facing illegal immigrants is also shifting.
On one hand, state legislatures from Arizona to Georgia are pushing for tougher laws against all illegal immigration. But federal immigration officials are running a priority system that focuses on other criminal activity and employer violations.
The U.S. immigration detention system has the capacity to detain about 33,000 people at a time, and there are an estimated 10 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States.
Supporters of Alabama's new law have stressed that a lack of federal enforcement of immigration laws spurred the state to take action. The new Alabama law itself argues that the current system encourages widespread lawlessness by overlooking illegal immigration. But federal officials say the government is active.
Gillian Christensen, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said the federal government deported nearly 395,000 people last year, the highest number in history. Christensen said that figure includes more than 195,000 convicted criminals, showing a focus on "criminal aliens who are threats to public safety."
And in a ruling temporarily blocking parts of Georgia's immigration law, U.S. District Judge Thomas Thrash said Georgia's creation of new immigration charges would undermine federal authority. "The widespread belief that the federal government is doing nothing about illegal immigration is belief in a myth," Thrash wrote.
Alabama's law expands the focus of enforcement to include illegal immigrant workers, renters, and car passengers, among others.
But John Morton, director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, sent a memo last month to field office directors, special agents in charge and department attorneys that focuses on using "prosecutorial discretion" in considering apprehension, detention and removal of illegal immigrants.
Morton said the list is not a set of rights that a defendant can claim but that federal officers should consider each individual's circumstances including age, education background, military service, criminal history, ties to family and community, and responsibilities to ill, aging or disabled family members.
Isabel Rubio, executive director of the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama in Birmingham, one of the groups suing to block Alabama's immigration law, said illegal immigrants are often caught between two worlds.
"To emigrate is a very complicated process; it takes a lot of time, and it takes a lot of money," Rubio said. "Because of a close to 20-year backlog for residents of Mexico, people don't feel like they have 20 years to wait in line.
"So they choose to come to this country without permission, because their labor is needed in many of the low-wage, low-skilled jobs in our country. But because of how they entered, they have no opportunity to come out of the shadows."
Leave to meet law
The authors of Alabama's new immigration law argue that illegal immigrants are taking jobs from American citizens and creating an additional burden for law enforcement, schools and hospitals. One sponsor, Rep. Mickey Hammon, R-Decatur, has said while the law may be challenged in court, he hopes it will encourage illegal immigrants to leave the state.
Indeed, Alabama's new law is creating anxiety for a number of area families, said Joan Harris, a Huntsville immigration attorney. Harris said couples who are here illegally but have children born in the U.S. are afraid of what changes the new law might bring for their family.
Even an illegal immigrant who marries a U.S citizen, has children here and who has a clean record will have to leave the country to conform to current law, Harris said.
The citizen spouse could petition for a visa, but it would be denied based on their spouse's illegal entry. The spouse would have to leave the U.S., then petition to have the required 10-year visa ban for illegal entry lifted before he or she could return. If all goes well, that process takes at least a few months, Harris said.
Work visas are another avenue for legal immigration, but even skilled engineers and other professionals can face long waits, given the relatively low number of visas issued each year. For low-skill workers around the world, there is little chance of securing entry to the U.S.
The United States also issues guest worker visas, but those generally do not provide a path to citizenship. Harris, the immigration attorney, said work is the central issue for most illegal immigrants.
"For example, as far as Mexican nationals are concerned, I don't believe for one minute they would be here illegally if it weren't for the fact they were getting jobs here," she said. "This is what the farmers have been jumping up and down about for years, and all the other high-risk jobs. I don't believe the honest good guy would be coming here to not get work; he can stay in Mexico and not get work. They're here for a better life for them and their children. "It's not any different from any other influx of immigrants. It's just being viewed differently."
Source:
As it appeared on AL.COM
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