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Lauren Merville
Expository Writing
Immigration Research Paper
2 December 2014
Immigration System
America based upon its many opportunities and rights continues to serve as a beacon
of hope for documented and undocumented workers. Every year millions of immigrants leave
their countries of origin in search of better living conditions and financial stability. However,
many of them are forced to enter into the United States illegally because of the complexity of
the Immigration System including but not limited to quotas, processing times and the cost.
The United States immigration law is extremely intricate, and there is much
misunderstanding as to how it works. Certainly, the Immigration and Naturalization Act
(INA), the organ that governs the existing immigration policy, provides for annual global
limit of 675,000 permanent immigrants, with definite exceptions for closer family
relatives (Fortino-Brown 49) but does this number satisfy the immense number of people
coming into the U.S annually.
The United States immigration policy remains as a touchstone for political
deliberations for decades and in recent times, the debate has been focused on the means of
reformation of a heavily bureaucratic process for visa application and addresses the issue of
millions of unknown immigrants already settling in the United States- especially the young
population who come along with their parents and implementing policies at local levels
without threatening public trust within the immigrant communities (Institute 62).
In order to poise the overall numbers of migrants that arrive based on family relations,
the congress formed a complex system for calculation of the family preference visas for any
year. The amount of family preference visas is calculated by subtracting from 480,000 the

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total number of instant relative visas issued the previous year and the total number of aliens
paroled into United States in the previous year (Massey 166). Any unutilized employment
preference immigrant numbers from the past year are included into this sum to determine the
number of visas which remain to be allocated through the family preference system. By the
U.S law, the number of family-based visas issued through the family preference system might
not be less than 226,000 consequently; the number of family based visas always exceeds
480,000 (Yale-Loehr 81).
Immigration is based upon the a few principles including: reunification of families,
protection of refugees, admission of migrants with skills that are valuable to the economy and
promotion of diversity. These principles are very limiting and make it difficult for immigrants
to immigrate to the U.S legally. To be admitted via the family preference system, a citizen of
the United States or LPR sponsor should petition for a specific relative (and qualify the
relationship legitimacy), qualify for the minimum requirements, and append sign to an
affidavit of support indicating that they must be financially responsible for the family
members after arriving in the United States (Fortino-Brown).
The U.S provides many ways through which immigrants with valuable skills can
come into the United States on either temporary or permanent basis. There are approximately
twenty types of visas meant for temporary nonimmigrant personnel. These include the L visas
meant for intercompany transfers, the P visas for entertainers, athletes and skilled performers,
A visas for the diplomats, R visas for the religious workers, H visas for both less and high
skilled employment, and O visas for the workers with amazing ability. Most of the temporary
worker kinds are issued to highly skilled workers as well as immigrants holding a temporary
work visa who are usually sponsored by a particular employer for a particular work
offer (Buffernstein 118). Most of the temporary Visas have a limitation too (Security 54).
The injustice that occurs here is that unskilled workers who lack the means to educate

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themselves post coming to America are left with little to no ability to migrate legally into the
U.S. Therefore, this is why immigrants chose to come into America illegally.
The executive branch and members of Congress exhort United States employers to
hire individuals possessing an American work permit, yet they do not provide the regulatory
and legal structure for this to be realistic or even possible. It remains intricate if not
unachievable, for the employers to deploy foreigners to fill the lower-skilled vacancies
legally in the United States on the long term.
There are hardly any legal avenues existing for the less skilled workers to gain entry
in United States of America, which is the main reason behind illegal migration. The H-2A
visa meant for periodic agricultural workers is under-utilized because it is considered
litigation-prone and burdensome by the growers. Employers are forced to paddle through a
regulatory jumble in order to achieve a basic understanding of its requirements. The H-2A
program is currently an unreliable mechanism for meeting labor requirements in situations
which domestic workers are absent (Yale-Loehr 97).
Employers have often exhausted the annual quota of H-2B visas for the nonagricultural workers. The H-2B visas are restricted to use by temporary workers in various
industries such as nurseries, crab fishing and resorts. The employers consider the highly
regulated visas demanding to use. According to the United States Department of Labors
Interpretation of the H-2B visa Statute, the visa cannot be utilized for permanent jobs or long
term basis, such as a maid in a hotel for a full year or for an in-home care provider.
Employers in general cannot sponsor such H-2A or H-2B workers for long-term residence
(green cards); in any case, these immigrant visas are placed in the other workers category and
are currently restricted to 5000 per year (U.S. Department of State 2010).
Most deliberations of immigration today focus on illegal immigrants as well as the
federal governments newest plan of stopping them from working in the U.S. over the

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previous two decades, the plans have been counterproductive and ineffective. After many
years of increased legislation and intensified enforcement, the official population of illegal
immigrants in the U.S. went up from 3.5 million in the year 1990 (INS 21) to nearly 11
million currently (Baker, Hoefer and Rrtina 111).
This prevailing state of affairs is ill-fated because the expanded use of temporary visas
epitomizes far and away the most efficient way to lessen illegal migration and prevent border
deaths for those looking for an economic opportunity in the United States. The hopelessness
of foreign workers to enter the U.S. legally to seek jobs in lower-skilled jobs has led to deaths
of 4000 women, men and children while trying to cross the border since 1998 (Anderson 90)
If the United States government has formulated stringent laws for employers to
employ low-skilled workers, then you might assume that it is because emphasis in United
States Immigration system is to facilitate entry for highly skilled workers. That is untrue.
A bureaucratic process, odd fees, low quotas and frequent government audits are
amongst the obstacles facing United States employers and the highly skilled foreigners they
would wish to employ. Any one person that thinks that it is easy or that the United States
employers just hire foreign professional at will has never spoken to those that have endured
the process of hiring a foreigner and sponsoring him/ her for official permanent residence in
the U.S.
The immigration processes are very complicated and highly regulated. Not only are
regulations and statutes very sophisticated, but they are auxiliary layered by enormous, and
inconsistent patchwork of a sub regulatory agency administrative and guidance practices
which are hard to find and much less to piece together to avail basis for comprehensive
advice.
An employer in quest of a skilled worker normally needs the services of an attorney
with knowledge on business immigration and must endure many steps and procedures. These

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include identification of an appropriate visa category, ascertaining that the recommended
position in the U.S. and the prospective employees educational and professional background
are consistent with the specified visa category, disclosing whether there are any factors which
affect timing of obtainability of the category ( for instance the H-1B quota), preparation of
the specific application, filling the particular application with the aid of a government agency
(usually the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, and sometimes the
Department of State in Lieu of or Department of Labor or and, USCIS), provision of response
to any request for added information provided by the government, coordination of the
process of attaining an authentic visa stamp at the United States Consulate abroad, and
ascertaining the individual is provided with the relevant information and documentation
required so as to be admitted to the U.S. by immigration officers at the port-ofentry (Buffernstein 167).
The first concern an employer must endure is whether an H-1B is available.
According the U.S. law, the maximum number of persons eligible to receive H-1B status per
year is 65000 and a 20,000 exemption from that proportion for those individuals who
received at least a masters degree from a University in the United States (Fortino-Brown).
Issuance of H-1B visas has been often exhausted before or during each of the previous eight
fiscal years, implying during that time sometimes many months at a time no one person
could be hired using a H-1B visa. In the end employers cannot rely on the visa system to hire
new skilled employees when they want, this heartens employers, if feasible to transfer
resources outside America, where they are not subjected to the vagaries of U.S. Immigration
System.
Another problem area with high skill workforce immigration is high fees. Data from
the US Citizenship and Immigration Service acquired by the National Foundation for
American Policy (NFAP 2011) indicates from FY2000 to 2011, American employers have

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incurred over $2.3 billion to the federal government for H-B1 training/scholarship fees
(approximately $1,500 per worker)( Anderson 211). In addition, a further $500 anti-fraud
fee/tax on each L-1 and H-1B Visa has cost American employers $700 million. Including
premium processing fees, visa adjudication levies, and the costs allied to the dependent
family members the total money employers incurred to hire H-1B visa holders is $4billion
since 2000 (NFAP 131).
Employers must also incur legal fees of about $ 1,800 to 2,500 for every H-1B
temporary visa, and the staff time, whilst sponsoring the individual for a green card can be
higher than $35,000 (Anderson 122). All the costs are an addition to the requirement to
remunerate the foreign national a similar amount as to comparable Americans.
Another problem is government oversight. In the previous year, United States
Citizenship and Immigration Services have performed 15,000 on site audits of employers
hiring H-1B visa holders. In FY 2009, about 27,000 employers had H-1B visa holders in
addition 26,300 hired ten or fewer foreign professionals (Anderson 210). Precisely, 18,747
employers each hired one H-1B visa holder. Seemingly it is almost impossible that thousands
of employers hiring only one H-1B visa holder are each involved in fraud. Besides, the large
employers with distinguishable household names have received more than six visits within
the previous year (Anderson 220). Instead of enforcement centered on genuine evidence of
unlawful activity, these audits are in actual fact fishing expeditions which cause companies
to incur resources and time to supply documents and answer questions instead of focusing on
competition in global markets.
Bureaucracy is another problem for the skilled foreign nationals and their prospective
American Employers. An American based Company must obtain labor justification before it
can acquire a green card for a prospective skilled foreign worker. According to regulations in
the Department of Labor the process takes several months costing up to $25,000 (Anderson

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189). It encompasses testing of the labor market to ensure that an American worker is not
available, through highly prescribed procedures, including placement of advertisements.
Essentially, the federal government forcers the employers to make fresh recruitment for the
positions already filled. In case an American worker that responds to the advertisement has
minimum qualification, then the foreign national is denied the green card. The process has
been made complex over and over that Buffernstin and Cooper (2011) book which was
published by AILA devoted about 300 pages explaining Labor Certification to fellow
practicing attorneys (Buffernstein 209).
The children and spouses of lawful permanent residents also experience lengthy waits
for legal immigration process. In the second preference (2A), the time is approximated at
three years, with even longer waits among Mexicans. The wait time for unmarried daughters
and sons of lawful permanent residents (2B) is approximately eight years for all the nations
except Mexico that has 19 years wait and Philippines with 11 years wait (Buffernstein 198).
These policy rationales formulated for elimination of family immigration categories miss the
mark under scrutiny, seeming more contravened than substantive.
In conclusion fixing problems with United States Legal immigration system does not
entail designing complicated policies or new agencies or reducing or increasing federal
spending. Generally, a lot can be accomplished through simply increasing the green card
number available for employer-sponsored immigrants and family and increasing the quotas
for temporary visas for high-skilled and low-skilled workers.
The federal agencies should abandon the practice of hiring foreign workers so arduous
that it encourages illegal immigrants, at the low end, otherwise deploying more resources
outside the U.S., at the high end. The Congress must establish a new visa with no or little
capital requirements to allow foreign-born workers and job creators to follow their American
dream and create wealth for the United States in the process.

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Citation
Anderson, S. (2010a) Death at the Border. NFAP Policy Brief (May). Arlington, Va.:
National Foundation for American Policy.

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(2010b) Regaining Americas Competitive Advantage: Making Our Immigration
System Work. Washington: U.S. Chamber of Commerce and American Council on
International Personnel.
Baker, B. C.; Rytina, N.; and Hoefer, M. (2011), Estimates of the Unauthorized
Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: January 2010.Office of Immigration
Statistics, Department of Homeland Security (February).
Buffenstein, D. (2011) Interview with author (15 July).
Buffenstein, D., and Cooper, B. (2011) Business Immigration Law &Practice.
Washington: American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Congressional Research Service (1980) Temporary Worker Programs: Background
and Issues. Washington: Library of Congress.
Fortino-Brown, S. (2007) Family-Sponsored Immigration. In G.E.Akers (ed.)
Navigating the Fundamentals of Immigration Law: Guidance and Tips for Successful
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Immigration and Naturalization Service (2001) Estimates of the Unauthorized
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Massey, D. (2005) Backfire at the Border: Why Enforcement without Legalization
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Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies.
National Foundation for American Policy (2009) Employment- Based Green Card
Projections Point to Decade Long Waits. NFAP Policy Brief (November): 115. Arlington,
Va.: National Foundation for American Policy.

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(2011) Employers Have Paid over $3 Billion in Mandatory Fees to Hire Skilled
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