Immigration is a mess. ItƵs always been problematical, but in recent years, illegal immigration has run amok since no realistic comprehensive plan was ever acceptable to both Democrats and Republicans.
Millions of people from across the globe will do anything to live in the U.S. They continually arrive at our borders, sometimes legally, but mostly illegally. The legal path to citizenship is so long and convoluted that many people prefer to gamble on the illegal route. ThereƵs no chance for a quick national solution, but one small immigration problem could be resolved.
President Biden wants to Ƶparole in placeƵ 500,000 spouses of American citizens who have lived in this country for 10 or more years. They will be able to obtain a green card (which is not always green in color) that would permit them to work and would place these undocumented immigrants and 50,000 children on a track to legal residency.
This program could also speed up the visa process for legal status for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) if they have earned a college degree in this country and have a job offer related to their degree. According to the Center for American Progress (CAP), the average age of DACA youth in 1999 was seven years, and more than a third were younger than five. For a quarter of a century, these childrenƵs, teensƵ and now adultsƵ legal status has been in limbo. While most DACA individuals come from Mexico and Central America, there are also thousands from South Korea, Peru and Brazil.
Much of our nation is fed up with immigration problems and rightfully so, as many communities have been inundated with illegal immigrants. The last hope of a rational solution disappeared in 2023, when a bipartisan effort at comprehensive immigration, readied after months of planning, was aborted by Republicans when former President Trump didnƵt approve.
Back in 2013, another group of eight senators Ƶ four Republicans, including Sen. Marco Rubio from Florida, and four Democrats Ƶ produced the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act. It easily passed the Senate 68-32, but House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, made sure it died in the House.
Today, there is no quick fix for our immigration chaos. An extremely expensive border wall may stem some of the flow from Mexico, but desperate people will find other means of unlawfully entering the country, including via Canada and the California and Florida coasts. Both are already problems. We can speed up legal processing of immigrants but recognize that despite laws requiring verification of citizenship for work, many businesses are content with the current illegal pathways because it provides cheap labor.
The most recent major immigration laws, in 1986 and in 1990 to address problems of the earlier one, arenƵt working in 2024, yet the countryƵs population is aging and shrinking, so immigrants are needed, especially for the low-paying jobs Americans will not do. A rational approach is to work with undocumented immigrants who have lived here for at least a decade, are married to American citizens and are educated and employed. BidenƵs plan for this cohort could solve one small immigration problem.
Diane W. Mufson is a retired psychologist and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch Opinion page.
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