Solutions that work a policy manual for immigration reform

Each section of this policy manual summarizes a key component of the existing immigration system, identifies its deficiencies and offers workable solutions that when applied together, will fix the totality of the broken, outdated, and inadequate system. AILA believes that for lasting and meaningful reform to take hold, these various components must be addressed in a comprehensive immigration reform package. Immigration Resources for the th Congress.

AILA Advocacy and Communications staff would appreciate the opportunity to provide further information or answer questions about either the Policy Manual or Comprehensive Immigration Reform. When Immigration Matters. Contact Us Today. Posts by popularity. Similarly, my sister and I faced the same pitfall to illegal status when we came of age. She is still trying to climb out.

Although President Obama's policy changes concerning immigrants her age give her the ability to reside here for the time being, without reform she will also be forced to leave her family.

As for me, I have lived in the United States for 12 years through an awkward patchwork of costly and ephemeral visas statuses. Every status change has been an attempt to gain at least a couple of years of transient legal standing at a time.

Now, graduating with a dual bachelor's degree in nuclear engineering and political science, my F1 student status is set to expire and I find myself against the crushing weight of the immigration system once more. It has been over four years since I have seen my brother, and not a day goes by that I do not worry about the deportation of my closest family members.

This is not something evident on my face as another nuclear engineering student at the University of Florida, but certainly the reality I live in. With immigration reform poised to hit Washington this spring, I worry that policy makers will overlook families with ambiguous legal statuses like mine.

I also fear that more families will be torn apart if a comprehensive deal is not reached. What is the answer? Neither a wall and draconian ICE raids nor claiming opposition to illegal immigration is all about racism and xenophobia is likely to provide solvency. There are two components to the problem: one is putting a stop to illegal immigration; the other is badly needed reforms to the legal immigration system. The two are intertwined because the challenges of the latter are an incentive to circumvent the law.

These cases now outnumber border crossings. When workers are here, they can also have access to information about how to become citizens or permanent residents. As mentioned above, having a difficult, expensive and even inaccessible process for even attempting to come here legally only exacerbates the problem. In addition it encourages the most desirable candidates to look elsewhere. Which brings us to The Trump administration has looked at emulating Canada, where prospective immigrants are prioritized based on merit, evaluated by a points system.

Forbes contributor Louis Woodhill commented on this nearly 4 years ago as a better alternative to S.