First, sustained growth in immigration is essential to our economic growth. We don’t reproduce at a rate which ensures continued economic growth without immigration and despite our lack of a navigable immigration system, we are still attractive to big chunks of the world because of our economic power. If we’re dependent on immigrants, we should probably make that system manageable for immigrants.
Trump’s immigration policies were anti-legal immigration. His administration made it harder to get here legally and reduced legal immigration by hundreds of thousands of people a year. It did that through adding significant governmental review - that means significant cost in your tax dollars - for what was a negative economic return as the market of available labor shrank.
But, Trump’s additional policies aside, I’ll give you two personal stories that demonstrate how stupid our system is.
Story #1) I went to Mizzou undergrad for dual degrees in economics and political science. Also in the Econ program with me was my friend Andrick. Andrick was from an affluent family in Mexico City and had straight As and was active in research at the university. He drew interest from numerous investment banks and went on many interviews but despite his excellent resume it was impossible for him to get a job here because no company would pay to sponsor his H1B visa.
Our visa process has two avenues: temporary and permanent. The permanent visa route is more or less a lottery and limited to just roughly 140,000 people annually. And those people still must fit into specific application categories. The temporary visa route is simpler but time limited and still requires an employer to sponsor - again, time and paperwork means significant cost.
So, despite my choice to dick around in college and have fun and Andrick’s desire to do research, I was employable and he was not. He was faced with two choices, neither of which he wanted to do: 1) go back to Mexico City, or 2) pay to go to grad school and increase his expertise so he wouldn’t be applying for entry-level positions.
He chose option 2, and despite all that still ended up getting hired in an ag Econ firm and having to go back to Mexico before finally coming back to the US for a time-limited visa. Of course, every time limited visa requires a re-application for a new one. (Again, read unnecessary cost to the business as well as you, the taxpayer.)
We finished undergrad in 2013, and as of the last I spoke with him a year ago he was
still without a green card and hoping to get one this coming year.
Trump told everyone (read: lied) that he was going to make the process about ensuring America brings the best. Well, here’s a kid from an affluent family, that is US educated, fluent in English, conducted research here, and wants to be here and take jobs that wanted him, but the system tells him to leave the United States and take his talent to another country. That’s insane. That’s why roughly 50% of “illegal immigrants” are just people who came here legally and overstayed their temporary work visas.
Story #2) I have a good friend who is an Afghan War veteran. While he was there he was a Pashto interpreter and worked with Afghan men who fought for the United States against the Taliban. These Afghans were critical to the war effort providing knowledge about the area, acting as interpreters, and fighting alongside our troops. They had a special visa process to be granted green cards, but also faced additional scrutiny during the Trump era. Despite recommendations from the necessary army leadership and a clean record, my friend’s Afghan friends had their initial paperwork denied for some missing documentation. One of them even has parents who have US green cards. This is supposedly the kind of bureaucracy I’m told Republicans hate.
During the process of acquiring the additional documentation the Taliban retake Afghanistan and the country falls.
At that point, it became a race against time. The Taliban were sure to kill any Afghan fighters who fought alongside the U.S. as well as their families. One of my friend’s friends had already survived an assassination attempt a few years prior.
My friend works for the state of Missouri, has connections with the federal government, and is an expert at getting people out of hostile situations. He still had contacts in Afghanistan and spent a couple sleepless weeks on international calls and on calls with military contacts. He was successfully able to get his friends and their immediate family - wives, brother, and kids - out of Afghanistan and smuggle them into a neighboring country.
But they still faced the issue of where do they go? The obvious answer is the United States. A country they fought and were literally willing to die for. A place where people speak English, a language the men know. A place where they already have family. And a country where they already had military recommendations to get a visa from.
Well, guess what, the big awesome federal government’s immigration policies, despite all of the bullshit they went through for the United States and the fact that the United States failed exit from Afghanistan put their lives at risk, still didn’t permit them to come here.
You know who did? Canada. A country they did nothing for. The two men and their families are now there and, as of about 6 months ago, still trying to figure out a way to see their parents.
Our system is broken and encourages illegal immigration.
If you want to read about what kinds of visas are available, do that here:
Visas
