As the president calls for comprehensive immigration reform, including a process that would streamline legal immigration (and make it much easier for your Milwaukee immigration lawyer to help you), we’re all still waiting. Attorney General Eric Holder made it extremely clear that undocumented children are entitled to the same public education benefits as children who were born here, but other than that, we haven’t seen much progress.
So what’s been on the table?
The White House’s Immigration Proposal
The president is trying to cut through the backlog in the current family-sponsored immigration system and raising annual country caps (the number of people who can come from a particular country) to 15 percent so that families can stay together.
Additionally, more protections for vulnerable immigrants, including those filing abused spouse petitions and those who desperately need to seek asylum in the U.S. but aren’t qualified under current regulations.
The Back-and-Forth
While the president and Congress dance around the topic of immigration (while they’re at work, that is – Congress spent just 129 days working in 2013), there’s no clear solution in sight. Some people rail about the cost of changing immigrants’ status who are already in the country, while others feel that we’re not doing enough and should be doing more.
Of all the countries in the world, the U.S. has the most immigrants. We have about 45.8 million, which is more than four times the number that the next leading nation has; that’s Russia, at 11 million.
Other places ranking highest for having an immigrant population are:
- Germany (9.8 million)
- Saudi Arabia (9.1 million)
- United Arab Emirates (7.8 million)
- The United Kingdom (7.8 million)
- France (7.4 million)
- Canada (7.4 million)
The truth is that it’s not that easy for people to immigrate to the U.S. There are forms to fill out and submit to the appropriate agencies, interviews to schedule and often, long waiting periods. Because we’re all waiting for comprehensive immigration reform, many people choose to work with a Milwaukee immigration lawyer to make the process easier and more streamlined.
