Why Don’t They Just Come the Legal Way?

Why don’t immigrants just come the legal way? Surely you’ve heard this question before. Maybe you’ve even asked this question. That’s OK; the U.S. immigration system is an exceedingly complex and confusing beast. I was privileged to teach recently on this troubling question. To help answer the inquiry, “Why don’t they just come the legal way?” we experienced an interactive simulation. Each person received a card describing a new identity, each of which was based on an actual case of a real person who wanted to immigrate to the U.S. Learners were challenged to figure out whether or not there was a legal way for them to immigrate to the United States, and how long it would take.

The four legal ways to immigrate (move permanently) to the U.S. are:

1.Employment Visas

• You must already have a job offer, and your employer must be willing to pay a large fee and wait a long time to get you here.
• Or you must have at least $500,000 to invest in the U.S.
• Nurses, electricians, and teachers are not considered highly skilled professionals. Nuclear physicists are.

2. Family Preference Visas

• Only immediate family members can petition for one another. Grandparents, cousins, etc. do not qualify.
• It makes a difference whether your family member is a U.S. citizen or a legal permanent resident (green card holder). Your age and marital status also make a difference.
• Wait times range from 8-19 years, by which time you may have aged out or otherwise disqualified.

3. Diversity Lottery

• Only people from certain countries that are not already well-represented in the U.S. are eligible.
• You must have at least a high school education and some professional work experience.
• You must have access to a computer and the internet.
• The application fee is $330 per person. In some countries that’s equivalent to an entire year’s wages. And your chances of winning are slim, about 1 in 270.

4. Refugee / Asylum Seeker

• A refugee is someone who has a credible fear of persecution in their home country, based on race, religion, national origin, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. Refugees have already left their home country.
• A refugee is someone who already has legal status when they come to the U.S.
• An asylum seeker is someone who fears persecution, violence, or even death threats in their home country. They arrive in the U.S. without legal status and request asylum. According to U.S. and international law, it is completely legal to arrive at the U.S. border and request asylum. It is not legal to imprison children for longer than 20 days while they await a hearing.
• More than 68 million people around the world are currently forcibly displaced from their homes. More than 25 million of those are refugees. Fewer than 1% of refugees are ever resettled to a third country. In the 1980s, the U.S. regularly welcomed as many as 200,000 refugees per year; for fiscal year 2019 the upper limit is 30,000. Last year the U.S. actually resettled about half of the total number allowed.

As we debriefed the experience of trying to find a legal way to immigrate to the U.S., certain themes emerged. Learners reported feeling stressed, frustrated, cynical, and sad. We noted the complete disconnect between what the Bible teaches about immigration or even the poem on the Statue of Liberty, and the reality of our immigration system. It was clear that people with money could easily come to our country, while people with little money, education, social capital, or other resources had no legal options. We discussed obstacles such as language barriers, basic education level, access to immigration attorneys, access to computers and the internet, transportation to embassies, and even complete lack of access to embassies for common people. Also noted was the insufficient number of visas available for low-skilled workers, not enough to support our current economy. We discussed the need for civil dialogue, securing our borders, closing the back door, and carefully opening the front door to immigrants. We even touched on economic questions of welcoming immigrants. All the research shows that immigrants are an economic benefit to the United States. Immigrants commit fewer crimes than native born, and they create jobs, hire people, and fuel innovation. Finally, we discussed the power of fear, and the way fear is being used politically. Fear is not of God; fear is from the enemy, and true love casts out fear.

While we did not solve any problems within the U.S. immigration system, we did answer the question of why people don’t just come the legal way: often times there simply is no legal way. Many thousands of others are coming the legal way—seeking asylum at our borders. Yet our government turns them away, separates families, imprisons children as well as adults, and deports the most vulnerable, the least of these brothers and sisters of Christ.

Photo Credit: Special thanks to Nate Bacon.