Comprehensive Immigration Reform
Many Aspects of the Immigration System Need Fixing
More than eighty guests paid close attention to every word as Professor Jennifer M. Chacón of the UCLA School of Law described the obstacles to a well-functioning national immigration system on March League Day.
The criminalization of illegal entry into our country began in 1929, and since that time there has been an increase in the number of law enforcement agents to combat persons lacking the proper documentation to remain in the United States. The budget for the Customs and Border Protection agency ballooned from $400 million in 1990 to $4.7 billion in 2013. Today, $25 billion is spent on border and internal enforcement, and yet the apprehensions along the southwest border have been declining; today they are at the level of the mid-1970s. But the number of criminal prosecutions—mostly for misdemeanors—has increased from 21,000 in 1998 to 108,000 in 2018. The annual limit for refugees and asylum seekers, once over 100,000, has been reduced to 18,000.
There is a backlog of over one million cases to come before the immigration courts, resulting in a large number of asylum seekers being held in a system of detention centers, most of which are run by private prison corporations. This is a very expensive process, and releasing the detainees until their cases could be heard in court would provide money that could be shifted to reduce the court backlog.
The new Public Charge Rule is overbroad and provides too much discretion to the immigration bureaucracy.
Only 18% of the eleven million undocumented migrants living in the United States have been here fewer than five years, while 58% have stayed ten or more years, according to the Pew Hispanic Research Foundation. President Obama instituted a program (DACA) to defer action against undocumented childhood arrivals, but President Trump intends to drop this preference; the case will be decided by the Supreme Court this term.
When asked what would be the three strongest points for immigration reform, Professor Chacón replied: first, lenient treatment for longtime residents; second, checks on the power of the enforcement bureaucracy; and third, reducing the detention of those awaiting immigration hearings and transferring that money to the courts. But in answer to another question, she did not hold out much hope for a reform bill under the present administration.
—Bob Pendleton, Co-chair, Immigration Committee
