US immigration policy is a mess and has been for a long time.
We make legal immigration a lengthy, cumbersome process and reward those who jump in front of the line by arriving uninvited.
Americans can easily see and readily sympathize with the plight of immigrants in our midst.
They live here and become our neighbors.
Equally desperate people, who opt to apply for legal admission and wait their turn in their home countries, remain out of sight and garner far less compassion.
A Gallup survey finds 900 million adults worldwide want to leave the land of their birth.
Of these, 160 million list America as their preferred destination.
If each of them brought just one child, we could nearly double our population overnight, mostly with people who don’t speak English and have limited education.
My own family’s experience illustrates the obstacle course of legal immigration.
During the second half of 1946, two years before I was born, my parents went to the American embassy in Budapest and registered on the admission quota list for Hungary.
Illegal immigration can be a much quicker root to the U.S. than legal immigration. Getty Images
They knew it would take years for their number to come up, but as Jews who lived through the Holocaust, they wanted an escape route if things got bad again.
In the ensuing years, Hungary became completely absorbed into Stalin’s Soviet empire and freedom disappeared, including the liberty to leave the country.
The 1956 Hungarian Revolution provided a brief window of hope — crushed by the Soviet Army.
During the turmoil, my father obtained his dossier and discovered he was deemed insufficiently loyal to the Communist Party.
After weighing the risks of staying versus leaving, my parents chose to escape for freedom.
We hiked over frozen farm fields in the dark of night, keeping a wary eye out for border guards with a well-earned reputation for brutality.
I was 8 years old.
My family next lived in crowded refugee camps for almost a year.
In November 1958, 12 years after my parents first requested permission, our number on the quota system finally came up.
Within days of our arrival in America, my father (who spoke English as well as German, French and his native Hungarian) was working as an electronics engineer.
Years later, I asked him, “Why did you wait so long? Why didn’t you just come to America like all the people who simply cross the border?”
Waiting lists for legal immigration can be decades long. REUTERS
He replied, “Who knew you could get away with that? In Europe, if you entered a country illegally, that country would promptly put you in jail and deport you back to your homeland. Then your home country would put you in prison for being disloyal.”
Today, everybody in the world seems to know you can immigrate to the United States without permission.
The number estimated to be residing here illegally already exceeds 11 million, and thousands more arrive each day.
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If my parents had come to America when they first applied, they could have left Hungary safely. They would have escaped years of Stalinist tyranny and could have started working here 12 years earlier.
Admittedly, getting a job illegally would have been more difficult, but with a history of religious persecution and credible fear of political imprisonment by a Communist dictatorship, my parents had a strong case for asylum.
They also would have qualified for amnesty a few years later.
My parents would have gained additional years to save for the down payment for their house and their retirement.
I would have been born in America with birthright citizenship.
If you want to know why people choose the illegal route for settling in the United States, look at its advantages: It gets you here much faster, you can earn American income (much higher than where most immigrants come from) while your case is pending, and our government grants forgiveness easier than permission.
As a former refugee, I have a great deal of sympathy for people seeking the freedom and opportunity America provides.
Many countries — including Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia — use a merit-based numerical system. Job skills, language proficiency, education and length of time on the list earn points.Carlos Moreno/Sipa USA
So I write about this subject with ambivalence and no rancor toward those seeking to improve their lives.
But our chaotic immigration system, favoring those who come illegally, makes no sense.
We need a more rational approach.
Many countries — including Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia — use a merit-based numerical system. Job skills, language proficiency, education and length of time on the list earn points.
A good start for the United States would be to make legal immigration easier, not have the process take so many years.
We should deport illegals faster to discourage people from arriving uninvited.
These steps would give Americans a greater say in who gets to live among us.
Andrew G. Kadar, MD, is an author in Beverly Hills.
Source link: https://nypost.com/2023/07/26/its-madness-to-reward-illegal-immigrants-over-the-law-abiding/