Immigration Reform Bill Needs to Address Visa Backlog.

One of the largest problems with our current immigration law system is that U.S. Citizens and legal residents often have to wait several years before they can be united with their family. For example, currently if you are a U.S. Citizen and you want to petition for your unmarried adult son or daughter the current waiting period is 6 years for most countries. However, in the case of the Philippines and Mexico the waiting period is 15 years or more. Using another example, if you are a lawful permanent resident and you file an immigrant visa petition for your spouse or child the wait will be 5 years or more. A U.S. Citizen filing an immigrant visa petition for his or her brother or sister will have to wait 20 years. (To see an entire list of all of the current waiting times visit the Department of State website and check the visa bulletin.)

In a recent article in the Washington Post, Mark Krikorian, the Executive Director for the Center for Immigration Studies, argued that family members of lawful permanent residents should have no rights to immigrate to the U.S. Krikorian believes that this "right" should only be granted to U.S. Citizens. One must wonder what he and his colleagues study at the Center for Immigration Studies. It makes no sense to even offer foreign nationals lawful permanent residency if we are not willing to allow these people to bring their family members along. What kind of insensitive immigration policy would require our new immigrants to be separated from their families for 5 years or more in order to earn a place in our society? The answer is clear. The type of immigration policy advocated by Mr. Krikorian is one that all but eliminates immigration to this country.

The stance of Mr. Krikorian and his organization is not secret. According to Mr. Krikorian our current immigration systems is essentially a "permanent rolling amnesty for illegal aliens." This is especially a problem, according to Mr. Krikorian, because all illegal immigrants are uneducated and have many children. The debate on immigration reform is filled with people like Mr. Krikorian who attempt to camouflage their discriminatory and anti-immigrant policies by organizing some bogus group and giving it a name that sounds academic.

Mr. Krikorian and everyone else who desires to participate in this public debate about what should be done about our immigration system are entitled to their opinion. However, this debate would be much less complicated if Mr. Krikorian and his fellow anti-immigration contingent had the courage to stand up and say what they really mean rather than hiding behind bogus arguments and organizations.

With respect to those people who have been granted lawful permanent resident status in this country or earned citizenship, we have made a commitment to them and we need to follow through. The visa backlog needs to be addressed.