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A few weeks ago, my life irrevocably changed forever when I received my green card and became a legal permanent resident of the United States. The transition from a non-resident alien to an official resident was fraught with challenges, and involved an incredible amount of hard work. The stressful load of our uncertain legal status fell apart the minute my family received our green cards, and we could not help but feel a weird mixture of disbelief and happiness.

As immigrants from one of the most populous countries in the world, I knew that our path to citizenship would take a long time. Despite being the second largest immigrant group in the United States, Indian immigrants are less likely to have naturalized citizenship than other immigrants.This can be attributed to the quota system adopted by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that prevents more than 7 percent of visas in a particular category from being granted to people from any onecountry. Unfortunately, this creates a uniquely unjust system that equalizes quotas from countries as small as Monaco to countries that are basically continents, such as China or India.

Furthermore, immigration laws have abysmal implementation rates, as evidenced by the nearly five million people waiting in the green card application backlog.It is estimated to take decades to process all their papers, and there are 675,000 applicants who will die before receiving a stable legal status in the United States. Additionally, USCIS classifies immigrants based on their employment preference categories, in other words, their skill and education levels. As my mother is classified as a highly educated and highly skilled worker, my family managed to file our green card application in the EB1 category (priority workers), thus allowing us to receive legal resident status in two years.This is not the norm for the average Indian immigrant who is expected to wait nearly fifty years before they achieve stability and safety in this country.

To add insult to injury, an average green card application costs nearly $2,000 per person, which can round out to $10,000 for a family of four.Spending that much money on an application that has between a 6 to 50% chance of getting rejected is a financially challenging prospect, especially for low and middle income earners. While a green card is in processing, immigrants are also discouraged from traveling abroad, on the off-chance that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection decides to deport them upon their return to a U.S. airport. This meant that while my friends were getting excited for their fall semester, I was getting stressed out about my impending trip to Scotland for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, and the overwhelming fear that I would get deported to India upon my arrival in JFK. With the help of my local Congresswoman Jahana Hayes, I was preparing an official petition to the federal government when my family received a notification that our green cards were ready.

The immigration system is more than just a simple dichotomy between maintaining law and order versus welcoming immigrants from all backgrounds. Other variables play a role, especially the legal system which is convoluted and vague, while also exhibiting cruel and arbitrary enforcement. An advisor from the International Student & Scholar Services recounted the experience of one international student at UConn on an F1 visa, who was arrested because his roommate covered up the smoke detector in their room. While this might seem like a simple misdemeanor, a black mark on the students records can mar his immigration prospects for life. Legal immigrants in college are also prohibited from partaking in internships, paid or unpaid, and are often limited from working for more than twenty hours a week and can be deported if they do so.

Predictably, while legalimmigratonbrings its own plethora of problems to the table, illegal immigrants suffer far more at the hands of our legal code.An infamous story that details the cruelty of the immigration system is the tale of ten-year old Rosa Maria Hernandez who crossed the national border to go to a hospital in Texas for emergency gallbladder surgery when she was arrested by ICE agents two days after her recovery. Stories like this advance the widespread publicity of the troubles of illegal immigrants, and can help build empathy for their struggles.

However, the radio silence on the issues of legal immigrants prevents the average Joe from truly understanding the difficulty of incentivizing illegal aliens to come into this country legally, when the legal side of the immigration coin is equally messy and unjust.The visual roadmap in this article details just how convoluted legal immigration can be and imagine adding to this the incredible stress of waiting for confirmation from a centralized federal government that seems like a disconnected, slow-moving and inhumane system.That is the reality of the immigration process a cruel, never ending waiting game for the illusory stability of permanent residence.

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Green Cards and Legal Immigration: A cruel waiting game - UConn Daily Campus

VAN

The European Union intends to strengthen cooperation with Turkey on the issues of irregular migration and border security, the head of the EU Delegation to Turkey, has said.

Speaking at a news conference in the eastern Turkish province of Van, Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut told how in recent years the EU provided support worth over 350 million, adding that the bloc is ready to maintain cooperation and support on the issue.

He said the EU is closely following developments in Afghanistan, especially immigration and security, after the Taliban formed an interim government last week.

After hearing about the difficulties that Turkey faces on the Iranian border where Afghan migrants are likely to try to cross, Meyer-Landrut said such difficulties are shared by Turkey, the region, and Europe, as well as the rest of the world.

The European Council will quadruple its humanitarian aid for the Afghan public to 200 million by the end of 2020, as discussed at a U.N. conference in Geneva on Monday aiming to raise more money for growing humanitarian needs in Afghanistan.

Meyer-Landrut said the EU joins Turkey in its aim to support the countries neighboring Afghanistan to provide asylum for Afghan refugees and ensure their safety.

While Turkey and the EU agree on ways to manage immigration and borders, the issue gained further importance on the countrys eastern border with recent developments, he added.

Underlining that the EU intends to prevent illegal immigration, Meyer-Landrut said the bloc also wants to increase and strengthen the capacity for immigration management and prevent human trafficking plus the smuggling of drugs and arms as well.

Concerns have risen over a possible spike in migrants from Afghanistan due to the United States pullout from the country after two decades.

Turkey hosts nearly 5 million refugees, more than any country in the world.

After the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011, Turkey adopted an open-door policy for people fleeing the conflict, granting them temporary protection status.

Afghans are believed to be the second-largest refugee community in Turkey after Syrians while authorities say there are 182,000 registered Afghan migrants in the country and up to an estimated 120,000 unregistered ones.

Many of the migrants arriving via Iran are heading for Istanbul to find work or passage to another coastal city from which to embark for Europe.

The authorities recently said that Turkey will not bear the burden of migration crises experienced as a result of the decisions of third countries.

Diplomacy,

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EU to cooperate further with Ankara on migration - Hurriyet Daily News

Cyprus` Interior Minister Nicos Nouris told MPs on Thursday that progress has been achieved in preventing illegal immigrants from arriving to Cyprus.

Nouris, who was briefing the parliamentary committee of interior, said that Cyprus ranks first in the EU in migrant inflows but that it has managed to stop illegal immigrants from coming to Cyprus under the guise of studying and from performing fraudulent marriages. Through these schemes 2,000 to 2,500 immigrants would arrive on the island every year, he added.

He also said that the inflow of illegal immigrants arriving by sea has also been curbed following a return agreement signed with Lebanon.

Nouris added that the inflow of illegal immigrants continues through the Green Line, separating the government controlled areas of Cyprus and the Turkish occupied areas, noting however that an effort is ongoing to check the points from were illegal entries take place.

He also said that in the first half o 2021 Cyprus rejected 7,000 asylum application, but that another 5,5000 applicants have arrived on the island and that their return to the country of provenance is difficult since there are no return agreements with particular third countries. He expressed the hope that Cyprus will be able to use the help of Frontex.

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Progress in preventing illegal immigration - Stockwatch

For centuries immigration has been synonymous with the United States, but what does the Constitution actually say about who can and cant enter the country? Law professors Christina Rodriguez and Ilya Somin talk about the ways in which the founding document could hinder or empower immigration policyreform.

The Constitution itself says very little about immigration [But]the power of Congress to regulate [immigration]is relatively uncontroversial today. Cristina Rodriguez, Yale University LawSchool

Cristina Rodriguez is a professor at Yale University Law School and author of The President and Immigration Law. She says to the founders and other early American lawmakers, immigration was not thought of in the same way as today.Immigration from the very beginning was used as a political tool to keep people thought not to be loyal to the United States from coming into the country, Rodriguezsays.

Rodriguez says with little constitutional intervention, immigration policy is mostly in the hands of the executive and legislative branches. The Constitution itself says very little about immigration [But]the power of Congress to regulate [immigration]is relatively uncontroversial today. Because immigration policy hasnt changed much in 40 years, Rodriguez says the U.S. isoperating out of a system that does not have the capacity to adapt to the changing world. There are very prescribed ways in which people can enter the United States Expanding the paths by which people might enter could improvefairness.

If we make it easier for people for people who want to live and work here to enter that would eliminate the illegal immigration problem. Ilya Somin,Antonin Scalia Law School atGeorge MasonUniversity

Ilya Somin is a professor at the George Mason Universitys Antonin Scalia Law School and author of Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom. He says most of the earliest immigration policies in the U.S. were exclusionary rules adopted by state governments. Its notable that nowhere in the Constitution is there listed any power of the federal government to restrict immigration It was only in 1889 in the Chinese exclusion cases that the Supreme Court ruled that there was such apower.

Somin believes the executive branch needs to be limited in its power over immigration policy, because restrictions depend largely on who the president is at the time. I think the ultimate goal, which I dont think is going to be achieved any time soon, is to shift the system so that people should be allowed free entry. Illegal immigration to the United States is prevalent because its extremely difficult to enter any other way, which is why Somin says the system should be liberalized. If we make it easier for people for people who want to live and work here to enter that would eliminate the illegal immigrationproblem.

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What the U.S. Constitution Says About Immigration - WDET

WASHINGTON, Sept. 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that took the lives of nearly 3,000 people on American soil. As President Joe Biden participates in solemn ceremonies in lower Manhattan, at the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pa., marking the events of that day, his reckless border and immigration policies leave the nation more vulnerable to attack than we were 20 years ago, charges the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

"The first eight months of the Biden administration provide a sad bookend to 9/11 and have made a mockery of the lives and treasure that has been expended in an effort to prevent another such attack," said Dan Stein, president of FAIR. "Twenty years ago, President George W. Bush ignored warnings about the threat of a terrorist attack on our soil and the dangers posed by lax immigration and border enforcement, and instead focused his efforts on providing amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. Today, President Biden is ignoring similar warnings, deliberately leaving our borders unsecured, ceasing virtually all immigration enforcement, and focusing his administration's efforts on slipping an even larger amnesty for illegal aliens into a gargantuan $3.5 trillion spending package.

"Twenty years ago, we went to war with the Taliban because it provided a safe haven and a base of operation for al-Qaeda," continued Stein. "Today, President Biden's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan has left the Taliban in charge once again, with both al-Qaeda and its offshoot, ISIS, poised to take advantage. His even more disastrous evacuation plans have left American citizens and Afghans who aided us stranded, while some 100,000 unvetted Afghans managed to get on flights out of Kabul. Rather than rigorous vetting of evacuees seeking to enter the United States, the Biden administration is now seeking billions of dollars to expedite their resettlement here.

"Meanwhile, President Biden has eviscerated effective border enforcement policies he inherited when he took office and halted immigration enforcement in the interior of the country, providing newly emboldened global terrorist networks even greater opportunities to strike the United States," Stein charged.

FAIR also noted that as we mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11, numerous immigration enforcement measures, recommended by the commission that investigated the attacks, and later codified into law, have either been ignored or affirmatively undermined in recent years.

"As the president and the first lady pay tribute to the thousands who lost their lives on 9/11, it will be the American people who are nervously checking their watches because our enemies have never been stronger, and our defenses have never been weaker," concluded Stein.

Contact: Matthew Tragesser, 202-328-7004 or [emailprotected]

ABOUT FAIR

Founded in 1979, FAIR is the country's largest immigration reform group. With over 3 million members and supporters nationwide, FAIR fights for immigration policies that serve national interests, not special interests. FAIR believes that immigration reform must enhance national security, improve the economy, protect jobs, preserve our environment, and establish a rule of law that is recognized and enforced.

SOURCE Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)

http://www.fairus.org

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20 Years After 9/11 We Are More Vulnerable, Not Less and Immigration Policies and Enforcement Are a Big Part of the Reason, Says FAIR - PRNewswire