Hacker News Reader

Comment by kethinov | Hacker News Reader

Suppose you could wave a magic wand and change US immigration law in any way you like. What changes would you make?

Good question. There's so much I would change. I'll give this some thought and respond later today.

Looking forward to this answer!

Many of the absurdities of the US immigration system exist for good reasons and it would be great to understand the nuances.

Thanks for offering to answer this question. Immigration law is so often an inflammatory topic, but I think your perspective as someone who has to work with the law, the US agencies that enforce it, and the people trying to navigate it could be really valuable.

Not Peter but would like to spur discussion on positive changes that could be made.

- Paper-free overhaul of the entire immigration system.

- Green Card recapture [0].

- Country of Birth caps abolished for Green Cards. Impossible to justify this as it doesn't serve the intended purpose since AC21 was passed.

- EAD/AP premium processing - so many livelihoods ruined and immigration journeys derailed because people can't get work authorization or cannot travel.

- TD holders granted working rights incident of status same as L2S.

Now for the not-so-popular suggestions...

- Diversity Lottery - there's bipartisan support to cancel the program and it's really hard to justify bringing almost 55k with a min of high school education into the country.

- Removal of F2B, F3, F4 family based categories to move inline with other developed nations immigration systems such as Canada [1].

[0] - https://www.fwd.us/news/green-card-recapture

[1] - https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/se...

> - Country of Birth caps abolished for Green Cards. Impossible to justify this as it doesn't serve the intended purpose since AC21 was passed.

You are saying that since, for example, Indians can remain indeterminately as long as they are employed, they are de facto kind of like in a green card situation already, therefore country caps don't make sense?

That would mean then that every other country wait will go up for over a decade, with all the backlog that India has (1.2M vs 140k EB green cards per year).

It should be done in tandem with GC recapture or possibly a single one off Bill to clear backlogged applicants.

No, it shouldn't. Stuff like recapture has no likelihood of passing. The reason country caps exist is precisely because everyone wants to carve out some provisions for their favorite group in hopes of getting the mythical comprehensive immigration reform. A one sentence bill on this matter has better odds of passing if it were to ever come to a vote. There is really no tenable position in favor of country based discrimination. The challenge is getting it to a vote.

I disagree for the reasons the first reply mentioned. Backlogging every country by 10+ years is effectively shutting down the US immigration system. The backlog will never be cleared.

It will be cleared if everyone is treated equally as Congress will be forced to change the law. Green cards aren't magical fairy dust with a finite supply. Everything is negotiable. You restore basic equality first; the rest is accounting. Your position is tantamount to saying that segregation should be abolished only if it is coupled with increasing the total number of schools. It makes no sense.

The thing is everyone on the queue aren’t citizens, so they don’t vote, so congress doesn’t give a shit if it takes 10+ years for everyone.

There is no downside for them to screw everyone equally. However, if they make immigration easier or make it simpler, a bunch of them won’t be reelected as their bases would hate that.

I’m all in for simplifying the process and what not, but congress taking action I think is very likely to screw things more than they currently are.

The downside is that you have declining birth rates and a slowing economy. Despite all the non-sense from the current admin, you do actually need immigrants. Trump has said so himself as his admin keeps screwing things up (see the Hyundai fiasco). The average American citizen has no idea about how immigration in this country works. People are overwhelmingly in favor of legal and skills based immigration.

>but congress taking action I think is very likely to screw things more than they currently are

Congress' inaction and paralysis is the reason we find ourselves in this morass. Congress has abdicated its responsibility and ceded power to the executive.

Sure, but you are discussing the long term when most of congress only cares about the next election cycle.

That's right. Individuals from every country should be subject to the same set of rules. If the backlog is to be a century, it is to be borne by everyone.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com