How immigration came to be a political football

How immigration came to be a political football

What you probably already know: The U.S. immigration system will be in the spotlight in the coming months leading up to the presidential election. While you might expect the focus to remain tight on the border, the issue is far more complex than that. The country has been in need of comprehensive immigration reform for decades, and the current system dates back to the 1960s with few updates since then. It is, however, a political football that can prompt intense feelings from all sides of the issue. We recently sat down with immigration attorney and advocate Tahmina Watson to get a state of the union on immigration.

Why? Watson has been practicing immigration law for more than 20 years and focuses on business immigration. “From a holistic perspective, our procedures, our system is broken,” Watson said. Most of the laws have been in place for more than 60 years. “Since those times, the world has evolved,” she said. “Our technology revolution alone has created jobs and requires people to be closer to each other.” The country has needed reform of legal paths into the U.S. for decades, but because those are tied to illegal immigration, nothing has changed.

What it means: “The economy relies on immigration,” Watson said. “We need workers.” The U.S. needs new visa categories that make it easier for those who were college educated in the U.S. to more easily remain here after graduation, she said, and to stay when they found their own companies. The country also needs the unskilled labor that is often provided by migrants who work on the farms and factories that produce the food we eat. As the birth rate in the U.S. declines, the only way to continue to grow the economy will be to welcome immigrants, Watson said.

What happens now? The rhetoric, Watson said, doesn’t match the reality. Terms like “chain migration,” that imply there is something wrong with families wanting to be together serves only to hold the country back from the reform necessary to continue to grow the economy. Watson suggests other kinds of immigration, like what is happening on the Mexican border where people are seeking asylum or are victims of trafficking, need their own holistic approaches that are unique for each situation. Watson recognizes, though, that this is unlikely to happen any time soon. “It’s very difficult, at least from an immigration lawyer’s perspective, to see how we move forward unless we have a Congress that really wants the best for our country,” she said.

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