President Trump managed to clinch not only the GOP nomination for president in 2016, but the White House too, thanks in large part to a no-holds-barred attitude, especially when it came to illegal immigration.
He promised to secure the border with a wall and crack down on the number of immigrants illegally entering the country.While we’re waiting for the wall, he has been doing a number of different things to make part two the second part of the promise a reality. However, there are many loopholes that exist in our current system that are allowing folks to enter in large numbers.
Federal rules allow immigrants who have legal status in America to “sponsor” several family members from their home countries. On average, legal immigrants sponsor three additional immigrants; and newly arrived Mexicans sponsor an additional six family members.
As you can see, this causes rapid multiplication in a phenomenon referred to as “chain immigration.”
According to The Washington Examiner,The statistics analyzed by the Center for Immigration Studies find that sponsorships exceed initial immigration numbers.
Called “chain migration” because the first immigrant acts as a link to many others legally allowed to follow, the practice is having a huge impact on the U.S.
Called “chain migration” because the first immigrant acts as a link to many others legally allowed to follow, the practice is having a huge impact on the U.S. Sponsors are “native-born citizens or naturalized citizens.”
Jessica Vaughan, the director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, reported that in the last 10 years half the 10.6 million immigrants allowed into the country were “initiating” and the rest sponsored followers. Over the last 35 years, over 60 percent were sponsored.
Her findings are even more alarming when considering the fate of some 800,000 recipients of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is likely to increase chain migration in the future, as DACA beneficiaries eventually qualify for citizenship and the opportunity to sponsor their parents and siblings, many of whom also have been residing in the United States illegally,” she wrote in the report.
One of the key findings in her report states that over the last 35 years, chain migration is exceeding new immigration. Between the years of 1981 to 2016, 33 million immigrants were admitted to the United States. Of that number, 20 million were a result of chain migration.
The largest group of family members being approved for chain migration are spouses and parents, mostly due to the fact that the number of admissions for these groups of people are unlimited by law.
Most of these immigrants are good, hard-working people. But, as you can see, these numbers pose a significant problem for the stability of our country, slowing assimilation and making it difficult for our nation to keep up.Some sort of action needs to be taken soon in order to fix this situation before the number of immigrants overburdens our system and resources, leaving American citizens high and dry.
[NOTE: This article was written by Michael Cantrell. Follow him on Twitter @MCantrell0928 and on Facebook]