Stricter immigration laws are beneficial to the U.S.

Sohail Monga/ Contributing Writer

Ever since the colonial era, immigration to the United States has had its fair share of criticism. People from around the world have immigrated to the U.S. at various times for various reasons, which has led to today’s demographics of the country.

Nowadays, immigration has become one of the major controversial topics because “illegal” immigration has been on the rise, especially from neighboring countries.

Unauthorized immigration has been on the rise from 1990 to 2009, from 3 million in 1990 reaching to 12.2 million, according to Pew Research Center.

Although now stagnant, this number clearly bothers the public as they have to fight harder for the limited jobs available which, according to law, are to be eligible to U.S. citizens or authorized immigrants only.

But the current government has taken considerable measures to reduce not only illegal immigrants, but also those who are legally allowed to work here. President Donald Trump has restricted policies favoring all immigrants — legal or illegal — like the DACA policies and restriction of H-1B visas, which allows internationals to work in the States.

When talking about the restrictions of H-1B visas, 50.6 percent of the visas are issued to Indian nationals who work in I.T. companies in the U.S., according to Livemint. Recently, President Trump ordered a comprehensive review on the program in order to limit the number of visas issued so that the citizens are in favor.

I believe that there are many advantages to the new laws, provided they’re instigated.

First of all, a new study from the Pew Research Center’s preliminary estimate showed that Mexico is no longer the leading country in illegal immigration, but countries from Asia and Central America contribute to almost half of the illegal population. This could be blamed to weak policies that haven’t been reviewed for a long time.

Although nothing has changed, the current government has proposed an alternative plan, which would issue visas on merit basis. This would include favorability towards experienced, young and highly educated internationals who are offered a higher salary from the tech companies.

I support the fact that if the new laws are implemented, then not only would it prioritize highly-skilled, educated labor from other countries, but it might also prevent the exploitation of the visa lottery system. The visa lottery system provides the decision to issuance of visas on a lottery basis if the visa application exceeds the capped applications.

Since 2010, applications have been exceeding the capped amount to even 200 percent, according to Livemint, which means that the lottery system has been a major deciding factor in many visa approvals. This system is unnecessary and doesn’t help in deciding if the “best person” gets to work over a U.S. citizen.

The new proposition, however, would make it easier to choose the ‘best’ person to work in the United States.

This would also put the citizens to an advantage they ‘deserve’ as only highly-skilled internationals would be given preference. This new law would not only keep the American Dream alive for every citizen but also it would be fair to them and every other international who aspires to work in the United States.

 

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The opinions presented within this page do not represent the views of Panther Press Editorial Board. These views are separate from editorials and reflect individual perspectives of contributing writers and/or members of the University community.

 

Photo by Fabian Fauth on Unsplash.