IT IS TIME FOR COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM

By Norka M. Schell, Esq. 

Law Offices of Norka M. Schell, LLC

The need for immigration reform is no longer in question. Our immigration system is broken, and the American people have called upon the White House and Congress to fix it.  How and when to fix our immigration system are the key questions which the President and Congress must answer to the American people.

Our previous experiences have shown that any long-term solution to the United State's immigration problems must begin with a comprehensive approach to reform that address all aspects of the nation's immigration system. Piecemeal reforms have been tried, and failed.  Therefore, any effective reform bill must address the undocumented population to come out of the shadows and earn legal status; provide fair and lawful ways for American business to hire much-needed immigrant workers; reduce the unreasonable and counterproductive backlogs in family-based and employment-based immigration by reforming the permanent immigration system; and protect the national security and the rule of law. 

Of course, effective enforcement policies are critical to restoring integrity and legitimacy to a system, but the U.S. Immigration Laws are so divorced from our economic and social realities that to think that we will be able to revive our economy and legality without a comprehensive reform of those laws is naiive.  

In the coming months, President Obama and the new Congress will start working on an immigration reform bill, we expect that the White House and the Congress will seriously consider comprehensive immigration reform this time around.