As an immigration law firm, we support comprehensive immigration reform. However, the current immigration reform proposals being discussed fail to address some of the key issues that must be resolved to truly reform immigration in the United States. The legislative proposals being discussed are heavy on ideology and light on facts, sidestepping important aspects of the system, like the appeals court, that need to be changed. They don’t address the underlying system issues and appear to be trying to fix the system instead of implementing a full patch.

Why Our Immigration Law Firm Is Hesitant About This Immigration Reform

Number of government agencies involved

We say ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’, and this might be an appropriate saying for today’s immigration system as well. There are simply too many government agencies involved with immigration, making the system very complicated and confusing.

Just under the cloak of the US Department of Homeland Security are three agencies with different directives: US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS); Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Add to that the US Department of State (in charge of overseeing US embassies and consulates), the US Department of Justice (which governs the Executive Office for Immigration Review), and the Department of Immigration. US Labor Law (which ensures that US immigration laws do not compromise labor standards). While unavoidable, a multi-agency effort leads to our second concern that doesn’t appear to be addressed by current legislation: lack of accountability.

Lack of responsibility

As an immigration law firm, we work with all the US government agencies involved and we see that lack of accountability is a major problem in the system. A good example is the US Embassy, ​​whose decisions by consular officers are not subject to appeal or judicial review. Another example is the fact that an appeal of an immigration judge’s decision can take literally years. With so many agencies involved, it’s easy to point fingers when something goes wrong and hard to take responsibility for cracks in the system.

Information processing and sharing issues

Simply put, the way cases flow through the immigration system needs to be fixed. There must be consistency in awards and predictability in award decisions at all levels. Endless delays should not be tolerated and appeals should not take years. The government agencies involved need to work together and share information. These suggestions could be the starting points for what would be a top-down review. Only when changes are made to address these key areas of concern will true and comprehensive immigration reform take place.