Why don't they just come here legally?

Many people in the US wonder why undocumented immigrants don't just enter the country through the proper legal channels. Via Bender's Immigration Bulletin, I came across an Arizona Daily Star special report: Behind the immigration rhetoric. It looks like a good resource, with articles and videos that explain the immigration process well. One piece details the overwhelming legal process that immigrants have to undergo:

If you haven't said it, you've probably heard it: "I understand people want to come here; I just want them to do it legally, like my great-grandfather did."

But they don't come through Ellis Island anymore.
[...]

The reality, immigration and human-rights advocates say, is that the U.S. immigration system has become a legal quagmire.

The process is restrictive, cumbersome and unwelcoming, critics say. In their view, it forces families to be separated and pushes desperate people to cross illegally — many through Southern Arizona's desert.

"People imagine that there is this system to welcome people because we are this nation of immigrants and we welcome people and we are so good and organized and there are all these systems in place," says Patricia Mejia, a Tucson immigration attorney. "But there is no system. The immigration system has failed."

The wait times can range from a few months to 22 years, and some begin to wait in line at consulates at 3 a.m. All of this can be after spending thousands of dollars, undergoing many medical exams, and still no guarantee of approval. When--in Mexico at least--food, clothing, and rent cost the same as in the US yet the average yearly income is $10,000-$12,000, facing the daunting legal maze quickly becomes a non-issue.

Comments

[Kevin]

It's not that they're here illegally. It's that no one told them the U.S. annexed half their country. ;)

[Natalie]

*snort* Very true.

Ironic, too, that many Central American immigrants are Native Americans...

[Art Kho]

As the famous Bart Simpson put it: "The pilgrims were illegal aliens." The native americans were too nice to them. ;D

[Leighton]

The 3 a.m. waits at the consulates are particularly bad given that after all the time and money invested in a visa application, the lives and circumstances of hopefuls are given at most five or ten minutes of review by a consul who doesn't have the time to ask clarifying questions. They don't have to be ineligible for admission to have their application denied; they only need to not make their case as clearly, cleanly and concisely as individual consuls who aren't subject to any procedural or judicial oversight would personally prefer. And woe to those applicants whose situations are too similar to any of the popular visa fraud stories in the last twenty-five years.

That was in the glory days of INS (such as they were), before DHS blew the quota system all to hell and introduced a bunch of new procedural hurdles that aren't in anyone's best interest, except maybe the financial wellbeing of immigration attorneys.

Buying expert-quality forged green cards and social security cards in Mexico (possibly other places too, but the best we see come from groups in Mexico) is always cheaper in the short run. But it's a gamble; if they get caught, they've been accumulating unlawful presence that whole time, and they're subject to the three or ten year bar from admission into the country, depending on whether they've been here less than a year or not.

AILA puts out public service announcements to try to get public opinion to take note of these problems in hopes of pressuring lawmakers to do something about them:

http://www.aila.org/content/default.aspx?docid=20467