An op-ed piece in the NY Times offers an explanation for the high rate of undocumented immigration to this country not often discussed. Mae M. Ngai, a professor of history and Asian-American studies at Columbia says outdated and impractical immigration laws are to blame.
The current immigration process has a one size fits all philosophy. The per country limit for granting permanent residency is the same whether you’re from a huge country like China or a much smaller one like Belgium. It’s 25,600. Thus someone from China, India, Mexico and the Philippines may have to wait, while another from New Zealand or Belgium may walk right in.
One proposal first suggested in the 1960’s would revisit these limits every five years. The last time there was major immigration reform in the United States was 1986.