Reforming Family Immigration

While lawmakers debate border fences and street marches back undocumented immigrants, the saga of would-be legal immigrants facing backlogs has languished with little attention. But the beleaguered system of legal immigration to America could soon become another flash point, albeit one with unconventional battle lines.

Asian-Americans have taken the lead in calling for a streamlined legal-immigration system, because their relatives face the longest waits. They have joined forces with primarily Latino march organizers to make visa backlogs part of a pro-immigrant agenda.

The opposition to a streamlined system, meanwhile, comes not just from the usual critics of increased immigration. With the U.S. population set to top 300 million next week, according to the latest estimate of the Census Bureau, some environmentalists have renewed warnings that opening an immigrant pipeline will exacerbate population growth that harms the nation’s ecological health. Click here.

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