Undocumented immigrants who arrive
as children may be well into their 40s before they get a green card.
In
a bustling room at the Third Presbyterian Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico a
group of white and Latino parishioners gathered for a workshop on immigration.
They wanted to learn more about the issue.
Julio
Alvarez, a Mexican immigrant, was there to answer their questions. “Why can’t
immigrants just wait in line and move here legally? Isn’t there a process to do
that?” one parishioner asked. “The truth is,” Alvarez replied, “standing in
line is a myth for the majority of us.”
Alvarez’s
personal experience with our nation’s immigration system illustrates this harsh
reality.
Mexico’s
weak economy pushed Alvarez out of his country in 1996. “When I decided to
immigrate to Albuquerque, New Mexico I had 5 pesos — or less than a dollar — in
my pocket and a family to feed,” he recounts.
Upon
his arrival, Alvarez’s U.S.-citizen brother sponsored his petition for U.S.
residency. As allowed by federal law, he included his wife, Myrna, and their
school-age son, Edgar, in his application. He hoped that all of them could
eventually reside in the United States legally.
That
was 16 years ago.
It
takes the Citizenship and Immigration Services agency an average of seven years to
grant immigrants green cards. Due to the structure of the immigration system
that imposes a per-country cap, the wait now lasts more than two decades
for Mexican
immigrants.
As
long as the petitioners’ dependent children don’t come of age during that
period, they remain eligible for green cards. If those children turn 21 before
the family reaches the front of that proverbial line, a Supreme Court
majority recently ruled, those young immigrants “age out.” They lose
their place in the immigration line where they may have stood for most of their
young lives.
That’s
a brutal reality for the Alvarez family.
Julio
Alvarez has waited 16 years for his green card. He probably needs to wait two
more years — or even longer. Meanwhile, Edgar will turn 21 and lose his place
in the line he has waited on for more than half his life.
If
Edgar, an engineering student at the University of New Mexico, applies for his
own green card, he’ll be in his 40s before
he gets to the front of the line. Tens of
thousands of people face this Orwellian predicament.
The
new ruling makes congressional action even more urgent. But House Majority
Leader Eric Cantor’s
stunning defeat to David Brat in his recent primary means that
the already stagnated immigration reform debate may hit a dead end on
Capitol Hill. According to conventional wisdom that ignores the prevailing
views in that Virginia House district, anti-immigrant
fervor helped Cantor’s tea party challenger pull off a surprise
win against a candidate who outspent him 40:1.
This
is bad news for Edgar Alvarez, who will turn 21 later this year.
After
he reaches that milestone and graduates college, he may be forced to move to
Mexico, a country he barely knows.
If
Edgar wants to stay here he has limited options: He can marry a U.S. citizen or
resident. Or he can find an employer to sponsor his green card. Few employers
make this commitment because it’s a costly and time-consuming process.
If
Edgar can’t find a path to shedding his undocumented status, his New Mexican
community will feel the loss. The young man engages in local politics and
campus life. He pays taxes, mentors younger boys who are aspiring engineers,
and works as a public health advocate.
How
can the United States turn its back on the more than 560,000
talented, young adults who are in a situation similar to his?
Our
nation can certainly do better than that.
Diana Anahi Torres-Valverde is the New Mexico
Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC. The author
changed the name of the church and the names of the members of the “Alvarez family”
in this commentary at their request. IPS-dc.org. Distributed via OtherWords (OtherWords.org)