Why would that
matter?
I am not against immigration per se, but we need a more sane immigration policy, starting with enforcement against illegal immigration.
96% of “illegal immigration” is the heinous crime of not filling out paperwork (and those who assist people who didn’t fill out paperwork). What we’re seeing now is identical to you having your children taken away from you because you were driving without a license.
This makes no sense.
It's not like there's some piece of paperwork they could fill out in order to immigrate legally.
Yes, actually, that's
precisely like what there is:
Immigrant Visa Process. Unless you're talking about after the fact, but then that wasn't the point, was it? You're smart enough to have figured that out on your own, right?
As to the deliberately Byzantine paperwork they do have to fill out before the fact (and why they don't just "get in line" instead of running the border), there is the sponsorship form (either a form
I - 130 for "U.S. citizens and lawful permanent resident sponsors residing in the United States," which they have to fill out or form
I -140, which an existing US employer fills out) and then once you've been properly sponsored (and received notification of proper sponsorship), then applicants must fill out the
National Visa Center (NVC) Processing form and choose an agent by filling out form
DS-261. And don't forget to pay your NVC processing fees! After submitting your payment online, please allow up to 1 week for NVC to process your fee payments before continuing to the next step. You will not be able to access Form DS-260 until NVC has processed your payments.
After about three weeks (but often much longer) for the NVC to process your DS-261, then you move on to filling out form
DS-260 and you then have to collect a whole bunch of identity/financial documents and then please allow up to six-weeks for NVC to review your forms and documents once we receive both the petitioner’s financial documents and the applicant’s civil documents. You must also have paid all required fees and submitted your visa application online. We will not review your file until we have received all of the above items. At that time, we will let you know if there are additional items required or if visa pre-processing is complete.
And what kind of hell does that look like? Well, here are a few selections from the
FAQ:
If it has been less than two (2) months since you submitted documents to NVC:
You don’t need to take any action at this time. We are still reviewing your documents.
Please allow up to two (2) months for NVC to review your forms and documents once we receive both the financial documents from the petitioner and the applicant’s civil documents. You must also have paid the required fees and submitted a DS-260 Immigrant Visa Application online. We will not review your file until we have received all of the above requested items. At that time, we will let you know if there are additional items required or if visa pre-processing is complete.
If it has been more than two (2) months since you submitted documents to NVC, and you have not received any communications from NVC:
Action required: Keep in mind that NVC will not review your case file until you have paid your fees, submitted your Form DS-260, and submitted both financial and civil documents. If you are missing any of those items, please submit those now using these online instructions.
Action required: If you have submitted all of the required documents, forms, and fees and still have not heard from NVC, please give us a call at 1-603-334-0700 or send an email using our online inquiry form. Our Customer Service Representatives can confirm whether NVC received your documents and update you on the status of your case.
If you received a “checklist letter” from NVC asking you to re-submit some of your documents, that means NVC received the documents you sent but something is missing or incorrect. Your case is on hold until you submit the missing or corrected documents:
Action required: The checklist letter you received contains a list of missing or incorrect information that you must fix. After you gather the missing or corrected items, please follow the online instructions to submit them to NVC. For information on the types of documents that are required, please visit our online Civil Documents information and Financial Documents information.
After we receive and review the missing items, we will let you know the status of your case.
If you do not understand the checklist you received, please contact us by phone at 1-603-334-0700 or send us a question using our online inquiry form.
If you received a letter from NVC saying that your case is documentarily qualified and that you are waiting for a visa interview appointment:
You don’t need to take any action at this time. NVC schedules appointments one month in advance. The U.S. Embassy tells us what dates they are holding interviews, and NVC fills these appointments with cases in the order they become documentarily qualified. Most appointments are set within three months of NVC’s receipt of all requested documentation. However, we cannot guarantee or predict when you will receive an appointment.
If you are applying in a numerically limited (preference) visa category, keep in mind that before you can receive an appointment, your priority date must also be “current.” This can delay receipt of an appointment. You can track your priority date using the online Visa Bulletin.
When an appointment is available, we will notify the applicant, petitioner and your attorney (if applicable). You can prepare for your interview by reading about the embassy’s interview requirements online at nvc.state.gov/interview. Thank you for your patience.
If you received an appointment letter from NVC with the date and time of your immigrant visa interview at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate overseas:
Action required: Carefully read the interview letter and visit our online interview preparation instructions. On that page, you must read the information specific to the embassy where your interview will occur. To do that, select the city where you will be interviewing from the drop-down box. You will then see instructions on how to schedule a required medical exam and other tasks you must complete prior to your interview.
NVC will forward your case file and all of the documents you submitted to NVC to the U.S. Embassy or Consulate. If you have any questions about your interview, please contact the Consular Section at that embassy or consulate.
So weeks turn into months and here's a fun little disclaimer at the end:
If there is no activity on your case for one (1) year, your case will enter termination. If your case is terminated, you will have to restart the process and repay fees.
And, of course, there's
this (emphasis mine):
The United States has a cap for how many people can apply for a visa from each country. There are three factors that determine who gets approved: what category an individual falls under, how many others are in that category, and when an individual applies. Certain types of people have to wait decades to apply for an immigrant visa, while others take a much shorter amount of time. A U.S. permanent resident’s unmarried son or daughter, who is 21 years old or older, will have to wait roughly 21 years to file an application for an immigrant visa if they’re from Mexico, according to the State Department’s visa bulletin. The delay is a result of too much demand.
“People have this mental image of a line, [and] it’s coming from somewhere—it’s coming from a kernel of truth, and the kernel of truth is in that visa bulletin,” McKinney said. “It’s the general line for everyone except the countries that have used all of their visas—and then, those lines are even worse.”
For those already in the United States on a non-immigrant visa—for example, as a student or employee—they can adjust their status to become lawful permanent residents. But that process, too, can take several years and is only available to some people.
Judge Paul Schmidt, who was appointed in 2003 by Attorney General John Ashcroft and primarily served in the Arlington Immigration Court in northern Virginia before retiring, presided over these types of cases. “The basic requirement is that you have to be inspected at the border and admitted or paroled into the United States, and you have to be maintaining a legal status at the time you applied for adjustment of status, and you have to have not worked [without] authorization prior to filing for adjustment of status,” Schmidt said.
Now understand that you're talking primarily about under-educated laborers facing all of that bureaucratic nightmare, whose families are literally starving to death.
So what's the choice? Play the bureaucratic lottery and hope that a year/five/ten years later you're granted a visa or run the border tonight and be putting food in your children's stomachs by the end of the week. And not steak and potatoes; rice and beans.
There simply is no significant negative impact to the vast majority--almost entirety--of undocumented immigrants and numerous benefits (as has already been pointed out by myself and others). But the "crime" that we're talking about for the overwhelming majority of people is that they didn't fill out paperwork. That's it. That's what "undocumented" means and all of the literalists who keep screaming "
They're criminals" in a desperate attempt to paint them as
violent criminals (MS-13!!!!!MS-FREAKING-13!!!!!!!) can all go fuck themselves.
Their "crime" is identical to you not ever taking a driver's test. And not the actual driving test, just the written exam. And for that they're having their children forcibly removed and imprisoned.
Well, not any more, of course. Trump finally agreed with all of us and order it stopped.
What you seem to have not figured out is that you and I are appear to be in agreement and that my point about paperwork/the DMV is that it is the only "crime" the vast majority of undocumented immigrants have committed and therefore what Trump had done was identical to the government forcibly caging your children, because you drove without having filled out the paperwork for a driver's license. 
