Lora Ries
“[W]e are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”

—Barack Obama, October 30, 2008REF

Introduction

Before the Biden–Harris Administration, Americans had long lived with a dysfunctional immigration system. Immigrating legally to the U.S. was too complicated, too slow, and too expensive. These factors, along with many foreigners’ knowledge that they would not qualify for admission under our immigration requirements, encouraged millions to bypass our legal immigration process and cross the border illegally, stay past the expiration date of their temporary visas, file fraudulent immigration benefit applications, and remain here for years without consequence. Other promising immigrants went to Canada, Israel, or elsewhere to avoid the U.S. immigration hassle.

Over the decades, the illegal alien population and the immigration benefit application and immigration court case backlogs continued to increase. All the while, the American public continued to differentiate between legal and illegal immigration, supporting the former while opposing—yet accepting some levels of—the latter. When faced with the question of what to do with the millions of illegal aliens already living here, Americans at the same time opposed amnesties while repeating the claim that 11 million illegal aliens could not be deported. The result: just a couple of hundred thousand deportations each year while the remaining, growing population continued to reside here unlawfully and gain greater footholds in the U.S.

Enter the Biden–Harris Administration and with it a fundamental transformation of our immigration system. By changing legal terms; twisting and warping statutory requirements; waiving, ignoring, or refusing to enforce laws; and unconstitutionally creating immigration benefits not authorized by Congress, the Biden–Harris Administration has intentionally erased the line between legal and illegal immigration. We can no longer recognize our immigration “system” because we no longer operate by the rule of law.

What remains cannot and should not be merely reformed.  » Read More
https://www.heritage.org/border-security/report/rising-the-ashes-principles-and-policies-new-american-immigration-system