John Stossel: Make Immigration Easier

Conservatives rightly point out that America is a
nation of laws. No one should be exempt. That’s why many oppose
amnesty and other paths to citizenship for illegal immigrants who
are here now. “If they want to be in America,” the argument
goes, “they ought to return to their own countries and apply for a
visa legally.

“That sounds sensible, writes John Stossel, but what happens
when the immigrant does that, goes to the U.S. embassy and says,
I’d like to work in America legally? He gets paperwork to fill out
and is told to go home to wait. And wait.
A Forbes investigation found that a computer
programmer from India must wait, on average, 35 years. A high
school graduate from Mexico must wait an average 130
years. 

We tell eager workers, “Do it legally; just wait 130 years”?
This makes no sense. We should make legal immigration easier, relax
the rules, and issue work permits, argues Stossel. Immigration
bureaucracy makes life harder not just for the immigrants but for
the rest of us.

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