"Chain Migration" Is A Poisonous Term

It has always been called "family reunification"; "chain migration is a demeaning, derogatory term meant to put its proponents in a negative light.

Click here for for an article in The Washington Post by Andrew Haile, entitled "The way Trump talks about ‘chain migration’ is spiritually bankrupt." It explains the process of family reunification for refugees, for green card holders, and for immigrants who have become citizens.

Our system allows immigrants to bring over only a narrow class of relatives. Refugees may petition only for spouses and minor children. Green-card holders may also petition for adult children. And immigrants who become U.S. citizens, a process that usually takes at least five years, may petition for parents and siblings as well.

The article explains the difficulties involved in bringing relatives. It takes a long time -- years. It's a complicated system, but here's one astonishing fact:

If a U.S. citizen [not a refugee or a green card holder] wants to bring over a sibling, the wait is currently about 14 years. And if that sibling is from the Philippines, the wait is 23 years. Twenty-three! (Each country has a quota, and there are a lot of Filipinos in line.)

Not only that, but relatives are not allowed automatic access: They are subject to background checks, medical checkups, and consular interviews.

So when President Trump claims that “chain migration” allows a “single immigrant” to bring in “virtually unlimited numbers of distant relatives,” that claim is false. Directly and disastrously false.

Trump, of course, doesn't know anything about the immigration process -- he simply parrots what his poisonous right-wing anti-immigrant advisers, like Stephen Miller, tell him.