We believe in immigration reform, because our country was built by immigrants; we need immigrants to help our economy; and our immigration system is horribly broken. Our current immigration system is illogical, flawed, clumsy and often unfair. Immigration policy is essential to our nation’s economy, government and culture, and our policy is unresolved, disjointed and too heavily influenced by bi-partisanship and pure politics. In short, our current immigration policy is flawed, does not further our national interests and distributes pain, sorrow and hardship to hundreds of thousands of families.
Our current immigration system keeps talented students from staying in the U.S. after our colleges and universities educate and train them. Our immigration system makes it difficult for our nation to allow U.S. corporations to attract and retain talented workers from other nations. Our immigration system keeps mothers and fathers separated from their children for strange and often arbitrary reasons. Our immigration system costs too much, is too slow, and produces strange results that hurt families. Our current immigration system ignores the reality that 9 million undocumented neighbors, friends, co-workers, contractors and families live with us, share our dreams, and participate in our economy. Our current immigration system forces millions of undocumented workers to support themselves and their families without paying all the taxes they would pay if we reformed our immigration system. Our current immigration system encourages bad behaviors, while discouraging the right behaviors. Our current immigration system is antithetical to our history as a nation of immigrants.
We believe in immigration reform, because our immigration law office was started by an immigrant. We know how much good immigrants can do if given the chance to become U.S. citizens. My wife, the mother of my two year old son and the founder of this immigration law office is an immigrant. After coming to the U.S. as a child, she studied hard and worked hard to eventually put herself through law school. She has made Indianapolis a better place to live by her hard work as a lawyer, public servant, judicial officer, and community volunteer. Her story represents the good that immigrants bring to our country. My wife’s story is the story of millions of immigrants who came to this country for a chance at a better life and, with a sense of purpose, a good dose of optimism and an enduring work ethic, have made the American Dream a reality. And in the process, our country is better off and the beneficiary of fair, reasonable and liberal immigration.
We are lawyers and believe in the rule of law and the order that the law brings to society and a nation. So, we understand that not everyone can be permitted to immigrate to the U.S. Border security is important because border security is national security. Because we work in the immigration law system, however, we are uniquely aware of how broken our immigration system is. It is terribly broken. Our border security is terribly broken. We need fair and sensible reform.
Our current system is unsustainable. We detain and thus house, at tremendous tax payers’ costs, hundreds of thousands of undocumented fathers, sons, mothers, daughters, brothers, sisters, etc., many of whom will not be deported. Our immigration bureaucracy is bloated, inefficient and slow, all at tremendous tax payer costs. Our borders are unsecure, which means our immigration system must work harder to handle more cases, which causes the system to be slow and inefficient. At this stage, we need to overhaul the entire system. We need reform.
If done properly, immigration reform can quickly accomplish all of these goals-
- We can reunite families, particularly immigrants with family members who have long lived in the U.S. or who are U.S. citizens.
- We can keep college and graduate school students from taking their talents back home to other nations, where those societies benefit from the training and education we have subsidized.
- We can allow the U.S. economy to benefit from fluctuations in labor markets by allowing workers to come and go as the U.S. economy’s labor needs change from time to time.
- We can increase our tax base by bringing more than 9 million undocumented people, many of whom are adult workers, out of the shadows and into the U.S. economy.
- We can take advantage of the millions of inventions, business ideas, copyrights, art and other valuable creations that originate from immigrants, many of whom take the creations or the profits they generate out of the U.S. back to their home nations.
- We can finally secure our borders and, thus, improve our national security.
- We can realize the dream that we are a nation of hope, promise and opportunity that brings out the best in people by affording them the chance to study hard, work hard and become productive members of the greatest nation the world has ever known.
We believe in immigration reform, because we are immigration attorneys dedicated to helping families, workers, artists, inventors and our nation navigate the challenges we face and opportunities we are presented as they relate to immigration.
Immigration law is our passion. It is our vocation. It is our hope. It is what we do.
These are some of the reasons we believe in immigration reform.