America’s Immigration System: Opportunities for Legal Immigration and Enforcement of Laws against Illegal Immigration

Testimony of Muzaffar Chishti, Director of MPI's office in New York, before the House Judiciary Committee.

"Chairman Goodlatte, Ranking Member Conyers and Members of the Committee:

My name is Muzaffar Chishti. I am a lawyer and Director of the Migration Policy Institute’s office at New York University School of Law. Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you on the topic of “America’s Immigration System: Opportunities for Legal Immigration and the Enforcement of Laws Against Illegal Immigration.”

Since enactment of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), which ushered in the current era of immigration control policies, the United States has allocated unprecedented levels of funding, manpower and technology to immigration enforcement. Fueled by frustration over high levels of illegal immigration in the 1990s as well as post 9-11 national security concerns, the past two decades have seen strong and sustained bipartisan support for increased border security and new and enhanced interior immigration enforcement measures. The result has been the creation of a complex, cross-agency immigration enforcement "machinery" that is interconnected in an unprecedented fashion. [...]"