Immigration Revisited…. Again!

There was a program on NPR this week that included an interview with an US Immigration Judge. She was a member of the National Association of Immigration Judges. I think it was Judge Dana Leigh Marks, the President of the Association. She reported there is a 400,000 case backlog presently. Further, she said that it is not uncommon for it to take up to five years before a case gets before an immigration court. These cases involve both legal and illegal immigrants; but mostly the illegal types.
I have no comprehension as to why cases take so long or really why there should be a case when immigration authorities catch individuals who have crossed the United States border and cannot prove they are citizens of this country. It should be a slam dunk….. turn them around and send them back to the country from which they came. No court. No rights. No case. It takes five minutes to make a decision if that long.
And immigration authorities should periodically make a sweep of meat packing plants, construction companies, landscapers, and agriculture to check the status of workers. All workers should be required to pass Everify before being hired. If an employer violates this requirement, the fines should be large and per diem per case. A couple of enforcements of that type would put a stop to the whole damned mess. Oh, and the other serious violators are those who come into the country on student visas, then stay and stay and stay without any intention of returning to their home country. Again, there are legal means to stay but just violation of the period of a visa is not one of them.
I am for limited immigration, but the legal way. You get in line with all of the other folks doing things according to law. Otherwise…. OUT! It is not fair to those seeking US citizenship or other legal entry into the USA. Currently, legal immigration limits are about 800,000 per year. A few decades ago, the limit was less than 200,000 per year. The USA needs to return to those lower limits. The population of this country needs to stabilize. Enough is enough.