Steve was quoted by Indian Express in The Long History of Immigration in the US—Part 2. He said that 1996 legislation has done little to address undocumented immigration. Due to the lack of temporary visas and the backlog in immigration courts, he said, “people are willing to take the chance of remaining in the U.S. illegally, rationalizing that if they do get caught, they would at least be able to send 5-6 years’ worth of wages back home.” Steve said that the difficulty is between balancing humanitarian considerations with a mass justice system. Compounding the problem is that immigration law has not been amended in 34 years even though the needs of the United States have changed. He added that while the labor coalition of the Republican Party acknowledges the need for cheap workers, they struggle to “square that reality against those who are opposed to foreign migration.”
