Transcript: Independent Forum on immigration

I am an adjunct professor of Immigration Law and a local immigration attorney. I think it is important to remember that many assumptions are made about the nature of immigrants. Our universities and labs in New Mexico depend heavily on legal immigrants. Regardless of a person's status, the entire immigration system is wrought with unfairness, difficulty, and bias. If I was a researcher or scientist, I would think twice about attempting to immigrate to the US, because we make the process too difficult. Further, the immigration court system is absolutely horrible, with long delays and a significant lack of transparency and due process. People are dying in our detention centers, in excess of a hundred individuals in the last few years. We need fundamental change.

Indeed. I once had my green card stolen and it took almost eight years to get it replaced because the agency does (or at least did) not want to take the trouble to take a change of address, and I moved twice. And in the interim I had to apply every year for a temporary card to the tune of $95 a pop, a nerve-wracking process when raising young American children who did not dream that mommy was only legal till then end of the year.