U.S. Family-Based Immigration Policy

William A. Kandel
Analyst in Immigration Policy

Family reunification is a key principle underlying U.S. immigration policy. It is embodied in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which specifies numerical limits for five family-based admission categories, as well as a per-country limit on total family-based admissions. The five categories include immediate relatives of U.S. citizens and four other family-based categories that vary according to individual characteristics such as the legal status of the petitioning U.S.-based relative, and the age, family relationship, and marital status of the prospective immigrant.

Of the 1.03 million foreign nationals admitted to the United States in FY2012 as lawful permanent residents (LPRs), 680,799, or 66%, were admitted on the basis of family ties. Of these family-based immigrants admitted in FY2012, 70% were admitted as immediate relatives of U.S. citizens. Many of the 1.03 million immigrants were initially admitted on a legal temporary basis and became immigrants by converting or “adjusting” their status to a lawful permanent resident. The proportion of family-based immigrants who adjusted their immigration status while residing in the United States (53%) exceeded that of family-based immigrants who had their immigration petitions processed while living abroad (47%), although such percentages varied considerably among the five family-based admission categories.

Since FY2000, increasing numbers of immediate relatives of U.S. citizens have accounted for all of the growth in family-based admissions. Between FY2000 and FY2009, immigrants who accompanied or later followed principal (qualifying) immigrants averaged 12% of all familybased admissions annually. During that period, Mexico, the Philippines, China, India, and the Dominican Republic sent the most family-based immigrants to the United States.

Each year, the number of foreign nationals petitioning for LPR status through family-sponsored preferences exceeds the supply of legal immigrant slots. As a result, a visa queue has accumulated of foreign nationals who qualify as immigrants under the INA but who must wait for a visa to immigrate to the United States. As such, the visa queue constitutes not a backlog of petitions to be processed but, rather, the number of persons approved for visas not yet available due to INAspecified numerical limits. As of November 2012, 4.3 million persons stood in the visa queue.

Every month, the Department of State (DOS) produces its Visa Bulletin, which lists “cut-off dates” for each of the four numerically limited family-based admissions categories. Cut-off dates indicate when petitions that are currently being processed for a numerically limited visa were initially approved. For most countries, the cut-off dates range between 2.5 years and 12 years ago. For countries that send the most immigrants, the range expands to between 2.5 and 23 years ago.

Current bipartisan interest in comprehensive immigration reform has increased scrutiny of family-based immigration and revived debate over its proportion of total lawful permanent admissions. Past or current proposals for overhauling family-based admissions have been made by numerous observers, including two congressionally mandated commissions.

Those who favor expanding the number of family-based admissions point to this sizable queue of prospective immigrants who have been approved for lawful permanent residence but must wait years separated from their U.S.-based family members until receiving a numerically limited immigrant visa. Their proposals generally emphasize expanding the numerical limits of familybased categories. Others question whether the United States has an obligation to reconstitute families of immigrants beyond their nuclear families. Corresponding proposals would eliminate several family-based preference categories, favoring only those for the immediate relatives of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents. Such proposals reiterate recommendations made by earlier congressionally mandated commissions on immigration reform.


Date of Report: July 11, 2013
Number of Pages: 38
Order Number: R43145
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Border Security: Immigration Enforcement Between Ports of Entry

Marc R. Rosenblum
Specialist in Immigration Policy

Border enforcement is a core element of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) effort to control unauthorized migration, with the U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) within the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as the lead agency along most of the border. Border enforcement has been an ongoing subject of congressional interest since the 1970s, when illegal immigration to the United States first registered as a serious national problem; and border security has received additional attention in the years since the terrorist attacks of 2001.

Since the 1990s, migration control at the border has been guided by a strategy of “prevention through deterrence”—the idea that the concentration of personnel, infrastructure, and surveillance technology along heavily trafficked regions of the border will discourage unauthorized aliens from attempting to enter the United States. Since 2005, CBP has attempted to discourage repeat entries and disrupt migrant smuggling networks by imposing tougher penalties against certain unauthorized aliens, a set of policies eventually described as “enforcement with consequences.” Most people apprehended at the Southwest border are now subject to “high consequence” enforcement outcomes.

Across a variety of indicators, the United States has substantially expanded border enforcement resources over the last three decades. Particularly since 2001, such increases include border security appropriations, personnel, fencing and infrastructure, and surveillance technology. The Border Patrol collects data on several different border enforcement outcomes; and this report describes trends in border apprehensions, recidivism, and estimated got aways and turn backs. Yet none of these existing data are designed to measure illegal border flows or the degree to which the border is secured. Thus, the report also describes methods for estimating illegal border flows based on enforcement data and migrant surveys.

Drawing on multiple data sources, the report suggests conclusions about the state of border security. Robust investments at the border were not associated with reduced illegal inflows during the 1980s and 1990s, but a range of evidence suggests a substantial drop in illegal inflows in 2007-2011, followed by a slight rise in 2012. Enforcement, along with the economic downturn in the United States, likely contributed to the drop in unauthorized migration, though the precise share of the decline attributable to enforcement is unknown.

Enhanced border enforcement also may have contributed to a number of secondary costs and benefits. To the extent that border enforcement successfully deters illegal entries, such enforcement may reduce border-area violence and migrant deaths, protect fragile border ecosystems, and improve the quality of life in border communities. But to the extent that aliens are not deterred, the concentration of enforcement resources on the border may increase border area violence and migrant deaths, encourage unauthorized migrants to find new ways to enter illegally and to remain in the United States for longer periods of time, damage border ecosystems, harm border-area businesses and the quality of life in border communities, and strain U.S. relations with Mexico and Canada.


Date of Report: May 3, 2013
Number of Pages: 47
Order Number: R42138
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Electronic Employment Eligibility Verification

Andorra Bruno
Specialist in Immigration Policy

The 113th Congress is expected to take up comprehensive immigration reform. Some of the most difficult immigration policy questions on the table concern unauthorized immigration and unauthorized employment. Today’s discussions about these issues build on the work of prior Congresses. In 1986, following many years of debate about unauthorized immigration to the United States, Congress enacted the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA). This law sought to address unauthorized immigration, in part, by requiring all employers to examine documents presented by new hires to verify identity and work authorization and to complete and retain employment eligibility verification (I-9) forms. Ten years later, in the face of a growing illegal alien population, Congress attempted to strengthen the employment verification process by establishing pilot programs for electronic verification, as part of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA).

The Basic Pilot program (known now as E-Verify), the first of the three IIRIRA employment verification pilots to be implemented and the only one still in operation, began in November 1997. Originally scheduled to terminate in November 2001, it has been extended several times. It is currently authorized until September 30, 2015, in accordance with P.L. 112-176.

E-Verify is administered by the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (DHS/USCIS). The program has been growing in recent years. On February 16, 2013, there were 432,256 employers enrolled in E-Verify, representing more than 1,300,000 hiring sites. E-Verify is a primarily voluntary program, but there are some mandatory participation requirements. Among them is a rule, which became effective on September 8, 2009, requiring certain federal contracts to contain a new clause committing contractors to use E-Verify.

Under E-Verify, participating employers submit information about their new hires (name, date of birth, Social Security number, immigration/citizenship status, and alien number, if applicable) from the I-9 form. This information is automatically compared with information in Social Security Administration and, if necessary, DHS databases to verify identity and employment eligibility.

Legislation on electronic employment eligibility verification may be considered in the 113th Congress as part of a comprehensive immigration reform bill or as separate, stand-alone legislation. In weighing proposals on electronic employment verification, Congress may find it useful to evaluate them in terms of their potential impact on a set of related issues: unauthorized employment; verification system accuracy, efficiency, and capacity; discrimination; employer compliance; privacy; and verification system usability and employer burden.


Date of Report: March 19, 2013
Number of Pages: 23
Order Number: R40446
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U.S. Immigration Policy: Chart Book of Key Trends

Ruth Ellen Wasem
Specialist in Immigration Policy

This report is a chart book of selected immigration trends that touch on the main elements of comprehensive immigration reform (CIR). Most policymakers agree that the main issues in CIR include increased border security and immigration enforcement, improved employment eligibility verification, revision of legal immigration, and options to address the millions of unauthorized aliens residing in the country. The report offers snapshots of time series data, using the most complete and consistent time series currently available for each statistic. The key findings and elements germane to the data depicted are summarized with the figures. The summary offers the highlights of key immigration trends.

The United States has a history of receiving immigrants, and these foreign-born residents of the United States have come from all over the world.

• Immigration to the United States today has reached annual levels comparable to the early years of the 20th century. 
• Immigration over the last few decades of the 20th century was not as dominated by three or four countries as it was earlier in the century, and this pattern has continued into the 21st century. 
• The number of foreign-born residents in the United States is at its highest level in U.S. history, reaching 40 million in 2010. 
• Foreign-born residents of the United States made up 12.9% of the U.S. population in 2010, approaching levels not seen since the proportion of foreignborn residents reached 14.8% in 1910. 

Legal immigration encompasses permanent immigrant admissions (e.g., employment-based or family-based immigrants) and temporary nonimmigrant admissions (e.g., guest workers, foreign students). The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) contains the provisions detailing the requirements for admission (permanent and temporary) of foreign nationals and the eligibility rules for foreign nationals to become U.S. citizens.

• In FY2011, 1.1 million aliens became U.S. legal permanent residents (LPRs). Of this total, nearly 65% entered on the basis of family ties. 
• The pool of people potentially eligible to immigrate to the United States as LPRs each year typically exceeds the worldwide level set by the INA. 
• Most of the 4.4 million approved petitions pending at the close of FY2012 were family members of U.S. citizens. 
• After falling from 7.6 million in FY2001 to 5.0 million in FY2004, temporary visa issuances reached 7.5 million in FY2011. 
• Generally, all of the temporary employment-based visa categories have increased since FY1994. Although there was a dip during the recent recession, the number of employment-based temporary visas increased in FY2010 and FY2011. 

Immigration control encompasses an array of enforcement tools, policies, and practices to secure the border and to prevent and investigate violations of immigration laws. The INA specifies the
grounds for exclusion and removal of foreign nationals as well as the documentary and entry-exit controls for U.S. citizens and foreign nationals.

• U.S. State Department denials of petitions for LPR visas have increased in recent years, and prior removals from the United States or past illegal presence in the United States has become the leading ground of inadmissibility. 
• U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions of foreign nationals between ports of entry fell to a 40-year low of 327,577 in FY2011. 
• The number of employers enrolled in the E-Verify employment eligibility verification system grew from 5,900 at the close of FY2005 to 418,000 by the end of FY2012. These data indicate that approximately 7% of U.S. employers were participating by the close of FY2012. 
• A total of $10.5 million in administrative fines was imposed on employers who engaged in unlawful employment in FY2011—a figure that exceeds the level of total fines imposed over the entire period from FY2000 through FY2009. 
• Formal removals grew from 30,039 in 1990 to 391,953 in FY2011. 
• Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) identifies many more potentially removable aliens than it arrests (i.e., places in removal proceedings). 
• The number of criminal aliens removed from the United States increased from 73,298 in FY2001 to 188,382 in FY2011. 

The three main components of the unauthorized resident alien population are (1) aliens who enter the country surreptitiously without inspection, (2) aliens who overstay their nonimmigrant visas, and (3) aliens who are admitted on the basis of fraudulent documents.

• Estimates based on the March Supplement of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS) indicate that the unauthorized resident alien population rose from 3.2 million in 1986 to 12.4 million in 2007, before leveling off at 11.1 million in 2011. 
• The latest estimates indicated that 33% of the 11.5 million unauthorized resident aliens in 2011 had entered from 2000 to 2010. 

For those who seek more complete analyses of the issues, this report cites Congressional Research Service (CRS) products that discuss the policies underlying the data presented in each of the figures.

Date of Report: March 7, 2013
Number of Pages: 24
Order Number: R42988
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