Aaron Reichlin-Melnick is the Policy Director at the American Immigration Council, a non-profit organization that strives to strengthen the United States by shaping immigration policies and practices. We discuss how out-of-date immigration laws are and why the only cure is comprehensive immigration reform from Congress.

US immigration laws have not changed since the 1990s. The current border enforcement and asylum system dates back to 1996, and in fact, one of the reasons that asylum seekers are living in shelters is because Congress decided in 1996 to make it illegal for them to get a work permit until six months after they apply for asylum. The asylum system is severely underfunded and is a major reason for processing delays.  In addition, there are more than 4 million people who have already been approved for visas but the wait time to get the legal status is decades long. 

Follow Aaron on Twitter: 

https://twitter.com/ReichlinMelnick 

Follow Mila on Twitter: 

https://twitter.com/milaatmos 

Follow Future Hindsight on Instagram: 

https://www.instagram.com/futurehindsightpod/

Love Future Hindsight? Take our Listener Survey! 

http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=6tI0Zi1e78vq&ver=standard 

Take the Democracy Group’s Listener Survey!

https://www.democracygroup.org/survey

Want to support the show and get it early? 

https://patreon.com/futurehindsight 

Check out the Future Hindsight website! 

www.futurehindsight.com

Read the transcript here:  

https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/fixing-immigration-aaron-reichlin-melnick 

Credits: 

Host: Mila Atmos 

Guests: Aaron Reichlin-Melnick

Executive Producer: Mila Atmos

Producer: Zack Travis