What is meant when some call for "comprehensive immigration reform"?

PHOENIX - At protest rallies, on ABC15’s Facebook page, in e-mails sent to our assignment desk and comments posted on ABC15.com many of you have asked why some migrants don’t come here legally.

Also, what does “comprehensive immigration reform” mean?

ABC15 spoke with three people to find out.

They include Nancy-Jo Merritt, an immigration attorney with Fennemore Craig, Edmundo Hidalgo, President and CEO of Chicanos Por La Causa (CPLC), and Marc Rosenblum, a policy analyst for the nonpartisan non-profit think tank the Migration Policy Institute (MPI).

Securing the border is the most obvious reform measure.

Then there’s deciding what to do with the millions of people already living and working here illegally.

But all three say fixing the visa system is critical.

Hidalgo said, “Some say they could have come the proper way, yeah but the proper way could have required 10 years.”

There are several different types of visas and congress sets caps on how many people are allowed to get one.

Advocates of immigration reform argue that the current visa system doesn’t adequately address our labor needs.

Rosenblum said, “When we talk about workers getting in line and waiting their turn, the line is years long, literally years about 6, 10 years long. There are sectors of our economy that depend on immigrant workers; we need to create a visa system that does a better job at matching the supply of visas for the demand of visas. The best example I can think is that for the entire country, there are only 10,000 green cards available for low-skill workers and their families so that's really only 5,000. So if you are an employer and you want to hire a worker for your factory, or to work on your farm, or to work at your restaurant,” the likelihood you can hire a legal foreign worker is slim and even if you do Rosenblum said it could take years.

Hidalgo said, “The numbers exhaust what is allowed with the current rules, but that demand for that workforce doesn't go away it truly is an economic issue.”

Merritt added, “and the numbers that are allowed in really haven't changed in 10, 15 years.”

She said there are two types of immigration, those looking to work here under several different types of work authorization categories from high skill to low skill and those seeking citizenship through a relative who is a US citizen.

She offered some examples of family wait times, “You now have a green card and you want to bring your sister in, the wait for that is probably 30 years, I'm not exaggerating the family waits are very long. Let's say you are from Mexico and you have a green card and you have a wife and children in Mexico, you won't get them in for at least five years.”

Hidalgo said comprehensive immigration reform “requires resources and a revamping to understand what our current economic needs are.”

Merritt added, “To focus simply on border enforcement is a mistake we should have been looking all the time on two sides. One is to enforce employer's use of foreign labor and two is to make foreign labor available to employers in a reasonable way for the good economic health of this country because if we didn't need them they wouldn't be here.”

Hidalgo echoed her point that enforcement is important but not the only method to stopping illegal immigration. It is also recognizing the limits of the current visa quotas, “not one without the other, looking at it as a package that deals with the whole situation because otherwise it's a temporary solution.”

Merritt said only congress can adjust the visa system, “it is completely a matter of statute and it has been held by the Supreme Court like a hundred years ago that congress and the legislature decide what the statute will be. The president can sign or not sign a statute but the president's ability to control immigration law is quite limited.”