Most normal human beings have no idea what the "Permanent
Bar" is. But, for immigrants and immigration lawyers, it is
the one thing stopping millions of immigrants from legalizing their
immigration status through the "normal" process. Indeed,
the Permanent Bar is perhaps the most negative and harmful
immigration statute on the books in 2023.
A brief history lesson is necessary to explain why the Permanent
Bar came into existence.
In 1986,
Congress had passed an "amnesty" and allowed
amnestied individuals (mostly Mexican men) to petition for green
cards for their families. They did this without understanding the
obvious: that there would be a decades-long line for the families
of these men to receive their own green cards and that
these men would take other, higher quality jobs with their newly
furnished green cards–thereby creating an even larger rush of
undocumented immigration to the US to backfill low-wage positions.
These problems were all foreseeable, but
