Chain Migration refers to the endless and often-snowballing chains of foreign nationals who are allowed to immigrate because the law allows citizens and lawful permanent residents to bring in their extended, non-nuclear family members. This has resulted in the doubling of legal immigration in recent decades. I oppose Chain Migration, and I hope you’ll support efforts to change the law, which will reduce overall immigration numbers.

Chain migration was recklessly put into our immigration system 50 years ago. At first glance it seems relatively harmless as it allows immigrants to bring in not only their spouse and minor children but also their brothers, sisters and adult children. But that starts a chain that cannot be stopped. Each of those adult relatives can bring in his/her spouse, leading to the mother-in-law, father-in-law, brother-in-law and sister-in-law. All of that leads to the immigration of the original immigrant’s cousins, aunts, uncles and the in-laws of the in-laws of the in-laws.

The result of all this uncontrolled migration is that our nation is undergoing its biggest population explosion ever, leading to massive loss of natural habitat and farmland, flooding American occupations with excess labor that increases unemployment and depresses wages, and increasing taxpayer spending on welfare and entitlement programs.

I hope you’ll work with your House colleagues to end Chain Migration and instead focus on the speedy unification of nuclear family members.

Phone me if you would like to talk about this.

Greg Raven, Apple Valley, CA