- Family-sponsored preference
- Employment-based preference
- Diversity Program
- Other—including Amerasians (typically children of Asian mothers and American military or civilian personnel), parolees, refugees and asylees, individuals whose order for removal was cancelled, and other legal provisions.
With the passage of the Immigration Act (IMMACT) in 1990, the number of immigrants (persons granted permanent resident status) was limited to a total of 675,000 per year. The annual limit is flexible; it could exceed 675,000 if the maximum number of visas were not issued in the preceding year. Yet Table 3.6 counted total immigrants in both 2001 and 2002 in excess of one million and a total of 705,827 immigrants admitted in 2003. How did this happen?
The USCIS reports in the 2003 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics (Washington, DC: Department of Homeland Security, September 2004) that some major categories of immigrants are exempt from the annual limits. These include:
- immediate relatives of U.S. citizens,
- refugee and asylee adjustments,
- certain parolees from the Soviet Union and Indochina,
- certain special agricultural workers (SAWs)
- cancelled removals, and
- aliens who applied for adjustment of status after having unlawfully resided in the United States since January 1, 1982.
The USCIS notes that immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, who are not subject to any numerical limitation, have for many years been the largest single category of immigrants. They represented 41.7% of total immigrants in 2001, 45.8% in 2002, and 47.2% in 2003. In each of those years, subtracting the immediate relatives category dropped the remaining total immigrants below the 675,000 annual limit. (See Table 3.6.)
New Arrivals
The United States offers two general methods for foreign-born persons to attain immigrant status. In the first method, aliens living abroad can apply for an immigrant visa and then become legal residents when approved for admission at a U.S. port of entry. In 2003, 358,411 such persons entered the United States; identified in statistics as "new arrivals," they accounted for 50.8% of all immigrants admitted in 2003. (See Table 3.6.)
Adjustment of Status
The second method of gaining immigrant status is by "adjustment of status." This procedure allows certain aliens already in the United States to apply for immigrant status. This includes certain undocumented residents, temporary workers, foreign students, and refugees who
TABLE 3.6
Immigrants admitted by major category of admission, fiscal years 2001–03
| 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | ||||
| Category of admission | Number | Percent | Number | Percent | Number | Percent |
| Total | 705,827 | 100.0 | 1,063,732 | 100.0 | 1,064,318 | 100.0 |
| New arrivals | 358,411 | 50.8 | 384,427 | 36.1 | 411,059 | 38.6 |
| Adjustments of status | 347,416 | 49.2 | 679,305 | 63.9 | 653,259 | 61.4 |
| Family-sponsored immigrants | 492,297 | 69.7 | 673,817 | 63.3 | 676,107 | 63.5 |
| Family-sponsored preferences | 158,894 | 22.5 | 187,069 | 17.6 | 232,143 | 21.8 |
| Unmarried sons/daughters of U.S. citizens | 21,503 | 3.0 | 23,567 | 2.2 | 27,098 | 2.5 |
| Spouses and children of alien residents | 53,229 | 7.5 | 84,860 | 8.0 | 112,260 | 10.5 |
| Married sons/daughters of U.S. citizens | 27,303 | 3.9 | 21,072 | 2.0 | 24,878 | 2.3 |
| Siblings of U.S. citizens | 56,859 | 8.1 | 57,570 | 5.4 | 67,907 | 6.4 |
| Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens | 333,403 | 47.2 | 486,748 | 45.8 | 443,964 | 41.7 |
| Spouses | 184,741 | 26.2 | 294,798 | 27.7 | 270,545 | 25.4 |
| Parents | 69,892 | 9.9 | 94,063 | 8.8 | 80,964 | 7.6 |
| Children | 78,024 | 11.1 | 97,099 | 9.1 | 91,526 | 8.6 |
| Children born abroad to alien residents | 746 | .1 | 788 | .1 | 929 | .1 |
| Legalization dependents | 21 | d | 57 | d | 37 | d |
| Employment-based preferences | 82,137 | 11.6 | 174,968 | 16.4 | 179,195 | 16.8 |
| Priority workers | 14,544 | 2.1 | 34,452 | 3.2 | 41,801 | 3.9 |
| Professionals with advanced degree or of exceptional ability | 15,459 | 2.2 | 44,468 | 4.2 | 42,620 | 4.0 |
| Skilled workers, professionals, unskilled workers | 46,613 | 6.6 | 88,555 | 8.3 | 86,058 | 8.1 |
| Special immigrants | 5,456 | .8 | 7,344 | .7 | 8,523 | .8 |
| Investors | 65 | d | 149 | d | 193 | d |
| Diversity program | 46,347 | 6.6 | 42,829 | 4.0 | 42,015 | 3.9 |
| Permanent | 46,347 | 6.6 | 42,829 | 4.0 | 42,015 | 3.9 |
| Transition | c | d | c | d | c | d |
| Other categories | 85,025 | 12.0 | 172,061 | 16.2 | 166,964 | 15.7 |
| Amerasians | 120 | d | 348 | d | 376 | d |
| Parolees, Soviet and Indochinese | 4,199 | .6 | 6,012 | .6 | 5,468 | .5 |
| Refugees and asylees | 44,927 | 6.4 | 126,084 | 11.9 | 108,506 | 10.2 |
| Refugee adjustments | 34,496 | 4.9 | 115,832 | 10.9 | 97,305 | 9.1 |
| Asylee adjustments | 10,431 | 1.5 | 10,252 | 1.0 | 11,201 | 1.1 |
| Subject to annual limit | 10,026 | 1.4 | 9,713 | .9 | 10,111 | .9 |
| Not subject to limit | 405 | .1 | 539 | .1 | 1,090 | .1 |
| NACARA Sec. 202a | 2,577 | .4 | 9,495 | .9 | 18,926 | 1.8 |
| Cancellation of removal | 29,109 | 4.1 | 23,827 | 2.2 | 22,506 | 2.1 |
| Subject to annual limit | 2,009 | .3 | 2,224 | .2 | 3,157 | .3 |
| Not subject to limit (NACARA, Sec. 203) | 27,100 | 3.8 | 21,603 | 2.0 | 19,349 | 1.8 |
| IRCA legalization | 39 | d | 55 | d | 263 | d |
| HRIFAb | 1,414 | .2 | 5,383 | .5 | 10,111 | .9 |
| Other | 2,640 | .4 | 857 | .1 | 808 | .1 |
| aNicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act of November, 1997. | ||||||
| bHaitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998. | ||||||
| cNot applicable. | ||||||
| dRounds to less than .05 percent. | ||||||
could apply to have their status adjusted. In 2001 and 2002, individuals who had their status adjusted accounted for about two-thirds of all immigrants (61.4% in 2001 and 63.9% in 2002). However, in 2003, adjustment of status cases dropped to just half (49.2%) of all immigrants admitted. (See Table 3.6.)
The sudden decrease in adjustment-of-status immigrants in 2003 resulted from the Legal Immigration Family Equity (LIFE) Act of 2002, which resolved three class action lawsuits. Eligible persons had one year (until June 4, 2003) to apply for this particular adjustment of status. Key to eligibility was proof that by October 1, 2000, the applicant had filed a written claim for class membership in one of three lawsuits commonly referred to as CSS, LULAC, and Zambrano. Applicants also had to prove they entered the United States before January 1, 1982, resided in continuous unlawful status through May 4, 1988, and that they were continuously physically present in the United States from November 6, 1986, through May 4, 1988. Eligible applicants, and certain spouses and children, were protected from removal or deportation while their adjustment applications were pending. Also, they could be eligible for employment authorization while waiting.
LIFE Act applications poured in. In the 2003 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, the USCIS noted a
TABLE 3.7
Immigrant orphans adopted by U.S. citizens, by gender, age, region, and most frequent country of birth, fiscal year 2003
| Gender | Age | |||||||
| Region and country of birth | Total | Male | Female | Unknown | Under 1 year | 1–4 years | 5–9 years | Over 9 years |
| All countries | 21,320 | 7,435 | 13,884 | 1 | 9,728 | 8,853 | 1,680 | 1,059 |
| Europe | 7,652 | 3,694 | 3,958 | — | 2,067 | 3,934 | 1,028 | 623 |
| Russia | 5,134 | 2,513 | 2,621 | — | 1,559 | 2,559 | 608 | 408 |
| Asia | 10,018 | 1,990 | 8,028 | — | 5,519 | 4,000 | 328 | 171 |
| China, People's Republic | 6,638 | 313 | 6,325 | — | 3,262 | 3,206 | 140 | 30 |
| Africa | 417 | 190 | 227 | — | 59 | 146 | 108 | 104 |
| Ethiopia | 166 | 75 | 91 | — | 18 | 50 | 60 | 38 |
| Oceania | 52 | 21 | 31 | — | 22 | 17 | 12 | e |
| North America | 2,773 | 1,348 | 1,424 | 1 | 1,830 | 672 | 162 | 109 |
| Guatemala | 2,327 | 1,163 | 1,163 | 1 | 1,766 | 480 | 65 | 16 |
| South America | 406 | 192 | 214 | — | 231 | 82 | 42 | 51 |
| Colombia | 275 | 134 | 141 | — | 206 | 29 | 23 | 17 |
backlog of 1.2 million adjustment-of-status cases pending decisions at the end of the 2003 fiscal year (September 30, 2003). The volume of applications clogged the system, resulting in fewer approved adjustments in 2003. (See Table 3.6.)
New Arrivals by Adoption
Included in the category of immediate relatives are orphans adopted by American citizens. In 2003, 21,320 foreign adopted children were admitted to the United States. (See Table 3.7.) Almost half of the children (10,018) came from Asia. The People's Republic of China was the largest single source with 6,638 children adopted. Ninety-five percent of the Chinese children were females, primarily under the age of four years. According to the Web site for Holt International Children's Services, a nonprofit adoption service, nearly all children available for adoption from China were abandoned, usually left in public places with no identifying information ("FAQs about the China Adoption Process: How Do Children Come into Care?" http://www.holtintl.org/china/chinafaq.shtml).
In a January 6, 2005, story for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty ("China: Population May Peak Under 'One-Child' Policy"), Daisy Sindelar explained China's efforts at birth control. Fear of widespread famine if the population continued to grow at the 1950s birth rate of six children per woman drove the Chinese government to implement a 1979 one-child-per-family policy. While some rural families were allowed a second child if the first was a girl, in most areas enforcement was strict. Punishment for exceeding the limit included forced abortions, beating of men whose wives gave birth to too many children, and sometimes jail terms or sterilization. The restrictions brought the fertility rate down to 1.8 by 2005 but not without negative side effects. The strong cultural preference for a son resulted in the abortion of female fetuses and the killing or abandonment of infant girls.
The vast majority of foreign adopted children were four years of age or younger. Of the 2,739 children aged five to nine years and over nine years, more than one-third (37%) came from Russia, the country that was second to China as a source of children adopted by American families. (See Table 3.7.)
Employment-Based Admissions
According to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), in the decade before 1991 employment-based preferred immigrants accounted for a very small percentage of total immigration. One of the major goals of the Immigration Act of 1990 (IMMACT) was to increase the number of highly skilled workers entering the United States. However, spouses and children continued to claim a significant portion of this class of admission.
Of the 82,137 employment-based admissions in 2003, 32,534 were identified as having "no occupation/not working outside the home," the majority of which were categorized as homemakers, students, and children. The 36,502 employment-based admissions who were actually seeking jobs represented just 5.2% of total immigrants admitted for the fiscal year. The majority (23,744 or 65%) of the actual job seekers in this category were prepared by training and experience to fill professional and technical positions. (See Table 3.8.)
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