While the argument over immigration reform continues to rage, the United States is anticipating admitting ten million new immigrants who are coming to the country legally in expectation of eventually gaining citizenship – a number that exceeds the combined population of seven big US cities.
Federal data compiled by the office of Alabama representative Jeff Sessions suggests that the current influx rate of legal immigrants will exceed the populations of Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta, St Louis, Chicago, Denver and Boston combined. The United States provides green cards to around one million new legal immigrants per annum, with 5.25 million green cards issued by the Department of Homeland Security over the course of the last five years.
Recent suggestions for immigration reform propose drastically increasing the amount of immigrants legally allowed to enter the United States every year, with the number of green cards issued per annum tripled in the 2013 immigration bill passed by the Senate but that ultimately collapsed in the House of Representatives. Sessions’ office claims that polls consistently demonstrate that very few Americans want legal immigration increased beyond its current levels.
In June a Gallup poll found that while 41% of Americans favored decreasing the current levels of legal immigration, just 22% were in favor of increasing them. 58% of Americans are against the executive action taken by President Obama on immigration reform, according to a Paragon Insights poll.