Reagan to Biden: Four Decades of Immigration Chaos

They’ve called it broken for decades.

And they’re right. But what they won’t tell you is that the U.S. immigration system isn’t broken by accident. It’s been engineered into a mess—by both parties, across administrations, with a toxic combo of incompetence, political cowardice, and strategic cruelty.

From Reagan’s “amnesty” deal to Biden’s app-based border management, the U.S. has ping-ponged between pretending to fix immigration and actively making it worse. Legal pathways are a bureaucratic maze. Enforcement is scattershot, inconsistent, and often performative. And when all else fails, we slap on another executive workaround that does just enough to kick the can down the road.

Meanwhile, the result? A ballooning undocumented population, record-high border crossings, legal limbo for millions, and a population more confused than ever about who’s allowed here and why.

This isn’t about “open borders” or “fortress America.” It’s about the facts—and the forty years of political theater that brought us here.

🚨 TL;DR: Pick Your Flavor of Chaos

This one’s long. Like 40 years of bipartisan incompetence long. So if don't want to read the whole thing, you can pick your own adventure by clicking one of the sections below:

What the Hell Even Is Legal Immigration?Permalink

Lawful vs. Unauthorized: Know the Difference, or Be PlayedPermalink

Here’s the trick politicians use: they scream about “illegal immigrants” without ever explaining how stupidly easy it is to fall out of legal status in the first place.

There are two basic immigration categories: lawful and unauthorized. Sounds simple. It’s not.

Lawful means you’ve got government permission—temporarily or permanently. This includes:

• Lawful Permanent Residents (LPRs): AKA green card holders. They can live and work here permanently ¹.
• Nonimmigrants: Temporary visitors—tourists, students, guest workers ³.
• Refugees and Asylees: People granted protection based on persecution ⁵.

Unauthorized means you’re in the country illegally—but here’s the kicker: you don’t have to sneak across the border to get there. You can come in legally, overstay a visa, and boom—you’re out of status and accumulating unlawful presence ⁷. That starts the countdown to bans:

• 180+ days out of status = 3-year ban if you leave.
• 1+ year = 10-year ban.
• Re-enter after that? You’re permanently barred unless you qualify for a waiver ⁷.

Minors and asylum seekers don’t always accrue unlawful presence—but the rules are as clear as mud and easy to break.

So when politicians bleat about “illegal aliens,” remember: most people don’t sneak in—they fall out. Bureaucracy does the dirty work.

How Do You Get In Legally? Spoiler: You Probably Don’tPermalink

There are several official ways to immigrate legally. But most people aren’t eligible for any of them. Here’s why:

Family visas? Backlogged for decades in some cases. Employment-based? Good luck unless you’ve got an advanced degree or $1 million to throw around. The lottery? Literally a crapshoot. And asylum? You better have airtight documentation or be ready to wait in a tent city for years.

The legal pathways are narrow and riddled with landmines. No wonder millions end up in limbo.

Life in Limbo: The Immigration Twilight ZonePermalink

Asylum, Parole, CBP One—Legal? Kinda. Stable? Hell no.Permalink

There’s a whole slice of U.S. immigration that lives in purgatory. Not quite legal. Not quite illegal. Just bureaucratically suspended in air.

We’re talking:

• Asylum applicants
• Parolees
• CBP One users
• TPS and DACA recipients

All these people are here, but not really here. Their status is like Schrödinger’s green card: maybe it’ll materialize, maybe they’ll get deported mid-process. Depends on the day.

Asylum: Say the Magic Words and Hope You Don’t Get LostPermalink

Asylum sounds simple—flee persecution, request protection. In reality? It’s a legal obstacle course with a multi-year waitlist.

You could apply two ways:

• Affirmatively with USCIS, if you’re not already in removal proceedings ⁵.
• Defensively, if you’re already in removal and trying to avoid deportation ¹⁹.

As of mid-2022, the U.S. had:

• 915,000 pending defensive asylum cases.
• 720,000 pending affirmative asylum applications ¹⁹.

That backlog’s bigger than the population of San Francisco—and growing. Fast.

While you wait? You can’t be deported^{(in theory)}. Maybe you can work. But you can’t leave. You can’t plan. You can’t sleep easy.

Welcome to the “Not Illegal But Not Welcome” club.

Humanitarian Parole: AKA “Temporary Until It Isn’t”Permalink

Parole is the Swiss Army knife of immigration policy. It lets DHS let people in without admitting them. Yes, really.

They get:

• No formal status
• Temporary presence
• Maybe work authorization ²²

It’s used for:

• Afghans, Ukrainians, Venezuelans, Haitians, and more.
• People in crisis who don’t fit any other box.
• Biden’s shiny CHNV program (Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela), which required a U.S. sponsor and entry through CBP One ²⁴. (Author Note: This program was ended by Trump in 2025.)

It’s wasn’t asylum. It’s wasn’t a visa. It was a Band-Aid with a time limit.

And like all temporary things in the U.S. immigration system, it yanked with zero warning.

CBP One: Border Management by App StorePermalink

CBP One was a (now defunct) mobile app that migrants were required to use to request appointments at U.S. ports of entry.

Sounds high-tech. In reality? It was glitchy, slow, and overwhelmed ²⁵.

This was the deal:

• Migrants couldn’t just walk up to the border anymore.
• They were required to wait in certain cities, schedule a slot in the app, show up, and maybe get processed for asylum or parole.
• It was like OpenTable for humanitarian desperation.

But this didn’t guarantee legal status. It just got them through the door—where they were dumped into the asylum backlog or granted parole limbo.

And if they missed their window? DHS told you to “leave immediately” ²⁵. As if they had a round-trip ticket and an Airbnb waiting in Tegucigalpa.

Legal-ish: Millions Lived in This Gray ZonePermalink

This shadow system was not a bug—it’s a feature. Why?

Because it let politicians:

• Say they’re “protecting the vulnerable” without granting permanence.
• Boost enforcement stats without overhauling laws.
• Manage migration flows without Congress doing anything.

But for the people stuck in it?

It’s an endless waiting room. Paperwork purgatory. A life you can’t build, but can’t leave behind.

Legal Admissions vs. the Undocumented RealityPermalink

One Million Legal Immigrants per Year—Give or TakePermalink

If you believe the headlines, America’s border is wide open and we’re being “invaded.”

The reality? The U.S. legally admits about 1 million people per year for permanent residence ⁹. That includes:

• Family-sponsored immigrants
• Employment-based green cards
• Diversity visa winners
• Refugees and asylees adjusting status

In FY2023: 1,172,910 new lawful permanent residents (LPRs) were admitted ⁹.

But here’s the kicker: this number exceeds the supposed “cap” on legal immigration because…

• Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens are exempt from caps
• Unused visas roll over across categories
• Backlogged cases get processed late

Translation? The quota system is a mess. And it’s gaming its own rules to keep up.

The Great Ghost Population: 11 to 13.7 Million UndocumentedPermalink

Meanwhile, the shadow population lives next door.

• Pew: 11.0 million undocumented in 2022 ¹⁸
• MPI: 13.7 million by mid-2023, when you count the legally gray (TPS, DACA, parole, pending asylum) ²⁹

Estimates of the Undocumented Population

MPI’s updated number matters. It reflects reality: people with temporary papers but zero path to permanence are still in limbo—and often lumped in with “illegals” in policy debates.

How Did They Get Here? Spoiler: It’s Not Just the BorderPermalink

Let’s kill a myth right now: Most undocumented immigrants didn’t sneak across the Rio Grande.

Since 2007, the majority of new undocumented residents came legally and overstayed their visas ³¹. You read that right.

Visa overstays > Border crossers.

In 2014:

• 66% of new undocumented = Visa overstays
• 34% = Entered without inspection (EWI)

And that trend likely continued or worsened, but DHS doesn’t even bother tracking overstays at land borders. All we get is air/sea data.

DHS’s Pathetic Overstay DataPermalink

In FY2023:

• 39 million expected air/sea departures
• 399,708 suspected overstays
• Final overstay rate: 1.02% ³²

Low percentage, right? Sure—but 1% of 39 million is still a small city’s worth of people vanishing into the void.

And this doesn’t include:

• Overland visitors from Mexico/Canada
• Visa Waiver Program entrants via land
• Anyone who entered legally but violated terms later

We’re flying blind on a massive part of the undocumented flow.

Mode of Entry BreakdownPermalink

TL;DR?Permalink

You can build all the walls you want.
If you’re ignoring visa overstays, you’re fighting half a war.

Border hysteria is political theater.
The real leakage is happening at consulates, airports, and immigration offices.

And the people stuck in limbo? They’re legal enough to pay taxes, but not legal enough to get on with their lives.

The Real Immigrant Profile: Who’s Actually Here?Permalink

Forget the slogans. Let’s look at the foreign-born population like adults.

Record Numbers, But Still Below Historic HighsPermalink

In 2023, 47.8 million foreign-born people lived in the U.S.—14.3% of the total population ¹⁸.
That’s a record in raw numbers, but let’s not lose our minds.

In 1890, immigrants made up 14.8% of the population.
That’s right—the Ellis Island era had a higher share.

So, unless your grandma was ICE-ing people off the boat, spare us the “unprecedented invasion” rhetoric.

Citizenship: The End Goal (For Most)Permalink

Let’s break it down by legal status. Pew’s 2022 numbers are the clearest snapshot ¹⁸:

U.S. Foreign-Born Population by Status (2022)

Translation?

• Nearly 3 in 4 immigrants are here legally.
• Half are full-fledged U.S. citizens.

And those here without status? Many have been here for over a decade, are raising U.S. citizen children, and pay taxes—without access to most benefits.

The Legally Fragile: TPS, DACA, ParolePermalink

Now, here’s the blurry middle. People who are:

• Protected from deportation
• Allowed to work
• But have no path to permanent legal status

We’re talking:

• ~595,000 DACA recipients ¹⁹
• ~650,000 TPS holders ¹⁸
• ~1.7 million pending asylum cases in backlog ¹⁹

We’ve created a shadow caste of semi-legal people we let clean our homes, drive our Ubers, care for our kids—then hang legal purgatory over their heads like a sword.

DHS Numbers (Spoiler: Not So Precise)Permalink

DHS tracks Lawful Permanent Residents (LPRs) and naturalizations—but good luck finding up-to-date totals on:

• How many people are on humanitarian parole
• How many still have valid visas after overstaying work authorization
• Who’s slipped into “out of status” limbo after losing employment or student status

Why? Because the system is held together by spreadsheets, duct tape, and wishful thinking.

Legal-ish ≠ SecurePermalink

Even folks with documents are one job loss, denied renewal, or USCIS backlog away from slipping through the cracks.

• A DACA recipient misses a renewal? Game over.
• A TPS holder’s designation ends? Deportable.
• An asylum seeker denied after 7 years of waiting? Gone.

America loves “legal immigration”—until it actually meets the people living in its paperwork purgatory.

TL;DR?Permalink

• Nearly half of all immigrants are full U.S. citizens.
• Another quarter are green card holders.
• And roughly a quarter are undocumented, liminal, or “legal-ish” but not secure.

This isn’t a foreign horde. It’s your coworkers, neighbors, babysitters, and bosses.

• They’re already here.
• They’ve been here.
• And pretending otherwise isn’t just delusional—it’s destructive.

Why Unauthorized Migration Happens: It’s Not a MysteryPermalink

You hear it every election cycle:

“Why don’t they come legally?”

Because the system’s rigged. Not by some globalist conspiracy.

By decades of policy written by people who wanted the labor, not the citizens.

Let’s unpack the bait-and-switch.

Legal Pathways Are a Pipe Dream for MostPermalink

Here’s what “coming legally” actually requires:

Family Sponsorship?Permalink

Hope you have a U.S. citizen sibling and 20 years to spare if you’re from Mexico or the Philippines ⁹.

Employer-Sponsored Green Card?Permalink

Need an advanced degree, six figures, and a company willing to spend $10K+ and wait years for paperwork. That’s assuming you’re not from India—then it’s decades ¹⁰.

Refugee Resettlement?Permalink

Only available outside the U.S. You can’t be here already. You’ll also need a UN referral, a lottery win, and a vetting process more intense than a CIA background check ¹⁴.

Asylum?Permalink

You have to be on U.S. soil or at a port of entry to even apply ⁵.

Then wait in limbo for years, praying your claim fits one of five narrow legal grounds—not including poverty, gang violence, or climate collapse ¹⁵.

Tourist Visa?Permalink

Must prove you have no intent to stay, stable income, and strong ties to your home country—none of which you have if your government collapsed or your cousin was just murdered.

Legal immigration is like a nightclub bouncer telling you to wait in line while they wave their buddies through the side door.

You Don’t “Just Get In Line” If There’s No Line for YouPermalink

There is no line for most of the world.

No visa. No channel. No path.

So when your country collapses—and we’ll get to why that happens next—you either:

1. Wait for a miracle
2. Pay a coyote
3. Risk your life

Millions pick option 3. Because the odds here, even undocumented, beat certain hell at home.

Humanitarian Parole = Bureaucratic Hunger GamesPermalink

Let’s say you’re Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, or Venezuelan. The Biden administration might let you in under humanitarian parole—if you:

• Have a valid passport
• Apply from outside the U.S.
• Secure a U.S. sponsor
• Pass background checks
• Wait your turn
• Avoid glitches on the CBP One app ²⁴

Guess what? Most people fleeing gang control in Port-au-Prince don’t have:

• Internet
• A valid passport
• A fluent English-speaking U.S. sponsor with tax returns handy

It’s Hunger Games meets Black Mirror.

Bottom Line? Legal Migration Is for the Lucky and the RichPermalink

If you’re:

• White
• Educated
• Wealthy
• From a country with a low visa backlog

…then the system might work for you.

If you’re:

• Poor
• From the Global South
• Desperate
• Or just born in the wrong country

…you get the border wall, the detention bed, the asylum backlog from hell - or if you have a soccer tattoo you just might get sent to CECOT to die.

Executive Failure: Every President Built This CrisisPermalink

Let’s kill the myth that immigration policy is just a victim of “gridlock.” It’s not.

Every president since Reagan has worsened the mess—by choice. Some cloaked it in compassion, others weaponized it in plain sight. But every one of them handed off a more chaotic, punitive, and broken system than they inherited.

Some highlights?

• Reagan: Promised amnesty, delivered confusion.
• Clinton: Criminalized overstay and asylum.
• Bush Jr.: Nationalized immigration into DHS hell.
• Obama: Gave us DACA—and record deportations.
• Trump: Broke it on purpose.
• Biden: Rebranded cruelty as tech-savvy control.
• Trump 2.0: Now doing it all again, just faster.

And the damage is cumulative.

This isn’t “partisan.” It’s a timeline of deliberate sabotage.

Each admin kicked the can.
Each one called it “reform.”
And each one tightened the screws.

Crisis, Chaos, and Culpability: Why They’re FleeingPermalink

Let’s stop pretending this is some cosmic mystery. People don’t risk their lives in the Darién Gap for fun. They’re not hiking 2,000 miles with toddlers because they “hate our laws.”

They’re running from fire.

And spoiler: we helped light it.

Haiti: Decades of Interventions, Zero StabilityPermalink

Haiti isn’t a failed state. It’s a systematically sabotaged one.

• In 1994, the U.S. sent in 20,000 troops to restore President Aristide—then later withdrew support when he dared raise the minimum wage and confront elite interests ³³.
• After the 2010 earthquake, billions in foreign aid flowed in. The Red Cross raised half a billion dollars and built… six houses ³⁴.
• The U.S. backed President Jovenel Moïse even as he ruled by decree, delayed elections, and oversaw worsening repression. His 2021 assassination created a power vacuum now filled by heavily armed gangs, not public officials ^{25 35}.

Today? Haitians flee cities where the police have fled, and gangs run the ports and airports. Kidnappings, rape, and arson are part of daily life ^{25 31}. The state is missing. And the U.S.? Still backing a “Transitional Presidential Council” so unpopular it’s debating itself in circles while the country burns ³⁵.

Venezuela: Sanctions, Starvation, and a Collapsing StatePermalink

Yes, Maduro is a corrupt authoritarian. Yes, Chavismo helped wreck the economy. But let’s not whitewash our role:

• U.S. oil sanctions in 2019—on top of 2017 financial restrictions—gutted Venezuela’s last revenue source, triggering further collapse ^{54 13}.
• Imports of food and medicine plummeted. Hospitals shut down. Infant mortality soared. Measles and malaria made a comeback ^{10 14}.
• As of 2024, over 7.7 million Venezuelans had fled—the biggest refugee crisis in the Americas, dwarfing anything at the U.S.-Mexico border ¹³.

“Maximum pressure” didn’t topple Maduro.

It crushed the people he ruled.

U.S. Policy: The Arsonist Who Shows Up With a HosePermalink

Haitians and Venezuelans aren’t coming because Biden “invited” them or because Trump “wasn’t tough enough.”

They’re coming because their countries disintegrated, and Washington helped push them off the cliff.

Then, instead of offering real refuge, we hand them:

• TPS that expires every 18 months like a library book ^{3 23}
• Parole programs that require internet access and paperwork most don’t have ³
• An asylum backlog stretching into 2028 ²³

And when that doesn’t work?

We toss them on a deportation flight.

It’s like blaming a housefire victim for not using the front door.

The Migration Myth Machine: Lies, Distractions, and Border TheaterPermalink

Turn on cable news and you’d think the U.S.-Mexico border is under siege by a Venezuelan invasion squad and a Haitian narco-army. Tucker screams about “open borders,” MSNBC mumbles about “humanitarian pathways,” and both sides manage to ignore the part where U.S. policy helped cause the damn crisis.

Let’s unpack the myths. Then torch them.

Myth #1: “They’re just coming for freebies.”Permalink

If you think crossing jungles, dodging cartels, and risking death for a $15 dishwashing job is some get-rich-quick scheme, congratulations—you’ve never met a refugee.

Studies show that migrants from Venezuela and Haiti overwhelmingly cite violence, hunger, and persecution as reasons for leaving—not welfare handouts ^{13 31}. Venezuelan migrants are disproportionately skilled professionals, doctors, teachers, engineers—now delivering Uber Eats in Bogotá or New York ⁴⁸.

These aren’t opportunists.

They’re survivors.

Myth #2: “Sanctions don’t affect migration.”Permalink

Tell that to the millions who fled after Venezuela’s oil income tanked post-2017.

Yes, Venezuela was in freefall before sanctions. No, sanctions didn’t start the fire. But when the U.S. cut off oil revenue in 2019, it was like slashing the last lifeline on a sinking ship ^{54 13}. Imports collapsed. Food and medicine disappeared. Malaria surged. So did migration ¹⁰.

Some economists still try to argue that fewer sanctions mean more migration—because people can now afford to flee ⁷⁴. It’s a clever theory. It’s also been debunked ⁷².

Bottom line: sanctions choke economies. When an economy dies, people leave. Ask Cuba. Ask Iran. Ask history.

Myth #3: “The border is open.”Permalink

If by “open” you mean thousands deported and locked up daily, then sure.

Border apprehensions of Haitians and Venezuelans have surged—but so have expulsions, removals, and detentions ^{3 23}. Title 42 turned back over 2 million people during the pandemic, including families and asylum seekers. Even after it ended, new asylum rules require migrants to first apply in a third country—many of which are less safe than the ones they fled ²³.

Meanwhile, parole programs require a U.S. sponsor, internet access, and the patience of a DMV line from hell. And TPS? Only if you were already here.

This isn’t an “open border.”
It’s a bureaucratic meat grinder.

We Built This Crisis—Now We’re Panicking About the SmokePermalink

Here’s the truth no one on Capitol Hill wants to say out loud: we helped create the very migrant crisis we’re now trying to “solve.”

Decades of foreign policy built on regime change fantasies, disaster capitalism, and performative humanitarianism have turned entire nations into exodus zones. Then we act shocked when people show up at our door—bloodied, broken, and still clutching hope.

Let’s recap:

• We backed coups and corrupt elites in Haiti, then abandoned the country after the cameras left.
• We poured billions into NGOs while the Haitian state withered.
• We sanctioned Venezuela into starvation, hoping to unseat Maduro, and instead helped trigger one of the largest refugee crises on earth.
• Then we responded by tightening the border, slapping up new asylum restrictions, and exporting our crisis to Mexico and the rest of Latin America.

Foreign policy timeline: intervene, destabilize, deny responsibility. Then panic when the fallout shows up at your border. Sources: Crisis Group, GAO

None of this is accidental.
It’s policy.

And now, instead of asking why so many are fleeing, we debate how to make it harder for them to get in. As if migration is the disease—not the symptom.

If you burn down your neighbor’s house, you don’t get to complain when they knock on your door for shelter.

And yet—here we are.

So the question isn’t “Why are they coming?”

The question is: How long are we going to pretend we didn’t light the match?

SourcesPermalink

[1] Lawful Permanent Resident (Green Card Holder) – USCIS
[2] Yearbook of Immigration Statistics (FY2023) – DHS
[3] Nonimmigrant – USCIS
[4] Haitian Immigrants in the U.S. – Migration Policy Institute
[5] Refugee or Asylee – USCIS
[6] Refugee & Asylum System Briefing – USCIS
[7] Unlawful Presence and Inadmissibility – USCIS
[8] Asylum in the United States – American Immigration Council
[9] Permanent Legal Immigration to the United States – CRS
[10] Employment-Based Immigration Pathways – USCIS
[11] Key Findings About U.S. Immigrants – Pew Research Center
[12] Unauthorized Immigrants in the U.S. – Pew Research Center
[13] Venezuela Situation – UNHCR Global Focus
[14] Sanctions and Venezuela’s Crisis – CEPR
[15] Humanitarian Crisis in Venezuela – Brookings
[16] Venezuelan Migration – World Bank
[17] Parole – USCIS
[18] Venezuelan Immigrants in the U.S. – MPI
[19] CBP One Fact Sheet – U.S. Customs and Border Protection
[20] CBP One Deportation Warning – NPR
[21] Unauthorized Immigrant Population (2023) – MPI
[22] Visa Overstays vs. Border Crossers – Center for Migration Studies
[23] DHS FY2023 Overstay Report – DHS
[24] Post-MINUSTAH Haiti Report – Crisis Group
[25] Red Cross in Haiti – ProPublica
[26] Haiti: Political Crisis and U.S. Policy – CRS
[27] Locked Transition in Haiti – Crisis Group
[28] Haiti: Instability and Gang Violence – IRC
[29] Venezuela Sanctions Oversight – GAO
[30] U.S. Sanctions and Venezuela’s Crisis – WOLA
[31] Skilled Venezuelan Migrants – World Bank
[32] Sanctions Not Driving Migration – CGD
[33] Did Sanctions Relief Drive Migration? – CEPR
[34] Haiti Displacement Crisis – IOM
[35] Immigration Statistics – DHS
[48] Venezuelan Professionals – World Bank
[54] Sanctions Impact on Venezuela – GAO
[72] Sanctions Relief and Migration – CEPR
[74] Empirical Assessment: Sanctions & Migration – CGD