Point System Is Key To Immigration Overhaul

Depending on how a point system is constructed, a Ghanaian physician fluent in English could get priority to enter the country, for example, over a Spanish-speaking hotel maid from Guatemala whose brother is a U.S. citizen. That kinship-based system, in place since 1965, has encouraged large immigrant flows from Latin America and Asia, although that was not the original intention. Such "chain migration" has become a potent conservative criticism of U.S. immigration policy and poses a major stumbling block to efforts to legalize the estimated 12 million people now in the country illegally. Critics say such legalization efforts would encourage these new residents to bring their relatives, leading to millions more immigrants based not on skills but on family ties. Immigrant rights groups, which are often organized on ethnic lines, are adamant that some form of family ties remain central to U.S. immigration policy. Cecilia Munoz, vice president at the National Council of La Raza, a Latino immigrant lobbying group, called the point system a radical experiment. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/05/15/MNG3APQRSQ1.DTL

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