Castle Rock, Colorado – Katherine waited in Colombia for nine years before her immigration application was approved, allowing her to join her siblings in the United States. Two years later, she said she was still waiting for her husband to be allowed to join her in her new home in Colorado.
You cringe when you think the tens of thousands of people who flood across the southern border every month didn't wait like I did.
And she said to Fox News Digital. “And some people cross the border for free and that's it.”
“It is shameful that we have illegal migrants here that are cutting to the front of the line and not going through this process,” Castle Rock town councilman and state Rep. Max Brooks, a Republican, told Fox News Digital.
Migrants seeking asylum in the United States are held in line at a border crossing in Tijuana, Mexico, January 18, 2025. Down from about 304,000 in fiscal year 2017, it began to increase again during Trump's first term, then rose to a higher Its levels during the Biden administration. (Reuters/Jorge Dones)
On the ground in Colorado where President-elect Trump promises to remove “brutal gangs” of illegals
Illegal immigration is among the political issues that led to President Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 election. Trump pledged in Opening address Monday to “end the practice of catch-and-release,” and signed the first set of executive actions that included an order allowing the military to formulate a plan to “close the border,” and another ending the use of the CBP One App to process migrants.
Trump's attention turned to Colorado after a viral video showed Venezuelan migrants carrying guns inside Aurora apartment complex.
Ahead of Inauguration Day, Fox News Digital spoke with Katherine and her sister, Zulie V Castle rocka town about 30 miles south of Denver, about deportation and immigration plans. They both agreed that the country needs strict border security.
“Although most people come with the intention of working, helping the city grow, and growing personally, there are a lot of people walking in who are not good people,” Zolli said. She added that it is important for immigrants “to get an education in civic culture so that we all behave as we should.”
Zolie and Katherine felt the wave of illegal border crossings slowed the process for legal immigrants.
But David Baer, director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, pushed back on the idea that illegal immigrants have any impact on wait times for legal immigrants because customs and border protection do not process immigration applications.
“It is being processed by a separate agency,” he said. “If someone is crossing the border illegally, it will not directly impact anyone in the legal immigration system that is trying to eliminate the legal process.”
Burr also argued that the delays plaguing the system, brackets on green cards and narrow restrictions on eligibility make legal immigration “almost impossible.”
“It's a guilty until proven innocent system. The only way you can prove your innocence or eligibility for immigration is if you fall into very narrow exceptions,” he said.
Zolli, who immigrated to the United States from Colombia, said green cards for spouses and children of lawful permanent residents used to be “straightforward,” but now take years. “It's frustrating because immigration processes have become much longer,” she said. (Alba Cuebas-Fantauzzi/Fox News Digital)
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US law currently allows officials to grant up to 675,000 permanent immigrant visas each year across certain categories, according to American Immigration Council. Priority is given to non-middle relatives of US citizens (there is no cap on green cards for adult citizen spouses, parents, or children) and relatives of lawful permanent residents. Skilled workers, highly educated individuals, and “persons of exceptional ability” in the arts, sciences, athletics, or other fields may also qualify.
“The exceptions are so narrow that only about 3% of all people who were trying to immigrate legally last year got a green card and were able to become legal residents,” Beer said.
He said efforts to strengthen border security are less likely to deter illegal immigration than address the incentives — primarily economic — for entering the United States.
“The benefits of coming to the United States are enormous,” Bear said. “You can make it more expensive for people, but as long as the benefits continue to rise for immigration here, you're going to see people paying more, finding ways around any restrictions that are imposed, and creating more chaos and unrest at our borders.”
Removing or increasing caps on immigration and making it easier for employers to sponsor workers “would alleviate a significant portion of the problems we face at the border,” Burr argued.
“When I talk to Border Patrol agents, they really want people who are coming for peaceful reasons, for work purposes or family reunification, to apply at the consulate so we can focus on our job of securing the border against threats, criminals and other people who we want to stay out of our country,” he said.
Border agents search a migrant border in March 2024, near Jacumba Hot Springs, California. (Hannah Rae Lambert/Fox News Digital)
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Meanwhile, in Colorado, state Rep. Brooks said he would support an “expedited system” to process undocumented immigrants who want to become legal residents, but must leave the country to go through the process.
“I took them back south across the border and started the paperwork for them if they wanted to naturalize,” he said. “But right now, if you are an illegal immigrant in this country, you should be removed.”
