The last major change to immigration law was the Illegal Immigration Restriction and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) of 1996. It made the system significa

The last major change to immigration law was the Illegal Immigration Restriction and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) of 1996. It made the system significantly more complex, shifted much more of the legal burden of proof to prospective immigrants, and made it much harder for people adjust status or regularize administrative violations (eg paying a fine to wipe the slate clean if they had overstayed a visa). The administrative side of the immigration system (courts, boards of review, judges, bureaucrats) are woefully underfunded, and politicians keep choosing not to und it so they can complain about how bad the administrative backlog is. all of the funding is supposed to come from application fees paid by immigrants, so not only does it take forever but it costs many thousands of $ in filings fees alone. The system is basically designed not to work, and to maximize cost, inconvenience, and legal penalties so as to provide a a workforce for the agricultural, construction, and food service industries that doesn't have access to labor protections and can't unionize, while also serving as a reliable political football to kick around. If you're in the US, you can take post-grad classes in law at the offices of your local bar association. Lawyers are required to take a certain number of continuing legal education classes every year to keep their license. They're cheap, maybe $30-50 for a 3 hour class, usually taught in the evening. Take one in immigration law; not to become well versed in the subject (which would take a few years of study) but to see how shocked regular criminal and civil lawyers are when they encounter the immigration legal system. As one conservative immigration judge who was teaching a class said, it's a parallel legal universe in which the constitution is largely irrelevant. IIRIRA was a central plank of Newt Gingrich conservatives that swept into power in 1994 in opposition to Bill Clinton. They wanted revenge on the Democrats for talking Reagan into signing an amnesty bill in the 1980s and basically got it, because Democrats are terrified of making any concrete proposals to liberalize it, plus it suits them to have a human rights issue they can complain about but not bother to fix with legislation (much like abortion). IIRIRA was passed around the same time that Fox News came into existence, and it's no accident that immigration scare stories are a perennial topic in that news channel.