An opinion piece in the New York Times noted that a major problem with the immigration system is the length of the line non-citizens from certain countries must endure while waiting for a visa to become available. For example, lawful residents or citizens wishing to petition for certain family members from Mexico must wait decades before even applying for a green card. Thus, the current system encourages illegal immigration, when legal immigration becomes completely impractical.
The author advocated tying visa availability proportionally instead of allocating visas equally to all countries. The end result would eliminate long waits for certain countries (Mexico, Philippines, India, China) while creating somewhat longer waits for those countries that now have no wait (New Zealand, Belgium).
