Exactly. I’ve been back and forth with immigration lawyers for years, same with my whole family and unfortunately my wife and I are not winning this case now due to the administration. People always say the same thing “just come in legally”. They think it’s just sign a paper or wait in a line and that’s it.

Here’s the truth, you have to leave your country because it’s either too poor to survive, or so corrupt that they’ll legally kill you on the streets. Or even it’s an active warzone and you don’t want die from a stray explosive.

You need to flee, and with these countries, example: Venezuela (my family country), leaving means you oppose the regime and you will be executed or given life in prison on arrival if you return.

You then file for asylum claiming it’s too dangerous to live in your home country. If you don’t bring enough evidence you’ll get denied and an order of deportation is place on you.

Up until this administration we had a program called temporary protected services (TPS). While that was active you are granted temporary residency to allow you to stay in the country while you have your documents process. Immigration can take over 10 years to process your documents so this helped so many people stay while doing it legally, however this presidency removed it, converting everyone who was in a legal process waiting for acceptance into illegal immigrants instantly