President Trump has repeatedly stated that Congress must end Chain Migration as part of any legislative deal on DACA. Under our current Chain Migration system, newcomers are admitted to the United States based on family ties and distant relations, as opposed to a merit-based system that selects newcomers based on economic and national security criteria.

The large influx of predominantly low-skilled migrants has had substantial fiscal and national security consequences. To understand the scale of the challenge that Chain Migration poses to those in charge of our nation’s checks and screening processes, it is worth providing some numerical context…