American immigration law is famously schizophrenic, in ways that are unsatisfying to everyone. The laws themselves are written to be quite harsh but also insanely complex, with exceptions to rules and exceptions to those exceptions. Legal immigrants suffer unreasonable delays and red tape that make it harder to enter, harder to stay, and harder to plan their lives. Enforcement is sporadic, with many illegal aliens and people who illegally overstay their entry slipping through the cracks, or disappearing after they have been caught. For people who actually get caught and held in the legal system, the rules can be pitiless. …