Bier and Alex Nowrasteh, vice president for economic and social policy studies, seek to reduce the complexity of the system to allow more peaceful and skilled people to legally immigrate with a minimum of bureaucracy. Their proposals would help reduce border chaos, decrease illegal immigration, and boost the economy. They are among the nation’s most widely cited immigration experts, testifying four times in Congress in 2023 and having their work featured weekly in leading media outlets, including the New York Times, Fox News, NPR, and elsewhere. And policymakers are beginning to take heed.

Bier and Nowrasteh proposed a program for Americans to sponsor immigrants from nations that are flooding the border. In January, the Biden administration partially implemented that idea for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans, reducing illegal immigration from those nations by about 85 percent.

Cato was one of the first think tanks to explain the perverse incentives of Title 42 and how it contributed to a less secure border. The Institute’s amicus brief and subsequent research helped lead to the demise of the ill-designed policy that banned asylum for more than three years. “Got aways”—those who entered the US illegally but evaded arrest—fell from a high of 73,463 in April 2023 just before Title 42 ended to about 21,758 in February 2024. Ending Title 42 appears to have been the biggest single benefit to border security in its history. Cato was a leading voice advocating that more immigrants be able to apply for asylum at legal crossing points with Mexico. The Biden administration increased the numerical cap to over 500,000 per year in the summer of 2023 after Bier met with administration officials to discuss this policy change. The administration also extended the employment authorization validity period to five years for many visas, a policy change recommended by Bier in an April policy analysis.

Most Americans—and most policymakers—do not understand how difficult it is for immigrants to enter the United States legally, with some imagining it’s little more than putting your name on a list. As part of our efforts to find compelling new ways to tell the story of US immigration, in August Cato launched the Green Card Game, which allows people to experience firsthand what it’s like to get a green card in the United States. The game demonstrates in an interactive way how restrictive the US legal immigration process really is. Within six weeks of launching, the site received more than 32,000 hits and received shout-outs on X by Greg Sargent of the Washington Post, Michelle Hackman of the Wall Street Journal, and Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R‑FL).