Lorena Rivas, Esq.CEO/Managing Partner at Rivas & Associates

They're doing it the legal way. The legal way isn't working.

2 Oct 2026 · 2 min

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1:37

In this commentary, attorney Lorena Rivas, Esq. condemns current U.S. immigration enforcement practices as corrupt and immoral, focusing on the deliberate separation of families. She highlights how spouses, children, and other family members of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents now face heightened obstacles to obtaining status. Rivas also points out that victims of crime, abuse, and trafficking are being denied assistance at higher rates. She critiques a recent administrative interpretation that bars anyone who entered the country without inspection from receiving an immigration bond or even a bond hearing, effectively denying them a chance at release. Rivas argues that expanding legal immigration pathways and lifting these restrictive numbers would reduce illegal immigration, noting that the existing “legal way”—paying fees and meeting requirements—fails to help desperate individuals, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation.

Chapters

If you have a deliberate policy of separating that unit, that is that's a very corrupt system. That's a very corrupt society. That's a very immoral society. That if you are trying to dismantle something that is is is truly sacred, the family. We're talking about spouses, children, family members of U.S. citizen and legal permanent residents who in the past could gain status, and now they're having to go through a lot of obstacles. We're also talking about. Victims of crime, victims of abuse, victims of trafficking were also being denied at much higher rates. The administration interpreted created a new interpretation of who is eligible for a bond hearing—not just a bond, but a bond hearing—the right to ask to be freed—and they decided that anybody who entered the country without inspection, without a visa, without permission—as in illegally. were not eligible for an immigration bond. And so I thoroughly believe if we could just lift those numbers and have more people come legally, then we'll have less illegal immigration. They're trying to do it the legal way. They're doing it. They're paying the fees. And these people are, you know, have no criminal issues. Again, people trying to do it the legal way, but the legal way is not working. People are desperate for help. People need help. And they're easy prey for it. Go for it, Charlene.