Columbus Day (which in Colorado is supplemented by Cabrini Day, observed one week earlier) is a federal holiday intended to honor Italian-Americans and remind millions of Americans where our families came from. I am indeed grateful that my Italian great-grandparents were given the opportunity to arrive in the United States and ultimately become citizens. Their decision to pursue the American dream and move to where the “streets were paved in gold” led to my being a U.S. citizen. But as an immigration attorney as well as an American, I am frustrated that their stories would not be possible today.

Americans celebrate our great “melting pot” because immigration is central to our country’s story. Tangible connections to the “old country” continue to influence our lives, whether through food, family customs, community events, religious traditions or other elements of our identity. For me, an appreciation for Grandma’s lasagna, our family’s sarcastic humor and our Catholic faith all stem from my Italian and Irish family history. They contribute to my pride as an American.

Last fall, I spoke at an immigration conference in Palermo, the same port city where my Italian family embarked for America 120 years ago. I walked the city’s streets and looked across the same Mediterranean waters that my immigrant relatives saw when they envisioned a better life. My presentation highlighted how current immigration laws in the United States lack viable citizenship pathways for working-class people like my great-grandparents. The United States still has jobs for immigrant workers; in fact, the country is facing labor shortages as foreign-born workers are removed or barred from the United States. But Ellis Island is no longer a gateway for newcomers, and without updated policies, immigrants cannot legally access employment opportunities to better themselves and fulfill America’s economic needs.

I often encounter the argument that potential immigrants to the United States should “do it the legal way, like my family did!” It is an understandable comment. In the early 1900s, my family passed through Ellis Island legally without much documentation, likely in a matter of hours. They chose to become U.S. citizens years later. But the Immigration Act of 1924 all but closed the door to legal immigration for those willing to work in often-undesirable jobs in pursuit of a better life for their families.

Americans must acknowledge that Ellis Island is now a museum—and our immigration laws belong in one. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 again made it clear that working-class migrants were not welcome and instead focused on immigrants who possessed familial connections to the United States or high levels of education. Nowadays, the procedures to obtain a visa and, for those eligible, a green card and citizenship through naturalization take years. Visa categories like the H-2A and H-2B do not create a viable pathway to remain in the United States, and most other visas continue to require high levels of education. For working-class migrants, the kind who once arrived at Ellis Island, applying for asylum because of persecution or the fear of persecution has become the default option. But asylum claims are not easy to pursue; obtaining work authorization with a pending asylum case, for example, takes months. Procedural delays also contribute significantly to the size of the undocumented population in the United States. 

Immigration law has been updated over the decades, but the changes overwhelmingly focus on restrictions rather than creating pathways for the type of immigrants celebrated at Ellis Island. The last significant legislative reform that created an immigration pathway occurred during the Reagan administration. Unfortunately, there appears to be insufficient political will in both parties to address immigration policy with realistic, though admittedly challenging, reforms.

Americans remain supportive of immigrants, but they want a fair and organized immigration process that benefits the country and our economy, and one that does not disadvantage American workers. I do too, but the pathways must be created by Congress. As a nation historically reliant on immigrants for economic viability, we must treat immigrants and their labor with dignity and stop asking them to live in the shadows.

I hope America continues to embrace “the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” as described in the Emma Lazarus poem enshrined on the Statue of Liberty. Families like mine achieved a generational American dream, in which we successively worked as day laborers, then as union members and eventually became college educated. Some of us even went on to hold master’s and doctoral degrees. We assimilated as citizens, like so many whose families came to the United States more than a century ago.

Today’s immigrants are not provided the same opportunity once found on Ellis Island. So to my nation of immigrants celebrating Columbus Day, I ask: Today’s immigrants are not provided the same opportunity once found on Ellis Island. So to my nation of immigrants celebrating Columbus Day, I ask: Without a new pathway to America, how do working-class families like my ancestors get here?

Christopher Ross is an immigration attorney and advocate for immigration reform.