Gone are the days when we can afford to receive people simply because they want to live in the United States. Today. we can only reserve that privilege for people facing persecution or threats to their lives in their homelands. The result. plain and simple. is that today it is difficult to get a visa to live in the United States for the purpose of becoming a permanent resident or a citizen. In some cases. the wait is months. in others. it is years. For this reason. hundreds of thousands if not millions of people try to enter the United States each year illegally.