Reinstating the LIFE Act and Eliminating Entry Bars Would Allow Millions of Immigrants To Stay With Their Families May 27, 2021, 9:00 am Ms. Cabrales, who lives in Kansas City, Missouri, is desperately searching for avenues to help her husband gain legal immigration status. Since she is a U.S. citizen, she should be able to sponsor her husband for an immediate green card. But because he is living in the United States without status, the couple faces significant hurdles under current immigration law.* Related Current immigration laws do not provide U.S. citizens or employers with a viable pathway to sponsor their undocumented family members or workers for lawful permanent residence, even if they would otherwise be eligible for a green card, if those individuals entered the United States without inspection and are still living in the country. Undocumented immigrants must first leave the country and apply for an immigrant visa at a consulate abroad. But once they leave, they face a lengthy ban on returning due to a cruel Catch-22 law put in place in 1996 that subjects anyone who was in the United States without legal immigration status for more than six months to a reentry bar of three or 10 years. This makes getting a green card effectively impossible for millions of people who should have a legal pathway to do so.