Regardless of which political party won which offices in the recent election, immigration issues will no doubt be a part of congressional consideration in the next few years.

As a consular officer working for the U.S. State Department, I interviewed foreign nationals for both temporary visas and visas for permanent residence in the United States. Interviews for legal immigration were rewarding, often dealing with those who were elated at reaching their dream of living in the United States. These immigrants often had family who had immigrated to the United States before them. Others had earned their visas because their job skills were needed by an American employer.

In contrast, my interviews of those applying for temporary visits to the States exhausted me and the other U.S. visa officers. We knew that a significant percentage of the applicants hoped to use the temporary process to gain entry to the U.S. and then remain there, legally or illegally. We sometimes had to interview hundreds of applicants each day. The vast numbers required us to decide within minutes what were the intentions of the person before us. No wonder we were exhausted.

I found visa work to be not only exhausting but depressing. I disliked having the power to destroy people’s dreams, people who wanted nothing more than to escape often oppressive and/or poverty-stricken situations. These feelings found their way into the lives of two visa interviewers in my novels, Kaitlin in A Sense of Mission and Hannah in Searching for Home.

No immigration law will be perfect. More people still want to live in the United States than we can possibly accommodate. Web sites can aid us in making rational decisions about our immigration policies. You might begin with the Department of Homeland Security.