pierceable

1995, Mark Krikorian, statement given at the Hearing before the Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims of the Committee on the Judiciary House of Representatives, 104th Congress, 1st Session, 17 May, 1995, in Legal Immigration Reform Proposals, Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1996, p. 136, Whichever method is chosen for deciding the level of immigration, the question arises whether the cap should be “pierceable” or not. Although “pierceable cap” has an Orwellian ring to it, the issue boils down to whether increases in immediate-family immigration (assuming it remains unlimited) would be subtracted from the numbers allotted to immigrants selected by the point system (a true cap) or whether the numerical limit would apply only to those chosen through a point system.