Immigration is working just fine: It is a rate-limiting mechanism to prevent massive immigration of every "me too" person from other random countries. You're just like everyone else, and everyone else wants to get in, too. Just like a lifeboat, the US can't let everyone in at once or we'd sink.
Buy a parka and enjoy Canada!
The immigration system of Canada is called Express Entry and gives importance to skills than luck (H1B lottery). That's why I called US immigration system broken. I should have been specific that its the H1B system that is broken. Edited my comment for the same.
Actually, the consensus among economists is that immigration makes your own economy better off. It has a net positive effect on productivity and prosperity.
In other words, your "rate-limiting" analogy makes zero sense. You want more immigration, not less.
just because the overall economy is better off (often measured in GDP) doesn't mean it is better off for all existing residents (e.g. GDP/capita).. even from a pure free-market perspective, distribution of wealth is not so market driven especially in the short term and when massive distortions deliberately exist in the marketplace (regulation, patents, near-monopolies, barriers, etc.)
Testing the limits of the analogy, but there you are.
As for refugees, letting them in should be like helping the people from that burnt down tower, it's about being human.
Actually, no. Parts of the US immigration system have separate queues for people in certain countries. Not all applicants for a given immigration category are treated equally.