Yaritza Mendez is an American citizen thanks to an immigration system that has been built around family connections for more than 50 years.

Since 1965, immigrants-turned-American citizens can serve as sponsors to their parents, children and siblings and help them become legal residents and then U.S. citizens. It’s a system that allowed Mendez’s grandmother to bring her son to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic about a decade ago, which in turn allowed him to sponsor her.