US Immigration Policy
Anti-immigration sentiments
Comprehensive immigration reform needed
Links
References
US Immigration Policy
The first immigration policy shown in history was Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The law was enacted to prevent Chinese to immigrate to the United States for relieving tension between newly arrived Chinese and old settled European. The immigration policy in the United States began to impede new immigrants to come to lands.
Immigration policy has been more complicated as time goes by. The reason is that foreign labor becomes important, affecting from daily life to the macro economy. You can see that there are many immigrants in many different fields, such as technology, farming, cleaning, accounting, and etc. Without them, the country will lame itself. Therefore, immigration policy is focusing not only restriction on illegal immigrant, but also on absorbing talented foreign worker.
However, the current immigration policy failed. According to Pew Hispanic center, number of illegal immigrants in the United States is estimated to almost 11,100,0001 in 2005. This number is almost tripled compared to 3,900,000 in 1992. Even though illegal immigrants increase dramatically in a decade, the government does not find the right answer to solve the problem.
Anti-immigration sentiments
Immigration policy is in bottleneck. The big corporations, such as Microsoft, Intel claim that they need more talented foreign workers because the current H1B visa quarter for professional worker is not enough to meet the demand from the big corporations. However, the government reduced the visa quarter and enforced more restriction on foreign worker in response to the anti immigrant sentiments after the September 11 in 2001. According to the Gallup2, the recent survey conducted in July 2008 showed that only 18% was in favor of increasing in immigration. Also, there are many anti-immigration measurements shown at local city council, state congress, and federal congress. Furthermore, Immigration and Customs Enforcement took an action to crack down illegal immigrants, so that it made an achievement for removing a record 276,912 illegal aliens. However, 11,110,000 illegal immigrants are tangible existences that we cannot ignore.
Comprehensive immigration reform needed
One of the famous immigration reform bills is the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act of 2005 sponsored by John McCain, the republican presidential nominee and Ted Kennedy, the democratic leader. The Bill included the normalization of illegal immigrants, securing the border, helping the immigrants to assimilate into the American society, relieving the bottle-necked immigration process and etc. The key for the immigration reform is how to normalize people in the shadow. Below is the possible solution to normalize illegal immigrants.
- Imposing fine on illegal immigrants for civil violation of an immigration law.
- Selective pardening-Granting pardon on all illegal immigrants except anyone with criminal records
- Issuing temporary visas to illegal immigrants to stay legally, then they can have a chance to be given the permernant status in the United Status, judged by their records for keeping the law.
Links
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the largest investigative branch of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The agency was created after 9/11 to more effectively enforce our immigration and customs laws and to protect the United States against terrorist attacks.
Pew Hispanice Center-Pew Hispanic Center is a nonpartisan research organization that seeks to improve understanding of the U.S. Hispanic population and to chronicle Latinos' growing impact on the nation. It is a nonpartisan "fact tank" in Washington, DC that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world.
Federation for American Immigration Reform-FAIR is a non-profit organization which seeks to improve border security, to stop illegal immigration, and to promote immigration levels consistent with the national interest.
Justice for Immigrants-Justice for immigrants is composed of a diverse group of Catholic organizations with national networks to unite and mobilize a growing network of Catholic institutions, individual for a broad legalization program and comprehensive immigration reform
References
1Pew Hispanic Center, Fact Sheet, April 26, 2006, (http://pewhispanic.org/files/factsheets/17.pdf)
2Gallup Polls, June5-July6,2008(http://www.gallup.com/poll/108748/Fewer-Americans-Favor-Cutting-Back-Immigration.aspx)