Controversy On Immigration

Globally, the United States has been known as "a nation of immigrants" almost from its inception. Beginning in the 1600s with English Puritans and continuing today, America is a melting pot of culture and ethnicity. In fact, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, immigration was the major source of U.S. population growth. Looking over our 200+ years we find that to clearly be true, with approximately 1 million immigrants coming to America during the 17th and 18th century. Almost 3 million arrived during the 1860s, and another 3 million in the 1870s. In the next four decades, the number of immigrants rose to over 25 million people, most from various European nations, most arriving in New York or one of the Eastern seaports (Damon, 1981). Despite the politicization, as of 2006, the United States actually was the number one country globally to accept legal immigrants into the country, with a current immigrant population of almost 40 million (Terrazas and Batalova, 2009). In fact, the peak of immigration was 1907, when over 1.2 million Europeans entered the country beginning a push towards legislation limiting immigration in the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1924 and the 1921 Congressional Quota Act. These immigrants came for two sociological reasons: the push factor (wars, famine, persecution and overpopulation) and the pull factors (jobs and the promise of freedom). Most came by ship, and a passage often cost the equivalent of an entire life's savings causing many

The debate over illegal immigration has been a constant and ongoing struggle in the United States. Millions of illegal immigrants are living among us in the country, we have more entering daily. Recently, President Barack Obama touched on the topic with his immigration executive order. Unfortunately, with the republican takeover of the white house, many of his actions are not being supported. This is viable evidence that there are people who want to help fix the immigration system in a way that will benefit illegal immigrants and give them a fighting chance to prosper here in the United States. With that being said, there are also powers who do not want to see that happen because they believe that it is not in the best interest of the United States to open their borders to illegals. This puts to question what the next steps for the United States will decide and how that will affect Americans across the country. My goal of this essay is to enlighten the moral concerns in the debates pertaining to immigration.

The Democratic Party has fiercely advocated for the enactment of the DREAM Act. Republicans however have strongly opposed it and have left little hope for any reform for illegal immigrants. However not passing the DREAM Act and stalling on reform for illegal immigrants is doing an injustice to these immigrants and most importantly to American citizens. Today many US citizens suffer from a depleting economy and anything that can help revive it should and must be done. I see the DREAM Act as a great opportunity to aid and provide relief to the economy.

I am very familiar with the ethics of border security, having grown up in El Paso, Texas. The city sits right next to Juarez, Mexico with a population of over 2 million. As stated in the Debate.org article, “Border Fence”, El Paso, San Diego, and McAllen are the epicenter for cartel violence, hub for drug trafficking, and illegal immigration. There is a border fence that stretches over 30 miles in and around the El Paso area, with a border patrol agent stationed every 300 yards over the same span. With a population of close to 800,000 with over 80% of that being Hispanic, it is a very controversial subject along the border region. (Debate.org Article)

Although the issue of immigration policy has been at the center of political debates, largely discussed in the media and newspapers, no one has yet found a solution to this ill-defined problem, that would comply with the America’s core values. While I think the immigration policy does need a reform, the solution to this problem certainly is not a deportation of all undocumented residents.

Six and a half billion dollars. Ladies and gentlemen, that is the approximate cost of a border that would stretch from San Diego to Texas. A chain-linked, steel, and barbed-wire border that would block hard work, dreams, and an inevitable fate. Through the brutal deserts, dehydration, and pain, only about a fourth of the immigrants trying to get to America make it. That means so much because of how many people try to accomplish this feat, considering still around nine-hundred thousand immigrants still make it. In all reality, borders are truly just an imaginary line some important people with wigs created. We, as a whole, decide how important things are. Money's just paper, an MLB star is just a normal human. However, something that always gets us, something that is made such a big fuss about, is a two-thousand mile long border, also known as The Mexican-American Border. Think about this. If we have such a powerful military and border patrol, why would we need such an intimidating wall? Or even why do we disown and hate these immigrants? Better yet, why would we spend all this money when we are trillions

Furthermore, your immigration reform plan has far too many flaws and it is absurd. It is incredibly cruel to want to end birth right citizenships, require that Americans get jobs over immigrants, and enhance penalties for overstaying a visa. This country has always been a land of immigration, and suddenly deciding to deny foreigners’ rights is immoral and uncalled for. We have economic and religious freedoms, the freedom of speech, and the right of suffrage. With your reform plan, freedom will cease to exist. This is exactly the opposite of what our founding fathers would have wanted. Racism continues to be a rampant problem in America, and your proposals will only further the issues we have.

In recent months there has been a discussion about building a wall on the United States-Mexico border. Unfortunately, it would cost over ten and a half billion (http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/17/politics/donald-trump-mexico-wall/) just to build this wall and it would have to be patrolled constantly in order to keep illegal immigrants from just going over it. These costs, along with additional cost such as maintenance, makes the wall a fiscally irresponsible plan. It is also important to consider that illegal border crossing are just one way to enter the Unite States, according to Pew Research every year almost half a million immigrants come in with legal visas and then simply stay passed the expiration date (http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/02/03/homeland-security-produces-first-estimate-of-foreign-visitors-to-u-s-who-overstay-deadline-to-leave/).

Mitt Romney in his speech to the RNC just four years ago would be considered near traitorous to the republican party in the divisive politics of the present. In this presidential campaign season, as in many previous ones, one of the largest issues continues to be that of immigration. The fundamental disagreement is not whether an issue exists, but as to how the United States should react to the ones waking up at night hearing that voice telling them to come to America. This paper will examine the roles of federal, state, and local governments have regarding the question: should state and local governments have the authority to draft and execute immigration policies? First, it will delve deeper into this topic by studying the history of immigration

The conflict of undocumented immigrants who worry that reporting a crime or interacting with the law enforcement could result in their deportation is man-made. Man-made means the conflict is made or came from humans. The reason why it is man-made is because law enforcement authorities want to maintain the community and its citizens secure but also wants to keep the foreigners out of the country. This is important because

According to Riley, job-displacement, which fuels the national immigration debate, is a myth, as this empirical evidence shows: In 2006, for example, of the 146 million workers in the United States, 21 million were foreign born. If immigrants are stealing jobs, 21 million U.S.-born Americans should have been out of work, but the real number was only 7 million. Riley concludes that the majority of immigrants must be doing jobs that would not have existed had the immigrants not been here.

A hot topic in the 2016 presidential debates has been about illegal immigration, a subject of controversy in the U.S.; although this issue is not new. During the 1920s this issue concerned immigrants from Eastern Europe, while today it concerns immigrants of Central American and Middle Eastern descent. During the early 20th century, many felt that the new immigrants from Eastern Europe should be deported back to their home country as they feared they were bringing communist ideals with them. There was also fear the Catholics and Jews would interfere with the enforcement of prohibition (The 1920s: Introduction). Laws were eventually passed by congress to restrict immigration from that area, and soon businesses felt the effects of increased

Every year, around one million people are immigrating into the United States both legally and illegally. As of now nearly 40 million immigrants live in the United States; 11.5 million of which came to the country illegally (CNN). That is nearly thirteen percent of the total United States population. The role the United States government plays in the handling of immigration from foreign countries both legal and illegal, plays a vital role in the security of the people of the United States and

Immigration is one hot topic in today’s conversation and society. Many think that immigrants coming to America are taking many jobs away from who need them. Some also think that there are jobs being taken away are not ones that Americans would not perform due to the horrible working conditions, low pay, and lack of important medical coverage. The immigration issue has come to a point where the United States must make a decision to spend a lot of money to curtail the amount of immigrants coming here.

As a new round of presidential election nears, debate on the policies to solve illegal immigration always occupies a major part of presidential debate. It seems that politicians have never been able to come to an agreement on tackling this issue, and various groups of people possess distinguished perspectives. While a fraction of people propose that undocumented workers need to be deported and the borders must be enforced, others consider these people as a precious source to boost economy.