The Border Security Act Of 2013

With the rise of foreign people permanently settling in America, the immigration policy has affected all aspects of society in terms of growth and development of economy, societal issues, and national security. As the immigration policy is a broad topic among senators, it needs to be prioritize for it to be better understood. In doing so will improve the immigration policy and grasp the significance of its impact in America.

After 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed and passed the Immigration and Naturalization Act, immigration reform became a major debate (History.com). Though is a hot-button issue with passionate arguments for both sides, it is clear that immigration reform is necessary for the nation's future success. The current immigration laws are useless due to the length of the current naturalization process. This process is quite frustrating for immigrants due to the time and cost incurred, along with the language barriers associated with completing the documentation. For the United States of America to sustain its moniker of an American Dream, it is of the utmost importance that we charge the federal government with revising and improving immigration reform.

Immigration has become a very relevant topic in the past few years and has sparked various arguments between Americans. No agreement has been reached regarding immigration reform, possibly because many people view it as an immediate amnesty rather than a possibility of legalization for hard-working immigrants. Despite of the negative meaning associated with it, an immigration reform would be beneficial to the U.S. in social aspects, such as having undivided families, and by stimulating economic growth.

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, immigration control and national homeland security have been issues of concern for both the national government and private citizens. In the wake of the attacks, a lot of articles were written about what the appropriate response should be to prevent another attack. In 2004, Mark Krikorian wrote an article for the Providence Journal entitled “Safety through Immigration Control” in which he contends that the only means to keep America safe from a follow-up attack is to strengthen and enforce immigration law to prevent terrorists from being able to enter the country. Edwidge Danticat, writing for The Nation in 2005, provides a juxtaposition to Krikorian’s stance in her essay “Not Your Homeland”, in which she describes her witnessing of the inhumane conditions many immigrants are forced to endure in the name of increased security to protect the country. She questions whether the added protections are worth the human cost we are paying by treating immigrants and refugees as guilty until proven innocent. At the crossroads of these two perspectives lies the question: what is the proper balance between national security and the humane treatment of immigrants?

Ewing, Walter. "The Many Facets Of Effective Immigration Reform." Society 47.2 (2010): 110. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 23 July 2016.

There are multiple political forces that are playing a part in the border security/illegal immigration controversy. The current administration has publicly made reference that they will not revisit securing the border without a comprehensive immigration reform bill. The conservatives believe that in order to have a discussion regarding immigration reform, securing the border must come first. Depending upon which “side of the isle” that a person takes regarding the securing of the border, they fall in two categories – the conservatives mainly reside on the pros, and the liberal party tends to side on the cons of building a fence.

There has been lots of controversy on the issues concerning a solution to America’s broken immigration system. Democratic and republican parties can’t seem to agree with one another, leaving reform at a stand-still. Democrats are focused on giving illegal immigrants a path to citizenship while Republicans are focused on border security. The fact is both of these approaches should work in unison with each other to provide the most efficient route in fixing immigration.

The issue of illegal immigration has daunted this nation for many years. Currently, there are 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. Immigration reform is necessary, but amnesty is not. Last year, the United States Senate passed the ‘Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act’ by a vote of 68-32. If this bill becomes law, America will still not have fixed it’s illegal immigration issue. There are many flaws to the current immigration bill in Congress, such as the fiscal costs to taxpayers, government spending, and “border triggers”. A few commonsense fixes to improve our nation’s immigration dilemma are

The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) is viewed as one of the most important policy implementations in U.S. immigration history. As drafted, IRCA proposed to be a policy to control and deter all illegal immigration into the U.S., but the policy was truly directed at stopping the flow of Mexican immigrants that continues to be the largest immigration flow in the world. Daniel Tichenor writes in Dividing Lines that, “Originally designed as a restrictive enforcement measure, IRCA proved to be surprisingly expansive in both design and effect.” By identifying the unintended consequences of the law, this paper explores why the policy failed. Ultimately, this paper shows that IRCA

This bill gives Congress authority over immigration policy, who then gives implementation to the former INS (Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996).

Despite the years of Republican obstructionism in Congress, as well as a breathtaking lack of respect from his political opponent, President Obama reformed the healthcare and immigration system. President Obama signed the ACA into law in March 2010 and promoted a broad immigration reform. Although it did not become law, the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, (DREAM Act) set the stage for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. “Immigration and Executive Action” article writes:

Many students, in general are able to afford and attend college due to the support of government funding. However, many undocumented students are unfortunate to obtain any financial assistance because of certain rules and regulation that affect their eligibility. In 1996, Congress passed a major bill involving with reforming national immigration called the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), which to enforce, restrict and imposed limitation on illegal immigrants (IIRIRA, 1996). In Title V, eligibility for undocumented aliens are restricted for public assistance and benefits (IIRIRA, 1996). One specific restrictions is to limit and denied any alien who is not lawfully present in the United States, eligibility

On January 16, 2015, the H.R. 399: Secure Our Borders First Act of 2015 was a bill proposed by Michael McCaul, a representative for Texas. It was sent to the House or Senate for deliberation. The bill’s purpose is “to require the Secretary of Homeland Security to gain and maintain operational control of the international borders of the United States, and for other purposes,” ("Text of the Secure Our Borders First Act of 2015"). Michael McCaul is the representative for the state of Texas, which is a border state to Mexico. He probably proposed this bill to protect his citizens who live closer to the border who might be in danger from terrorists or drugs. If illegal drugs are brought in to the United States, the economy is affected because all the money that people bought the

Immigration is currently a hot topic within in the United States government. Currently the United States Congress is fighting to decide the fate of the Dreamers, and the Immigration bill DACA. Like many controversial issues within the government, the Democrats and Republicans are in a disagreement on what to do. Each article, examines a different take on the current immigration reform. Bier’s main argument is that individuals who are contributing to immigration reform are ignorant, that Immigrants are not hurting the American Labor market. The next article, I examined, was written by Eric Cantor; Cantor states that although the parties each have a high stake on the decision Congress makes on DACA, there must be a decision otherwise, the law will remain status quo. Next, we look at Gessen’s article, the main argument is that immigrants should not be looked at valuable or illegal, they should not have to be talented in order to be welcome within the United States. Lastly, Vargas, an undocumented Immigrant, discusses the difficulties of being illegal within the United States, yet still shines light on the positive influences he had throughout his childhood and time in America.

The reforming of America?s immigration policy is something that can no longer be avoided and must be dealt with as soon as possible. Years of neglect by governmental agencies and policies makers have now made this issue one of the biggest in American politics. First of it must be understood that immigration does no only effect curtain areas of the country and curtain aspect of public life but rather all of American life. Both legal and illegal immigration affect major issues such as jobs availability for all citizens, wages, education in public schools system and in general, health care issues, and the homeland security.