According to the Department of Homeland Security Immigration Website (USCIS), undocumented Mexican individuals come to our country by illegally crossing the border or by initially having a visa and staying after the visa has expired. In most cases if an undocumented individual would like to apply for a green card, they must do so while residing in Mexico which is what keeps many undocumented people from applying. There are approximately 12 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. It’s interesting that immigration law takes place within the U.S. Department of Justice instead of the U.S. judicial system because deportation is seen as an administrative correction and not a criminal punishment. Because of this, undocumented immigrants …show more content…
You are also responsible to pay taxes, obey all laws, and if you are a male between the ages of 18 and 25 you must register with the Selective Service. Your wait time for a visa can be anywhere from three to twenty years or longer depending on the circumstances and the number of visas available each year (USCIS).
There are 226,000 family sponsored visas, 140,000 employment based visas available each year. There is no limit for immediate family members such as spouses and children younger than 21. Due to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the number of Mexican immigrant visas can only equal 7 percent of the total permanent residents or green cards issued each year. The backlog for permanent resident applications in pending status is approximately 1.4 million (Smith).
Mexican immigrants are excluded from the Diversity Lottery which grants immigrant visas to 50,000 winners each year. The lottery was designed to help increase the number of immigrations from underrepresented countries like Nigeria, Iran, and Ukraine. The countries qualified to apply for the lottery change each year (USCIS).
After having a green card or immigrant visa for 3-5 years, depending on circumstance, one can apply for citizenship. The main reasons to apply for citizenship would be the right to vote in elections, bringing family members to the U.S., eligibility for Federal jobs, and becoming an elected official (USCIS).
California in an effort to help undocumented immigrants has
After six years under conditional permanent residency with a “good moral character,” (Duncan A.19") they can then apply for their permanent resident status and then eventually become U.S citizens. It is reasonable that after meeting such strict requirements and attending American schools for so long, they should be able to become U.S citizens.
The first step into becoming a citizen is to determine whether or not are eligible to become a U.S. citizen. You do that by reviewing the naturalization eligibility worksheet. Basically, this work sheet provides you with questions to help you decide if you are eligible to apply for citizenship. According to the worksheet, you must be at least 18 years old, have been living in the united states for at least 3-5 years, have traveled outside of the US for more than a year, stayed in the state that you are applying to be a citizen in for the last 3 months, know basic English, know U.S history and e.t. This is important because it helps you
In current America, the American government requires immigrants to go through the naturalization process in order to become a legal US citizen, but there are many restrictions and requirements in order to go through the naturalization process. The immigrant must be at least 18 years of age, a permanent resident of the United States, and must have been a physical resident for at least 5 years, according to FindLaw. According to Teaching Tolerance, immigrants who entered the US from the years 1790 to 1924 would not be allowed in America today. In order to even enter the United States, immigrants mst obtain a visa. According to the US Department of of State, “To be eligible to apply for an immigrant visa, a foreign citizen must be sponsored by a U.S. citizen relative, U.S. lawful permanent resident, or a prospective employer, with a few exceptions, explained below. The sponsor begins the immigration process by filing a petition on the foreign citizen’s behalf with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
The framework for American immigration policy began around the 1750-1820 period through the incorporation of colonial legacy with existing state and federal policy (Zolberg, 2009). The United States legislation has excluded whole nations and regions from migrating due to internal and external factors. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Page Act of 1875 restricted Chinese female immigration. In 1917 and 1924, quota systems were adopted to prohibit considerably “undesirable and “inferior” ethnic groups and races. During the Great Depression in the 1930s, between 400,000 and 1 million Mexican laborers and their families were deported under the “repatriation” programs. Approximately
Many of the undocumented immigrants have both successfully and unsuccessfully tried to find different ways to migrate into the United States. They have traveled by swimming across borders, driving, trafficking, from many underdeveloped countries around the world like Mexico, Cuba, Africa, and many others. Many have become part of such a vulnerable population because they have come to the United States to seek a better life for their families, the healthcare, job opportunities, as well as having been in the united states and staying past the time allowed on their visa.
Before applying for citizenship, future citizens must make sure they are eligible for naturalization. “The next step is for those that are over the age of eighteen are eligible to fill out a N-400 form” (Naturalization Information U.S. Citizenship
each year. This poses a concern, are the majority of these immigrants educated, can they contribute to society? Or will they become a liability? Will they deplete our social service funds? As a citizen I am not happy with the number of people allowed to take live in American. Personally I am concerned for the social wellbeing of America. The American economy is still unstable, educated American citizens cannot find jobs that provide acceptable wages. Many Americans have taken jobs well beneath their previous corporate positions just to survive. Some American had to take multiple blue collar jobs to provide for their
30+ years old and been a U.S. citizen for at least 9 years. Lastly in Article II Section 1, the Constitution
According to the article "How the United States Immigration System Works," the INA, or Immigration and Naturalization Act, only allows for 675,000 permanent immigrants worldwide per year ("How the United States Immigration System Works" 1). This article continues to explain that, in order to qualify for citizenship, an immigrant must have held a green card for at least five years, must be eighteen years or older, and must demonstrate residency and good moral character; in addition, an applicant must pass an English and U.S. history and civics exams, and he/she must pay a fee ("How the United States Immigration System Works" 29). Civil law really stacks the odds against immigrants, but these harsh laws should ultimately inspire us to seek change, rather than discourage
There are also many immigrants coming from Asia and in total 800,000 immigrants were accepted through the DACA act (U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services Statistics). Many of these families have to face the problems of family members being deported, securing a house, job and applying for healthcare because without immigration documents these tasks cannot be done legally.
Have proof of residence in the United States for at least five consecutive years since their date of arrival.
In 1942, the United States and Mexico created the Laborer Program which encouraged Mexicans to migrate to the US for employment as contract workers. Pay for their service was poor and involved working under harsh conditions. Consequently, after World War I, the US government began deporting them for a second time, sending over 4 million immigrants back to Mexico (Library of Congress, 2015). Following the Recession, a weakened job market in the United States in 2009, a decline in their birth rates, and the improvement of the Mexican economy, the number of Mexican immigrants that migrated into North America began to decline (Zong & Batalova, 2016). As per the data recorded in 2014, Mexican immigrants make up roughly 28 percent of the immigrant population located throughout the United States of America (Zong & Batalova, 2016).
Historically speaking, the United States is very welcoming to immigration, but today, immigrating is a very complicated process. There is a process that you must
the number of aliens of any nationality admitted to the U.S. in a year could not
Although the visa is intended to employ temporary workers, the H-1B visa is often used as a conduit to permanent residency and many H-1B workers are already in the United States when they apply for their visa. Over the years, visa caps have varied, FY 1999 – 115,000, FY 2001 – 195,000, and 65,000 FY 2004 (Dahms & Trow, 2005). Consistently over the past years, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has reached the statutory H-1B caps within the first week of the filing period. Of the 124,000 plus petitions the USCIS receives, the petitions are placed in a computer-generated random selection process (lottery) to select the petitions to reach the cap of 65,000.