US Immigration Policy and Reforms Analysis

US in-migration Policy and Reforms AnalysisThe topic of abomin adequate in-migration has been an issue for look at with righteousnessmakers, the hot seat, member of congress and the States as a whole for the historical several years. In very general terms, black immigrants be volume, in the beginning from Mexico and Central America who bannedly cross over the fudge into the joined States. These men and women of all ages atomic number 18 non fleeing their homeland because of repression, harsh dictatorships, genocide, complaisant wars or religious persecution however, they argon crossing over the American reverberate chiefly for frugal reasons.These individuals are glide path to the fall in States in try pop of a better lifestyle. They want to make to a greater extent m wholenessy to sponsor support their families both here in America and back in their home untaught. They are fleeing oppression, chronic unemployment, poverty, and teentsy or no opportunities i n their homelands. As unfortunate it is, the law stands between their desire to live and conk out in the get together States. Strict insurance policy is needed to embarrass these immigrants from coming into the fall in States immorally. Otherwise the consequence bequeath be massive iniquitous settlements in this U.S.Since the early 1800s, in-migration has been both a crucial portionage of Americas growth and a periodic source of conflict. In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt said, we should carry off a firm stand that if the immigrant who comes here in good doctrine becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against whatsoever(prenominal) such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. He went on to submit voice, This is predicated on the psyche becoming in every facet an American, and no liaison scarcely an American. There can be no divided allegiance here. every man who says he is an American, calm when something else also, isnt an American at all. We countenance mode for entirely one flag, the American flag We have room for but one sole loyalty, and that is loyalty to the American muckle, (Little, 2006).Its been seen over the past hug drug that the national debate over il healthy immigration has grown. This displays a general belief that previous immigration control laws have failed and are proceed to. For example, despite a 1986 federal law that created penalties for employers who plight undocumented run awayers or ineligible immigrants k at a magazineingly, businesses continued to do so.President George W. bush-leagues new(a) strategy had interpreted form. Instead of his earlier emphasis on finding a topical anestheticiseing for U.S. businesses to continue employing immoral immigrants on a temporary basis, he now spoke of preventing such undocumented take formers or vicious immigrants from ever entrance the join States to begin with. Weve got a all-round(prenominal) strategy that says were going to carry out this bound.Were going to prevent deal from coming here in the despatchset place, (Furlong and Kraft 2007, 121). President Bushs new strategy came as relative active to consider formula that addressed border security measure and immigration.Unfortunately because the Presidents standing(a) in public opinion polls was so low and conservatives in his own popy wanted a different approach, he had a couple of(prenominal) choices but to change his policys direction. Democrats have accused the President of delaying action on immigration reform for far too long.Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts said, It is clip for President Bush to resist those on the right who rely on idolatry tactics to prevent our scattered system from being fixed. certain immigration reform would have to be more comprehensive and more realistic than the Presidents proposals, he added, stre ngthening our security while bringing an tube-shaped structure parsimoniousness above ground, (Furlong and Kraft 2007, 121).In 2005 the number of il jural immigrants in the joined States rose dramatically to swell up over ten one thousand thousand throng and was growing rapidly, at an estimate of a half a million mess each year. According to Fred Elbel of the Department of Homeland Security, as of November 10, 2007 there was an estimated 34,094,840 il efficacious aliens in the United States. Since January 1, 2007, 3,134,840 contraband aliens have do their way over the border and into the United States, (Elbel, 2007).The western and southern part of America has seen the biggest influx of immigrants. Among a vast spectrum of other concerns, policy makers focus on the high cost to the states that are providing education and medical maintenance for undocumented workers and their families. Some worry that a high rate of prohibited immigrants suggests that the United States borde rs are without the needed security that is essential to prevent entrance from potential difference terrorists. However, some, particularly business owners, are inclined to minimize the problem.They cogitate that the health of the U.S. economy is dependent on immigrant workers and they argue that the economy would bear out without the contribution of illegal immigrants. Some disagree and argue that the economic benefits from illegal immigrants working in America solely helps their home economy. The Pew Latino Center estimates that ten percent of restaurant workers in the U.S., twenty-five percent of domestic help in privy households, and nearly sixty percent of agricultural workers are in the country il legitimately. Also statistics show that 56 percent of illegal immigrants in the United States come north primarily from Mexico to supply thousands of U.S. employers and farmers with low-skilled workers.A completely hypothetical way of viewing illegal immigration is to think of the United States like a homeowner who went for a long walk and left(p) their service department stretching open. Inside the garage is a new car, a wallet, a cellular phone, and a cup of tea full of money. A nonher man, destitute of money and with little or no hope of positive opportunity, walks past the garage and notices that its gate is open and unattended.He has a family who needs food and he himself has been unemployed for several months. He decides to enter the garage. No one noticed him enter. He found the new car, the wallet, the cellular phone and the bag full of money.Without hesitation, he takes the wallet and the suitcase and quickly disappears and enjoys what he took without permission. To make himself feel better, he put forwards himself that he only went into the garage and took what he did because he needed to feed his family and because he was round off on his luck. He did not hurt bothone in the process and he figures that the homeowner can always file a claim with his restitution company to get back what was taken.When the homeowner returns from his walk, he notices that he has been robbed and files a report with the local police force department. The police in turn tell him that there is nothing they can do since there were no witnesses. The police suggest that the homeowner lock up his garage the next time he goes for a long walk to prevent another illegal entry and robbery.Some would argue that the man who left his garage door open is at fault, others would say it was the intruder who stole the property, and some would say its both their faults. Was the one man a thief for entering the garage without permission and the homeowner careless(prenominal) for leaving the garage door open and unattended? Traditional law states that the intruder is a thief and cat valium sense says that the homeowner was careless in failing to protect his assets from potential intruders.Did the homeowner deserve to be robbed because he left his garag e door open? Some would say yes because he was careless. On the other good deal the robber who walked away with the homeowners valuables committed a crime. If he was caught, tried and convicted, he could face fines and possibly some time in jail.Some people would look at from the perspective that the robber did what he did to feed his family and pay up for his basic necessities. He only stole to help his family survive. He views it as something honorable because he provided for his family.In this hypothetical scenario, the fact that the homeowner left his garage door open and tardily accessible to thieves does not give them permission for someone to trespass into his property and steal his valuables solely because they were salutary there. Regardless of the thiefs reasoning for fetching someone elses private property, thieving is stealing no matter how it is rationalized.Similarly, illegal immigration may solve pecuniary challenges faced by the growing millions of illegal ali ens who are in the United States to work and improve their lives. Yet, no matter how a person looks at it, illegal entry is still just that, illegal. Jobs are taken from those who are rightfully entitles to them. It is not legal, moral, or ethically right to enter the country illegally and benefit from opportunities that were primarily intentional for legal residents and citizens.The reasons why millions of people enter the United States illegally does not make it correct to fail the law and disregard the sovereignty of the United States. suspension the law is not justifiable because illegal immigrants want to take advantage of jobs, provide for their family, make do poverty, receive medical care, public education, and much more. As harsh as it is, illegal immigrants are not entitled to the freedom which were primarily designed for those who are in the country by birthright or legal residency place.The belief that it is socially acceptable to break the law as long as a persons reasoning is with good intentions is flawed. A person cannot take advantage of someones benefits because they need to. Immigrating to America legally, whether or not it is easy, is praiseworthy. Breaking they law and crossing the border illegally is not.The punishment should fit the crime. A person should not leave their garage door open if they judge what they own and would-be intruders should learn that just because they garage door is open, it does not give them the right to walk in and take what they need. It is seen very ofttimes that desperate people do not care much virtually right and wrong or the law for that matter. Desperation often causes people to rationalize and justify all types of illegal activities.Illegal entry into the United States to work has been allowed to become a complex issue but this is not an unsolvable problem. The United States would be off to a good go bad if the regimen activity imposed hefty fines on employers who knowingly and unknowingly hire illegal immigrants or undocumented workers for labor.The loophole in the current law hands downwards allows employers to look the other way and claim that they are not able to verify the authenticity of documents that their workers provide. Millions of people steal social security come from American citizens and get away with it. They in turn enjoy more a(prenominal) of the same things honest people work for. eyepatch illegal immigrants only make up active five percent of the United States work force, they are quickly being noticed in non-traditional areas immigrant to settle. Areas like these are in the midwest and the south. Undocumented workers and illegal immigrants are willing to work for very low wages by American standards.This has caused political upthrow in these new areas where immigration had little or no front man before. in-migration is now a national phenomenon is a way that was less true a decade ago, (Greenblatt, Katel, Marshall 2007, 341). Mark Krikorian, e xecutive film director of the nonpartisan Center for Immigration Studies said, In places like Georgia and Alabama, which had little experience with immigration before, people are experiencing it firsthand.The beginning of any policy study involves a description of the problem. Obviously the problem is illegal immigration and unfortunately only a select few legislators are taking measures to fix the problem. The former mayor of New York City and presidential candidate, Rudy Giuliani, has a firm stance of illegal immigration.He stated that real immigration reform moldiness put security first because border security and homeland security are inseparable in the Terrorists War on Us. The first responsibility of the federal government is to protect our citizens by despotic Americas borders, while ending illegal immigration and revealing every non-citizen in our nation. We must restore integrity, accountability, and the rule of law to our immigration system to regain the faith of the A merican people, (Giuliani, 2007).The regulator of New Mexico and also Presidential candidate, Bill Richardson, has equivalent feelings about immigration reform as Giuliani. As a Hispanic-American, and Governor of a border state, I know that our nation can no longer afford to ignore the issue of illegal immigration. Undocumented immigrants have broken the law to enter our country, but they are here and nearly of them work hard, pay taxes, support families, and contribute to the communities they live in.Entire sectors of our economy rely on these laborers -construction, restaurants, and agricultural, for example. We cant just ignore this issue any longer. Splitting up families, building walls, and making impractical proclamations is not the answer. America needs to solve the problem, not tear itself apart over it, (Richardson, 2007). He believes in recognizing the reality of the immigration problem and addressing it head-on. He has a intent to solve it by taking four realistic st eps. First, secure the border. Second, sum up legal immigration. Third, prevent employers from hiring illegal workers. Lastly, provide a path to legislation for most of the eleven million illegal immigrants already here.Representative F. pack Sensenbrenner Jr., of Wisconsin, created the Real ID bill. This requires proof of citizenship or legal status in the United States in order to get a drivers license. This bill was signed into law in May 2005 and will take effect in May 2008. We will never have homeland security if we dont have border security, (Greenblatt, Katel, Marshall 2007, 341). Sensenbrenners reform means blocking states from issuing drivers licenses to illegal immigrants, formal new restrictions on asylum seekers, and finishing a border surround near San Diego, California.The debate of immigration has divided the Republican Party. The Republican controlled field of Representatives passed H.R. 4437 in December 2005. This is a measure that contained procedures for secu ring the borders, harsher penalties for people assisting illegal migration into the United States and provisions for deporting illegal aliens that are already here, (Greenblatt, Katel, Marshall 2007, 343).The proposed legislation does not provide for a guest worker program or any form of amnesty for illegal workers. The borders are out of control, says T.J. Bonner, president of the matter Border Patrol Council, the union representing ten thousand border officers. He said that the patrol catches no more than a third of illegal aliens crossing the border.We have a situation where business is controlling our immigration policy rather than sound decisions that take into account all the factors, including homeland security, (Greenblatt, Katel, Marshall 2007, 344).The government has almost stopped enforcing sanctions approved in 1986 on employers who hire illegal immigrants. According to Mary Dougherty, an immigration statistician at the Department of Homeland Security, in 2003 the agenc y levied only $9,300.00 in fines against employers. duration also reported in 2004 that the number of fines imposed on employers dropped ninety-nine percent during the 1990s from 1,063 in 1992 to 13 in 2002, (Greenblatt, Katel, Marshall 2007, 345).While there are many ideas and strongly differing views on what to do about illegal immigration, the government must recognize that any program that rewards illegal aliens who have broken the laws of the United States with citizenship is undeserved and unwarranted amnesty. Illegal immigration must be treated much like a broken water pipe. When a water pipe breaks, the very first thing that must be done is have the water shut off and then the mess is cleaned up. This is common sense that most in the government seem to be missing.This requires two different set of actions. First, slowing down and eventually preventing all illegal border-crossings and then making it harder for existing illegal immigrants to live in the US while simultaneousl y encouraging many to go home as well as deporting others. Doctors at The heritage Foundation are quoted as saying, Immigration reform should be a matter of national priority.To be successful, reforms must include a comprehensive package of measures to reduce illegal entry into the United States as well as to reduce the current population of un de jure present persons. The stand of any such initiative must be a handsome and practical program for repatriating foreign persons who are illegally present in the United States, (Carafano, Meese III, Spalding, 2005).For the sake of national security, the rule of law, and responsible immigration policy, Congress and the President must move towards reducing the number of people who are illegally in the United States. Immigration reform must not encourage this problem. In particular, any new initiative must not grant permission, as a matter of policy, for illegal immigrants to remain legally in the country.Such a program would undermine the credibility of efforts not only to control Americas borders, but also to advance reasonable legal immigration reform. A better alternative would be for policymakers to create a comprehensive solution that brings better national security. Part of this solution should be a realistic and reasonable program to assist illegal immigrants in returning to their homelands before keep backing for legal reentry to the United States.What the United States needs is a comprehensive strategy that reverses decades of ignoring, indeed encouraging, the disregard of requirements for legally entering and lawfully residing in this country. A better strategy would be to get the cooperation of federal, state, and local governments and non-governmental organizations to all work together.Laws need to be compeld within the United States, including identity theft,, prosecuting benefits fraud, tax evasion, and immigration violations. Also, America should work with other nations to enforce laws, to educate t heir citizens, and to develop more desirable legal alternatives for undocumented workers. The government must help other nations to adopt sound governance and economic policies that will promote growth in their economies and negate the need for citizens to take low-paying jobs in the United States.It has been made very clear that America does not want to anger other countries with border security and that most people cannot tell the difference between illegal invasion to work and legal immigration. It should then be up to the individual states to develop internal methods to prevent abuse of tax-based resources. States should not provide any form of preferential intervention towards individuals who break federal laws, even if they work and pay taxes.This may be justifiable in their minds but the fact remains that they are still in the country illegally. The government needs to also help the private sector by teaching employers how to identify legal workers quickly and easily at a re asonable cost and in a room that respects individuals rights and privacy but at the same time identify the illegal ones through a national identification system, similar to the one crated by Sensenbrenners, The Real ID Act.The government should also implement a profound document verification agency to pre-screen all employment applications and issue adulation forms and identification photos to prospective employees. While at the current rate the government will never have an efficient wall to block out illegal immigrants. It is up to the individual states to create internal security measures to prevent budgetary and financial abuses caused by the growing illegal population.President Bush and a bipartisan group of ten senators announced an symmetry on May 17, 2007, on a comprehensive, compromise plan to tighten border security and address the future of Americas twelve million illegal immigrants. The agreement reached today is one that will help enforce our borders, Bush said. an d equally importantly, it will treat people with respect. This is a bill where people who live in our country will be treated without amnesty, but without animosity. Senator Kennedy said, The plan isnt perfect, but only a bipartisan bill will become law, (Greenblatt, Katel, Marshall 2007, 357).The agreement would grant temporary legal status to almost all illegal immigrants, giving then the right to apply for residence visas and citizenship through a lengthy process. Illegal immigrants would have to ask for eight years before applying for permanent resident status, pay fines of up to $5,000.00 and, heads of households would be forced to leave the country and reenter legally.Are these signs of positive actions to be taken toward illegal immigrants? Over the next few years will America see a reduction in the number of illegal immigrants and an increase in the applications for legal immigrants? American surely hopes so. Only time will tell what actions will truly be taken by the Ameri can government in response to the increasing number of illegal immigrants crossing its borders.BibliographyCarafano, James Jay, Edwin Meese III and Matthew Spalding. 2005. Alternatives to Amnesty Proposals for Fair and Effective Immigration Reform. The Heritage Foundation. http//www.heritage.org/Research/LegalIssues/bg18588.cfm. (10 November 2007).Elbel, Fred. 2007. How many illegal aliens are in the U.S.? Refernce.. The American Resistance. http//the americanresistance.com/ref/illegal_alien_numbers.html. ( 10 November 2007).Furlong, Scott R. and Michael E. Kraft. 2007.Public Policy Politics, Analysis and Alternatives. New Jersey. Pearson Prentice Hall.Giuliani, Rudy. 2007. 12 Commitments To The American People. JoinRudy2008. http//joinrudy2008.com/getinvolved/emailland.html (10 November 2007).Greenblatt, Alan, Peter Katel and Patrick Marshal. 2007. Issues For Debate In American Public Policy. eighth Ed.. Washington D.C.. Congressional quarterly Inc..Little, Dick. 2006. Illegal immi grant problem growing. Paradise Post.com. http//paradisepost.com/columns/ci_468119.html. (10 November 2007).Richardson, Bill. 2007. existent Immigration Reform. Richardson for President. http//action.richardsonforpresident.com/page/content/immigrationreform.html. (10 November 2007).