An Immigration Policy is any policy of a state that deals with the transit of persons across its borders, but especially those that intend to work and to remain in the country. Immigration has been a view of legislation for United States policymakers since its founding.
The first signs of a somewhat structured Immigration Policy was in 1970, Congress established a process enabling people born abroad to become United States citizens. The first federal law was put in place in 1875, prohibiting the admission of criminals and prostitutes. Then Congress established a new immigration policy, a National Origins Quota System, as a part of the Quota Law in 1921. It was revised in 1924. The Quota Law of 1921 and 1924 was made for immediate family of United States citizens and other family members, either by exempting them or granting them preference within restrictions. Subsequent laws continued to focus on family reunification as a major goal of immigration policy.
The Nationals-origins quota system was in place until the Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of 1965 was established. The system provided preferences for relatives of United States citizens and lawful permanent residents and for immigrants with job skills deemed useful to the United States. The 1965 amendments are still in place, even though they have been modified. In 1976, the categorical preference system was extended to applicants from the western hemisphere. In 1978, the numerical restrictions for eastern and western hemisphere immigration were combined into a single world wide ceiling of 290,000. Then there was the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 addressed the issue of unauthorized immigration. It tried to enhance enforcement and to create new pathways to legal immigration. The Immigration Act of 1990 added a category of admission based in diversity and increased the world wide immigration ceiling to the current "flexible" cap of 675,000 per year.
After the Immigration Act of 1990 came the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 addressed border enforcement and the use of social services by immigrants because of the continuing concerns about unauthorized immigrants. The Act increased the number of border patrol agents, introduced new border control measures, reduced government benefits available to immigrants, and created a pilot program in which employers and social services agencies could check by telephone or electronically to verify the eligibility of immigrants applying for work or social service benefits.
In 2002, the Homeland Security Act created the department of Homeland Security (DHS) and, restructured the Immigration and Naturalization Service(INS), the agency is responsible for immigration services, border enforcement, and border inspections. Almost all the functions of INS were transferred to DHS. Prior laws had combined immigrant service and enforcement functions within the same agency. Those functions are now divided among different bureaus of DHS. Immigration and naturalization are the responsibility of the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services. The border enforcement functions of the INS are split between to bureaus: The Bureau of Customs and Border Protection and The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Currently the immigration policy offers two distinct ways for non citizens to enter the United States lawfully: permanent admission and temporary admission.
Immigration Policy in the United States has changed numerous times over the years, yet there is not a stable and structured Immigration Policy. Currently I don't think that there will ever be an immigration policy that society agrees on because both parties have different views and with the changes in the our government there will never be a stable immigration policy. Another reason is one minute society is fine with immigrants working here because its less money and the next they protesting that immigrants are bringing down America. Society just needs to decide on what they want and stick to it because flip-flopping has not solved anything and it never will.
The Evolution of United States Immigration Policy!!
ReplyDeleteThe blog on the Evolution of United States Immigration Policy by Ayshelle King was a very informative article. The blog was very interesting and informative. A enjoyable read. I thought the facts were well presented in easy to follow chronological order without going overboard with information. I agree with it is almost impossible to implement a National Immigration Policy that makes everyone happy. The point about the public opinion goes back and forth was very well made. My only suggestion is that the article should have a little more on the polices that are in place and how they effect the country. This problem, like many others, have been pushed to back burner due to the War on Terror but is moving to the front due to the economic times.