Edgar Chamorro

Political Science
20 October 2016
Illegal/Undocumented Immigrants in America
In the United States there are many immigrants who come from their home countries to
either escape their country's punishments because of their religion, political views, and other
beliefs or because they come to work. Sometimes it is difficult for certain people to find a way to
come to The United States legally. Those people feel hopeless and after they get rejected so
many times of a working permit, they decide to sneak across the border illegally. People who
cross the border illegally are called illegal or undocumented immigrants. The problem of people
coming to the country illegally is so controversial in America that many people are either really
against illegal immigrants or support illegal immigrants. It is so controversial that 2016
Presidential Candidate Donald Trumps biggest campaign strategy was on the promise that if he
becomes the president, The United States are going to built a wall between the Mexican and
American border. He also mentions about how illegal immigrants are criminals and rapist
coming for all around the world. That is when people start to wonder if illegal Immigrants have
rights in the United States? Many americans feel like illegal immigrants broke the law by
illegally sneaking through the border, thus they deserve to have no rights because they are not
from this country. Other people believe that illegal immigrants are humans and deserve to have
rights too. Many Laws have been passed to help illegal immigrants like the law that allows them
to obtain a driver's license or laws to actually fight against illegal immigrants like the S.B. 1070
which allows police officer to pull over drivers and asked for documentation.

Until recently The United States did not allow illegal immigrants to have drivers
license This was a giant step for undocumented immigrants because when a driver without a
license gets pulled over by a police officer, The driver gets their car confiscated. So many illegal
immigrants were not allowed to receive their drivers license. That changed when Washington
created the blueprint for illegal immigrants to be allowed to get driver license with the H 144 Bill
that was enacted in 1993. It took 10 years until Utah followed with their S 227 Bill which was
enacted in 2003. Finally 10 more states followed by making different laws that all granted the
right for illegal immigrants to obtain their drivers license. The bills that were passed allowed
illegal immigrants to obtain a license without having a social security or any kind of legal
documentation. The most important document that the illegal immigrant needed was proof of
their tax return. Most of the bills passed by the states were similar on the requirements and what
the license could be used for. This law was of a great benefit to illegal immigrants because now
they would not be at risk of losing their car every time they got pulled over and they could
finally be able to buy a car in dealers that a license was required. Even Though the drivers
license issued could not be used in any way of identification, it was on giant step on illegal
immigrants having more rights.
Just like there are states that try helping illegal immigrants out by passing the Drivers
license bills, there are also states like Arizona who passed their S.B. 1070 Bill which targets
people who look like undocumented immigrants. The S.B. 1070 initially had four provisions.
Thee four provisions were: the right for the police officer to retain and pull over people who look
like they would be undocumented, making it a crime to be an undocumented immigrant at
Arizona, made undocumented immigrant applying or working in Arizona a crime and finally

allowed police officers to arrest and detain people who looked suspicious of being
undocumented without a warrant. The Bill was taken to to the supreme court because the federal
government found some parts unconstitutional. The federal Government has the superior power
to make immigration laws and felt like Arizona was taking that from them. That is when the
dilemma was taken to the court under Arizona vs. United States. The court came with their
decision to nullify 3 of 4 provision with the vote of 5-3. According to Scotusblog.com, The
Court left intact but subject to later challenges in lower courts a provision requiring police
to arrest and hold anyone they believe has committed a crime and whom they think is in the
country illegally, and holding them until their immigration status could be checked with federal
officials. The rest of the provisions were nullified because they were deemed unconstitutional,
and They were treated as a threat towards the federal government's powers. When the S.B. 1070
bill was passed at Arizona, it made undocumented immigrants life really difficult. The
undocumented immigrants started to fear because they were getting hunted down and they could
get pulled over for looking a certain type of way. The S.B. 1070 does not just affect
undocumented immigrants, but it also affected the Hispanic people who live at Arizona. The
Hispanic people that have citizenship are getting pulled over and detained. Like there are no way
to tell apart an undocumented immigrant from a Hispanic Citizen, many people feel like it is
racist and discriminates the hispanic community for being certain color.
Even though undocumented immigrants cannot vote, elections are really important to the
their lives. Every time there are elections the candidates always have different ideas on how to
deal with the undocumented immigrants situation. At this current time the undocumented
immigrants are waiting on what is going to be the result of this years elections. Donald Trump,

the Republican candidate, wants to build a wall in the southern borders and wants Mexico to pay
for it. According to PBS.Org,Trump kicked off his presidential campaign by calling for
aggressive, mass deportations of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the
United States. Trump does not just want to deported illegal immigrants, but he also wants to
disallow the eligibility of children born in American soil from undocumented immigrants to get
born citizenship. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate, wants to just deport undocumented
immigrants with a crime history and pursue fellow democratic president Obama's DACA &
DAFA. The DACA and DAPA will be a huge win for undocumented immigrants because they
will not be removed from the country, and the DAPA and DACA will allow undocumented
immigrants to work legally in America. Clinton also want to make an easier pathway for
undocumented immigrants to become citizens. But the Undocumented Immigrants faith and
future does not just depend on who the president is, but If the Supreme Court passes the laws.
The importance of the Supreme court has recently been seen for the Undocumented immigrant
community. President Obama signed the DACA bill but was stalled by the Supreme Court
because their decision ended up on an equal tie. Even Though the votes have not came out to the
public, it is believed that the decision was split in an evan tie with the conservative judges voting
against it and the liberal judges voting for the bill to pass.
When it comes down to the current status of Undocumented immigrant community it is
stalled. It is stalled until the 2016 presidential campaign is over and the new president is
declared. The president is not just going to implicate their immigration policies, but he/she will
nominate the missing justice official on the supreme court causing the supreme court to shift
either to the left wing or the right wing.

Citations:
"Arizona v. United States : SCOTUSblog." SCOTU Blog. Accessed October 22, 2016.
http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/arizona-v-united-states/.
Barnes, Robert. "Supreme Court Wont Revive Obama Plan to Shield Illegal ..." Washington Post.
June 23, 2016. Accessed October 22, 2016.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court-wont-revive-obama-plan-t
o-shield-illegal-immigrants-from-deportation/2016/06/23/6cea5f1e-3950-11e6-9ccd
-d6005beac8b3_story.html.
"Chicago-Kent College of Law at Illinois Tech. "Arizona v. United States." Oyez. Accessed
October 21, 2016. Https://www.oyez.org/cases/2011/11-182
Goff, Jenna, and Joan Grieve. "Trump vs. Clinton: Immigration | Washington Week." PBS.
Accessed October 22, 2016.
http://www.pbs.org/weta/washingtonweek/blog-post/trump-vs-clinton-immigration
Mendoza, Gilberto. "States Offering Driver's License to Immigrants." NCSL. Accessed October 21,
2016.
http://www.ncsl.org/research/immigration/states-offering-driver-s-licenses-to-immig
rants.aspx#1.