Nery Martinez

Dennis Wilson
ECON 2020
December 7, 2016
Immigration Policies and Reform
Immigration has been a controversial issue since the United States was
officially declared a nation with the signing of the Declaration of
Independence. Prior to the signing of the Declaration of Independence,
immigration was freely allowed by an open do or policy. Many areas of
Europe were facing overpopulation, famine, and disease and people were
persecuted for religious differences. The opportunity to colonize America
gave the European people hope of prosperity and freedom from persecution.
British, Irish and Germans accounted for the largest immigration populations
to first colonize America and people quickly spilled out into the new frontier.
The number of people immigrating to America increased steadily and by
1860, the population of the United States had increased to 31 million, from 7
million in 1810 (Gunderson, 2002). Individuals who had immigrated to find
work with the railroad and steamship companies encouraged their families to
follow. The 1800s to early 1900s saw a large population growth in the
United States with immigration numbers reaching up to five million people
per year.
The number of immigrants between 1860 and 1880 was almost
equivalent to the total number of immigrants since the country became

independent. In 1882, the federal government enacted the first immigration

policy, The Immigration Act of 1882, giving the Secretary of the Treasury
authority over immigration. This act was put into place to bar criminals,
paupers, and mental and physical defectives from being sent to the United
States. During the same year, the Chinese Exclusion Act was put into place
to make Chinese people ineligible to enter the United States after previously
encouraging them to immigrate to work in the railroad industry. As the
United States changed from a frontier to a more industrialized nation, the
immigration needs changed with it. Further legislations restricted certain
groups like Asians and people over age 16 that were unable to read. It wasnt
until the 1920s that limits were placed on 3 the number of immigrants
entering the United States, mostly out of fear of mass immigration from
European countries that had been devastated by World War I.
During the 1930s -1950s, immigration to America was due mostly to
asylum of refugees. Hitlers rise in power and subsequently, World War II, left
many Europeans without a home. The Displaced Persons Act of 1948 allowed
for displaced people to be admitted into the United States through the end of
1951. In 1952, the Immigration and Nationality Act was put in place as a
reaction to World War II and the Korean War. This Act reinforced the need for
restriction on immigration based on nationality and established a fourcategory selection system. This four point selection system was the
antecedent of our current preference system, which places higher priority on
family reunification than on needed skills. (Gunderson, 2002). In 1965, an

amendment to the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act removed the

national origins quota and put a system based on maximum immigration per
country into place to further support the reunification of families. The
decades to follow have shown a common theme in immigration policy: how
best to control over-immigration of refugees and illegal immigration of
undocumented persons.
One specific policy, written in 1996, set the tone for modern
immigration policy: the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant
Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA) of 1996. Congress was placed in the difficult
predicament of fairly writing an immigration reform bill and trying to appease
the masses. IIRAIRA focused on the number of illegal, undocumented people
that were in the United States and what could be done to reduce the appeal
of the country as an easy place to immigrate. According to the website
VisaLaw.com,
It is divided into six broad sections:
Title I -Improvements to Border Control, Facilitation of Legal Entry and
Interior Enforcement
Title II -Enhanced Enforcement and Penalties Against Alien Smuggling;
Document Fraud
Title III -Inspection, Apprehension, Detention, Adjudication, And Removal Of
Inadmissible And Deportable Aliens
Title IV -Enforcement of Restrictions Against Employment
Title V -Restrictions On Benefits For Aliens

Title VI -Miscellaneous Provisions.

Unfortunately, this legislation created even more strife because it did focus
on border control and enforcement issues that ultimately led to many
Inferring that it was a direct stab at Mexican immigrants.
Since 1996, both Presidents of the United States have pointed to
immigration reform as one of their main focuses. President George W. Bush
made proposals for changing the system but failed to have any of those
ideas implemented. President Barrack Obama promised to focus on
immigration reform during his first term but never did. Many people in the
general public propose that the only reason he has made it a focus of his
second term is due to having immigrant family members and the fact that he
won his re-election by getting the votes of over 70% of the Hispanic voters.
He is also facing pressure from the business industry to make it easier for
the U.S. to attract highly educated immigrants and to legally bring in more
lower-skilled workers such as farm laborers (Benac, 2013). Current
immigration reform plans include the same focuses of the 1996 IIRAIRA and
given the length of time that has passed without any change, there is little
hope that change will come soon.
There are varying opinions on the topic of immigration reform, coming
from groups fighting for and against immigration leniency. One common fear
is that immigrants will come into the U.S. and reap the benefits that belong
to legalized citizens. This includes obtaining government assistance and
stealing our jobs. Too many of the stories shared by 5 the media tend to

support these negative outlooks and intentionally create conflict in the

publics mind to increase their ratings. Luckily, there are the opposite
thinkers like Darrell West, author of Brain Gain: Rethinking U.S. Immigration
Policy, who like to stress the positives behind immigration. West recognized
that people tend to grow more fearful about immigration issues during times
of high unemployment and economic distress, as has been the case during
the Great Recession. He stresses that many of the cultural aspects of the
immigrants that formed our country are ingrained into the current American
way. There are many advantages to having immigration that are not readily
acknowledged during times of unease. Most immigrants come to the U.S. as
young workers that pay taxes even if they are not eligible to collect any
benefits. They also pay sales tax, property tax, and other state and federal
taxes. It is difficult to measure the economic, intellectual contributions and
social costs and benefits of immigration (West, 2010).
There are so many good things that have come and can still come from
immigration. Scientifically, it increases the genetic variation in our
population. Culturally, it introduces new foods and entertainment into the
country. Intellectually, there are many brilliant young scientists and
information technologists that are trained in U.S. educational institutions and
then sent back to their home country. We should harness some of the
advantages of immigration and we should all strive to remember that our
country was founded on immigration and it is a part of who we are in the
world.

Bibliography
Benac, N. (2016, May 06). Everything You Need to Know About Immigration
Reform And the 'Gang of Eight Bill'. Retrieved November 25, 2016, from
Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/06/immigraitonreformbill_n_3223563.html

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Science Publishers, Inc.
Newton, L. (2008). Illegal, Alien, or Immigrant: The Politics of Immigration
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