Immigration Reforms in the United States

The Impact of Political Immigration Policies on Immigrants

The current American Government under the leadership of President Trump has come up with several political immigration policies which have, in turn, affected the immigrants living in the United States including the Mexicans and Latinos. According to the U.S immigration policies migrants who have criminal records will be deported[1]. Immigrants who are gang members promoting violent acts and drug dealers pose a threat to the community as well as the innocent citizens. Concerning this, migrant criminals will be eradicated from U.S leaving the country a safe and secure place. However, in reality the immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) does not target criminals, they go after the innocent migrants such as students, caretakers, mothers. The deportation of such immigrants from America creates a strain on the families as families get separated from each other due to deportations leaving children as orphans and subjecting them to be taken care of by the child services department.

Fear and Infringements in the Lives of Mexicans and Latinos

Another way the political immigration policies have affected the lives of Mexicans and Latinos living in the United States is that it has created fear in the immigrants lives as they fear getting deported due to committing infractions[2]. Most of the immigrants living in U.S especially those of Mexican and Latino descent comprise the majority of the immigrants thus they have to take extra care when going about their daily activities. The immigrants fear being deported due to committing infractions; therefore they take extra care not to break the laws. For example, the immigrants in U.S have to take care not to break traffic rules as such aspects can subject them to face deportation. Concerning this, they live in constant fear not knowing whether they will return home safely or they will be deported.

Immigration Laws and Deportation Campaigns to Deal with Mexicans and Latinos

In an attempt to deal with the issue about Mexicans and Latinos living in the U.S, the government came up with various immigration laws and deportation campaigns to prevent the influx of Mexican and Latino immigrants into the country as well as reduce the already existing immigrants. Part of President Trump’s immigration policy involves increasing border control and constructing a wall on the South West border[3]. Improving border control through employing more border patrol officers and availing necessary resources to the border patrol will aid in the reduction of illegal entry of immigrants into the United States. The construction of the wall on the south border will physically prevent illegal immigrants from gaining access into the country. The Mexico- United States wall is a 3,145 km series of walls and fences preventing the Mexicans from crossing over to U.S thus controlling illegal immigration tendencies.

Elimination and reduction of administrative procedures for Mexican and Latino migrants is another immigration law seeking to reduce the number of immigrants in U.S. The reduction and elimination of Central American Asylum Applications will significantly reduce the number of migrants seeking asylum from Central America[4]. This is achieved by making the immigrant wait for 678 days before appearing before a judge to grants them asylum in the country[5]. Moreover, as there is a reduction in administrative procedures for the Mexicans and Latinos, the deportation process is sped up on the other hand thus reducing the number of immigrants significantly in the U.S.

Issues Immigration Reformers and Advocates Address

Immigrants in the United States comprise of about 27% of the total population of around 323 million people according to census conducted by Census Bureau Data. From the total immigrant population, more than 43 million are adults who are working or looking for jobs to earn a living. Some of the central issues that immigration reformers and advocates address are such as the current job shortages in America whereby many of the Americans are jobless and end up living in streets due to poverty. Most of the immigrants in the U.S are undocumented and employed in various industries such as agriculture, manufacturing and domestic employees among other jobs[6]. Concerning this, the Americans end up missing out on job opportunities as the undocumented immigrants offered their services at a reduced fee compared to the Americans. The immigration reformers aim at creating a balance in the job sector to prevent the increase in poverty level in America.

Another key issue immigration reformers and advocates address is the country’s security state. Recently, crime rates have had a significant surge ranging from terrorism cases to gang related violence and drug trafficking[7]. Concerning this, many innocent Americans end up getting hurt and lose their lives due to the illegal activities. Most of the apprehended criminals engaging in gang violence and drug trafficking are usually immigrants because they are undocumented and cannot easily obtain jobs or the language barrier prevents them from getting employed. Therefore, the alternative means of fending for themselves is engaging in illegal activities such as drug peddling and burglary in order to get money to sustain themselves. The immigration reformers and advocates are constantly debating and implementing immigration policies that hinder immigrants from engaging in illegal activities during their stay in America.

Factors Impeding Federal Government from Reforming Immigration Laws

Over the past few years, the Federal government has been striving to reform the country’s immigration laws such as the border security, Economic opportunity as well as Immigration Modernization Act to no fruitful outcome because of the huge underlying budget. In order for the Federal government to improve border security and law enforcement, there is the need for availability of huge funds to cater for the various resources and activities. For example, the construction of the wall between Mexico and the United States requires a lot of funds and resources to be able to obtain the materials and complete the construction. Also, changes to the federal immigration policy may affect the revenues collected by the government such as income tax, excise tax, payroll tax which may negatively affect the country’s economy[8].

Another factor preventing the Federal government from reforming immigration laws is the various communities in the U.S who feel overwhelmed by the culture and presence of immigrants as their culture differs greatly from the American culture. This has led to the community members lobbying the federal government for changes or stricter enforcement of immigration laws. The aforementioned differences place immense pressure on the federal government as the various communities have different proposals for implementation by the government, thus, making the government have a difficulty dealing with the rising immigration related issues [9]. Also, the need to delegate the immigration responsibility to the local law enforcement agencies to work with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents is another factor preventing the federal government from reforming immigration laws as there are no clearly established sanctuary jurisdictions for the ICE and the local law enforcement[10].

Bibliography

Carroll, Rory. “America’s Millions of Mexicans without Documents Live in Fear of Deportation”. The Guardian. 2017. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/05/deportation-fear-mexicans-los-angeles

Congressional Budget Office. ”How Changes in Immigration Policy Might Affect the Federal Budget.” 2015. Retrieved from: https://www.cbo.gov/publication/49868

Felter, Claire and Renwick, Danielle. ”The U.S. Immigration Debate.” Council on Foreign Relations. 2018. Retrieved from: https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/us-immigration-debate-0

Fitz, Marshall and Maria Angela. ”Principles for Immigration Reform.” Center for American Progress. 2009. Retrieved from: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/reports/2009/12/21/7050/principles-for-immigration-reform/

Orozco, Manuel.”Trump, Immigration Policy and the Fate of Latino Migrants in the United States.  Inter-American Dialogue. 2017. Retrieved from: https://www.thedialogue.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/The-new-president-and-the-fate-of-migration-policy-and-Latino-migrants-3.pdf

Ors, Yucel and Carr, Aileen. ”Federal Government Should Fix the Immigration System, Not Cities. 2017. Retrieved from: https://www.nlc.org/article/federal-government-should-fix-the-immigration-system-not-cities

Siddiq, Sadaf. “State versus Federal Government in the Regulation of Immigration: Examining the Constitutionality Of Arizona And Alabama’s Immigration Laws.”(2012). Retrieved from: https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1219&context=etd_projects

[1]

Orozco, Manuel.“Trump, Immigration Policy and the Fate of Latino Migrants in the United States.  Inter-American Dialogue. 2017. Retrieved from: https://www.thedialogue.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/The-new-president-and-the-fate-of-migration-policy-and-Latino-migrants-3.pdf

[2]

Carroll, Rory. ”America’s Millions of Mexicans without Documents Live in Fear of Deportation”. The Guardian. 2017. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/05/deportation-fear-mexicans-los-angeles

[3]

Orozco, Manuel.”Trump, Immigration Policy and the Fate of Latino Migrants in the United States.  Inter-American Dialogue. 2017. Retrieved from: https://www.thedialogue.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/The-new-president-and-the-fate-of-migration-policy-and-Latino-migrants-3.pdf

[4]

Ibid

[6]

Felter, Claire and Renwick, Danielle. ”The U.S. Immigration Debate.” Council on Foreign Relations. 2018. Retrieved from: https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/us-immigration-debate-0

[7]

Fitz, Marshall and Maria Angela. ”Principles for Immigration Reform.” Center for American Progress. 2009. Retrieved from: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/reports/2009/12/21/7050/principles-for-immigration-reform/

[8]

Congressional Budget Office. “How Changes in Immigration Policy Might Affect the Federal Budget.” 2015. Retrieved from: https://www.cbo.gov/publication/49868

[9]

Ors, Yucel and Carr, Aileen. ”Federal Government Should Fix the Immigration System, Not Cities. 2017. Retrieved from: https://www.nlc.org/article/federal-government-should-fix-the-immigration-system-not-cities

[10]

Siddiq, Sadaf. ”State versus Federal Government in the Regulation of Immigration: Examining the Constitutionality Of Arizona And Alabama’s Immigration Laws.“(2012). Retrieved from: https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1219&context=etd_projects