History Essay

10/14t2019

From ABC-CLIO's American Government website https://a merica ngovern ment2.a bc-clio.com/

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I M M IGRATION AN D NATU RALIZATION SERVICE The lmmigration and Naturalization Service (lNS) was a subunit of the U.S. Justice Department charged with administering the immigration and naturalization laws. The commissioner of the INS was appointed by the president. INS functions have included facilitating legal entry of those from different countries, assisting immigrants seeking permanent residence or naturalization, preventing illegal entry by immigrants, and catching immigrants enterinB or staying in the United States illegally. ln 2003, the INS ceased to exist when its responsibilities were transferred to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which was created in the wake of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. The INS'functions were divided between the DHS' U.S. Citizenship and lmmigration Services, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. lmmigration and Customs Enforcement.

One of the mostvisible dimensions of the work of the INS was the apprehension and deportation of undocumented immigrants, a process sometimes carried out by raids on factories and sweatshops. ln 1986, the Sovernment tried to humanize the immigration process with the passage of the lmmigration Reform and Control Act, also known as the Simpson-Mazzoli bill. The law provided that agriculturalworkers be granted special residential status, but it deeplyworried farmers and fruit Srowers who became concerned that they would not be able to find laborers, since many Americans shun such jobs. The act made employers responsible for ensuring that their employees were legal residents, but it also created an amnesty for immigrants who had been in the countrysince before 1982, which enabled them to become permanent residents.

Underthewatch of a disorganized lNS, the numberof undocumented immigrants in the United States roseto 7 million bythe end of the 20th century. ln 2002, the decision was made to incorporate the INS into the DHS following a series of incidents that embarrassed the agency. Chief among those was the arrival of student visa approval notifications at a flying school in Venice, Florida six months to the day after the September 11,2001 attacks; the notifications were for two of the hijackers. Though the men had been approved prior to the attacks, the notification was sent after September 1 1 .

The timing of the hijackers'approval notices highlighted the inefficiency of an organization weighed down by a backlog of paperwork. ln his plan forthe DHS, President George W. Bush called forthe separation of the enforcement, border protection, and service branches of the INS into new agencies under the DHS.

Nita Lang Further Reading

Calavita, Kltty, lnside the State: The Bracero Program, lmmigration, and the l.N.S., 1992; CNN. http://www.cnn.com; Dixon, EdwardH., The lmmigration and Naturalization Service, 1990; lmmigration and Naturalization Service (http://www.ins.gov).

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lmage Credits

Naturalization ceremony: PhotoDisc, lnc.

Chicago Citation Lang, Nita. "lmmigration and Naturalization Service." ln American Government, ABC-C11O,2019. Accessed October 14,20:|g. http://americangovernment2.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/201 388.

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