edit my paper as per instructor comment

Immigration policy has been an ongoing subject of congressional attention for many years and a topic of concern for majority of U.S. citizens.50,000 slaves smuggled in the United States became the first "Illegal Aliens" when foreign slave trade became illegal in 1808. Prior to this period, the authors of the US Constitution gave full protection to foreign slave trade, which at that time was a major source of immigration. They prohibited interference with the trade for twenty years, and either the domestic slave trade or slavery itself was interfered with, after the trade was made illegal by Congress, at President Jefferson's invitation, when that period expired. (Daniels, 2004). Today, the United States is experiencing an influx of illegal immigration than any period in its history. It is estimated that 850,000 new illegal immigrants arrive in the country each year, with Mexico leading the pack with 59% of the country's total (Center for Immigration Studies, 2015).

This paper discusses the historical perspective of the time when the illegal immigration policy was implemented, highlighting the problem and urgency of the policy and analyzing the social, economic and political environments for the time the policy was implemented. It further critiques the policy for its effectiveness over time, as well as identifying emerging issues for further policy development.

Discuss the historical perspective of the time when the policy was implemented

The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) captured Amnesty and enforcement as the two major facets of this legislation. One of two stipulations was necessary for an alien to be granted amnesty by IRCA. The applicants must have resided in the United States continually since January 1982 or had completed 90 days of agricultural work between May 1985 and May 1986. (Center for Immigration Studies, 2015). Approximately 3 million people, comprising 94% of all applicants, gained legal status through this initiative. The illegal Immigrant Reform Act and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA)was passed by the Congress in 1996. The act beefed up border controls by ensuring the engagement of more Border Patrol and Immigration and Naturalization Service Agents. A border fence was planned for San Diego and severe repercussions were increased for persons entering the country illegally. With hopes of easing worksite enforcement, an automated employment verification pilot program was created. IIRIRA also allowed state police officers to enforce immigration law using the 287(g) program. The increased enforcement by IIRIRA did not bear much fruit due to poor funding. There were a series of other small amnesties passed by Congress in the 90's. Approximately 578,000 illegal aliens were pardoned in 1994 and fine $1,000 each. This amnesty was later renewed in 1997 and 2000. The Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (NACARA), was the second amnesty passed in 1997. Approximately 1 million aliens, mostly from Central America who had lived in the U. S. since 1995 gained legal status. The Haitian Refugee Immigration and Fairness Act (HRIFA) passed in 1998 addressed the discriminatory aspect of excluding Haitians from NACARA. The Legal Immigration Family Equity Act (LIFE), passed in 2000 was a mini-amnesty targeting those illegal aliens who hope to become green card holders through marriage employment or other categories, but due long line of people ahead of them, were not near approval yet. This initiative was aimed at tackling the growing backlogs that were the result of the previous amnesties. This was at the expense of hopeful legal immigrants waiting in line overseas.

In 2005 and 2006, two Acts were discussed by Congress, the Border Protection, Anti-terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 (BPAIICA) and the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 (CIRA). The former (BPAIICA) was to be limited to enforcement and focused on both the border and interior. The latter (CIRA) would have given amnesty to a majority of illegal aliens already in the country as well as dramatically increased legal immigration. No compromise bill emerged despite the bills passing their respective chambers. Another attempt with CIRA was made in 2007, which if succeeded, would have given amnesty to a large majority of illegal entrants in the country and significantly increased legal immigration and enforcement. Unfortunately, CIRA, which was a bipartisan blessings in the Senate, was widely unpopular with the American public. It failed to pass a cloture vote as a result of unprecedented public pressure, essentially killing it.

In 2010, Congress ended President Obama's DREAM Act which would have granted illegal aliens, who had arrived in the United States as minors, lawful residency status. In 2012, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) was instituted by the president. Under this Act, illegal alien "Dreamers" could request for a two-year deferral of any action to remove them, along with employment authorization documents. In 2013, a "comprehensive immigration reform bill supported by the president was again declined by Congress. This bill would have probably ended the long controversy of illegal immigration. 11 million illegal aliens would have been granted legal status including the "Dreamers". On November 19, 2014, President Obama allowed about four million illegal aliens who are parents to legal permanent residents and U. S. citizens to apply for a three-year deferral of removal, along with employment authorization documents. The stay of DACA beneficiaries was also extended by three year and the number who could qualify extended by 200,000. (Center for Immigration Studies, 2015). In June 2016, The supreme court ruling on illegal immigration shattered the hopes of over million illegal aliens who now stand the risk of deportation. The categories of illegal aliens affected were 3.5 million parents of U.S. citizens with over 5 years of residence; 180,000 parents of legal permanent residents with over 10 years residency, 205,000 disqualified by not eliminating the age cutoff for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and 85,000 refused protection by not granting DACA eligibility to arrivals through 2010. (Ehrenfreund, 2016)

Indicate the context or the problem of the day and the urgency for the policy (why it is important).

It is best to look past the current crisis in order to understand the illegal immigration problem in the United States. Mexico provides a good picture given that Mexicans are the largest national-origin group of undocumented immigrants in the United States. While some economic and demographic causes responsible for the problem have nothing to do with U.S. illegal immigration policy, prior policies before DACA played a role in exacerbating it. (Planas, 2014) North America was home to Spanish colonizers almost a century before the first Anglo settlers. Throughout 16th and 17th centuries, the colonizers of North America set out on their expeditions from what is today known as Mexico. These people, though working on behalf of the Spanish empire, were not all Spaniards. They were mixture of Spanish and indigenous heritage, including indigenous black people. This group people known today as Mexicans have populated North America much longer than English-speaking people.

In the early 19th, Anglo settlers from newly independent United States immigrated in large number to the Mexican territory of Texas, often illegally, seeking land and opportunities for commerce. At the time of the Mexican-American War, many Mexicans lived on Southwest territory before the United States won the war. The other reason was the fact the U.S. and Mexico shared a common border, measuring almost 200 miles. Since the 19th century, Mexican national viewed the more prosperous labor market just next door as attractive and migrated across the border for short-term agricultural work. Under the Bracero program, more than 4.6 million Mexicans immigrated legally to the United States between 1942 and 1964 to work temporary farm jobs. Congress capped the number of immigrant visas available to Mexicans after shutting down the Bracero program, despite the fact that the United States showed consistent demand for Mexican labor. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 worsened the situation by prohibiting unskilled Mexican laborers from receiving Legal Permanent Resident visas. This tripled the number of undocumented Mexicans caught crossing the border illegally between 1965 and 1970 (Rosenblum, Kandel, Seelke, & Wasem, 2012).

Social, Economic and Political Environments

On a typical day, about 88,000 foreigners arrive in the United States through our borders and airports, most of who do not intend to stay. 82,000 of these visitors (nonimmigrants) come to the United States as tourists, business visitors, students, and foreign workers. Another 2,200 are persons that the United States has invited to join American society as permanent residents, most them being immigrants and refugees. The remaining 4,100 are unauthorized or illegal foreigners, some who have entered legally as tourists and then stayed in the United States, but most entered the country unlawfully by dodging border patrol agents or using fake documents to outwit border inspectors. (Duignan, 2003).

On one hand, the arrival of these visitors is celebrated by the United States, acknowledging its immigrant heritage, telling the story of renewal and rebirth brought about by these visitors. On the flip side, since the days of the founding fathers, Americans have worried about the economic, political and cultural effects of newcomers. At one extreme are organizations that want to reduce or stop immigration, such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). This organization says that, “With more than a million legal and illegal immigrants settling in United States each year … it is evident to most Americans that large-scale immigration is not serving the needs and interests of the country. At the other extreme, the Wall Street Journal is advocates a five-word amendment to the U.S. constitution: “there shall be open borders”. According to the Wall Street Journal, high level of immigration means more consumers, more workers, and a larger economy with “new blood.

Objective Evaluation of DACA

Congress has vastly increased the resources devoted to immigration enforcement for the past two decades. By any measurable standards, the number of Border Patrol Agents, miles of fencing, drones and surveillance coverage, the U.S. border with Mexico should be far more secure than ever. Since 2004, Border Patrol personnel have doubled to more than 21,000, more than 650 miles of fencing have been built, and the border is draped with ground sensors and aerial surveillance. In an effort to deter further illegal immigration, the federal government has also ramped up interior enforcement of immigration laws, doubling the number of removals annually over the past decade, mandating the use of employment verification for government contracts, and increasing workplace audits. United States spends more on immigration enforcement than all other federal law enforcement missions combine. A recent study by the Migration Policy Institute found that $18 billion was spent on illegal immigration enforcement in fiscal year (FY) 2012(Roberts, Alden, & Whitley, 2013).

The American public remains skeptical about the effectiveness of immigration enforcement, despite efforts in place discussed above. Two-thirds of Americans believe the border is still not secure, according to a recent survey. The first reason for the public’s skepticism is that the U.S. government has done very little to measure, evaluate its enforcement efforts and has not made public the results of the small amount of analysis that has been done internally (Roberts, Alden, & Whitley, 2013). As far as border enforcement is concerned, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) releases only a single output number; the total arrests, or apprehensions, made by Border Patrol agents of unauthorized crossers in the vicinity of the border. Other relevant enforcement metrics related to illegal entry at the ports are not reported.

Conclusion.

The emerging illegal immigration issues that warrant further policy developments are data quality, costs and benefits, services and management improvement and immigration control. Data quality relates to counting the number of immigrants, developing estimates of subgroups of immigrants, and projecting trends in immigration. The second issue focuses on the financial effect of immigrants. It considers the monetary and fiscal intergovernmental consequences of immigration policy and its effect on labor, health and education. The third area, services and management improvement, deals with questions such as how the flow of immigrants is managed and whether it could be managed efficiently. Finally, under immigration control, a question of enforcement, emphasis be place not only on legal but also illegal immigrants.

References

Center for Immigration Studies. (2015, December). Historical Overview of Immigration Policy. Retrieved October 21, 2016, from Center of Immigration Studies: http://cis.org/ImmigrationHistory

Daniels, R. P. (2004). Guarding the Golden Door: American Immigration Policy and Immigrants Since 1882. New York: Hill and Wang.

Duignan, P. J. (2003, Septemeber 15). Making and Remaking America: Immigration into the United States. Retrieved October 22, 2016, from Hoover Institution: http://www.hoover.org/research/making-and-remaking-america-immigration-united-states

Ehrenfreund, M. (2016, June 13). Here's Who is Affected by the Supreme Court's Big Ruling on Immigration. Retrieved October 20, 2016, from The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/06/23/heres-who-is-affected-by-the-supreme-courts-big-ruling-on-immigration/?tid=a_inl

Planas, R. (2014, August 25). These are the Real Reasons Behind Illegal Immigration. Retrieved October 20, 2016, from The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/25/undocumented-mexicans_n_5709141.html

Roberts, B., Alden, E., & Whitley, J. (2013). Managing Illegal Immigration in the United States: How Effective is Enforcement. New York: Public Printers.

Rosenblum, M. R., Kandel, W. A., Seelke, C. R., & Wasem, R. E. (2012). Mexican Migration to the United States: Policy and Trends. Congressional Research Service.