NATIONAL LEVEL

1. History-

Immigration has always been a strong component of US History. Throughout early history from around 1600-1800, immigration from places such as Europe was encouraged in able to settle western lands. Slavery in the 1800's brought millions of African slaves to America. Other people, mostly Europeans, traveled far distances in order to gain economically through the prosperity of the new country.
Below is a photograph of a family of Norwegian immigrants on the Great Plains around 1896:(1)

In the 1850's, many Chinese migrated to California in order to find work. The increase in foreigners led to the Chinese Immigration Exclusion Act (1882), which prohibited certain nationalities and social classes of Asians.

From the late 1800's to the early 1900's, many immigrants from Europe came to America through Ellis Island. The largest portions of immigrants were from Ireland and Germany. Below is a graph depicting the amount of immigrants from Ireland and Germany:

(3)

The early 1900's saw the first great surge of immigrants from Mexico. Political instability in Mexico and the strong US economy made America a desirable place. The Great Depression of the 1930's hit Mexican Americans especially hard. High unemployment and racism led to the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Mexican immigrants, especially farm workers. Later in the 1900's, immigrants from South America increased substantially, making Mexican Americans, especially, a driving force in our country. To deal with the large surge of immigrants, the government established the Immigration Service in 1981.Between 1830 and 2000 the US admitted more than 281 million immigrants, illustrated in the table below.(4)

Country/Year				1900	1930	1960	1970	1980	1990	2000
Austria						305	214
Bohemia
Canada				1,180	1,310	953	812	843	745	678
China										1,391
Cuba							439	608	737	952
Czechoslovakia					492
Dominican Republic										692
El Salvador										765
France
Germany				2,663	1,609	990	833	849	712
Holland
Hungary						245
India										1,007
Ireland				1,615	745	339
Italy				484	1,790	1,257	1,009	832	581
Korea								290	568	701
Mexico					641	576	760	2,199	4,298	7,841
Norway				336
Pakistan										724
Philippines								501	913	1,222
Poland					1,269	748	548	418
Russia/Soviet Union				424	1,154	691	463	406
Sweden				582	595
Switzerland
United Kingdom				1,168	1,403	833	686	669	640
Vietnam									543	863
Total Foreign Born				10,341	14,204	10,347	9,619	14,079	19,763	31,100
% Foreign Born				13.6%	11.6%	5.8%	4.7%	6.2%	7.9%	11.1%
Native Born				65,653	108,571	168,978	193,591	212,466	228,946	250,321
% Native Born				86.4%	88.4%	94.2%	95.3%	93.8%	92.1%	88.9%
Total Population				75,994	122,775	179,325	203,210	226,545	248,709	281,421
				1900	1930	1960	1970	1980	1990	2000

2. Current Situation-

The current situation of immigration in the US is a heated topic for debate. Every year, approximately 1.3 million immigrants come to America. (5) Some of them are illegal immigrants, mostly from Mexico. These illegal immigrants get jobs and contribute enormously to American labor supply. They bring in revenue by the work they do, but at the same time, they take away available jobs from legal Americans. The current debate is 1. How best to close the borders from illegal immigration, 2. What to do with the illegal immigrants currently living in America, and 3. How to stop illegal immigration without hurting out economy from a lack of labor supply. (6)

To the left and right are polls depicting American's views on immigration: (7)
The other questions are over services such as health care and insurance for illegal immigrants. It is difficult to sustain a country when the population is growing exponentially every year. Legislation such as the 1990 Immigration Act restricted the number of immigrants, but issued much more visas then prior. America has also been accepting refugees. Since 1990, more that 2 million refugees have come from countries including 290,000 from Vietnam, 145,000 from Bosnia, 20,000 from Sudan, 37,000 from Laos, 20,000 from Ethiopia, 36,000 from Cuba, and 30,000 from Iraq. (8)

3. Large Scale Change-

There are many solutions to the problem of illegal immigration. The big question arises, “are illegal immigrants a net economic gain or a net economic loss for society?” (9) Many people believe that services such as health care should be provided to illegal immigrants because they are hardworking, tax paying citizens, and that the issue to based on ethical principal, not economics. Other people believe that “illegal immigrants threaten the U.S. health care system and public health” and should be deported. (10) These people say that immigrants bring down the quality of health care in the US by taking advantage of the system, causing many California hospitals to go bankrupt.

Currently, walls to close the border are being built along the Mexico boundary. Also the Border Patrol has tightened security by charging every person caught sneaking over the border, most being sentenced to 2 weeks in prison. This system is temporarily efficient, but in general it’s a slow and challenging method. Above is a picture of US National Guardsmen working on the border(11).
Bush’s proposed Guest Worker Program would allow illegal immigrants to stay in the US for a set period of time. I believe that the best way to solve the immigration problem is through supporting the Mexican economy to create higher paying jobs and better health care so that Mexico will be a much better place to live.

The main bill affecting immigrants is the Immigration and Nationality Act, otherwise known as "INA."(8) This bill determines the status and procedure for immigrants to legally come to America. The bill is frequently amended and altered. Groups which are trying to amend the bill to allow more immigrants include the Office of Immigration Review which is a separate agency that appeals the cases for the immigrants. Another such government group is the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. They were created to assess cases of abuse to civil rights, such as racial profiling by the Department of Homeland Security personnel.

Other ways include naturalizing all illegal immigrants in the US with jobs. In this way, businesses would maintain their labor forces while decreasing the number of illegal immigrants in the US. With the upcoming election of 2008, it will be interesting to see how the various political groups plan to deal with illegal immigration. The problem relates to other issues as well, such as poverty and health care. For example, if the US decides to nationalize health care, would that coverage extend to illegal immigrants as well? Changes need to be made soon before society collapses from an unsustainable large population.

4. The Future, and What Can You Do?

Some people believe that each illegal immigrant costs US taxpayers $100,000 annually (12); and that in the future, illegal immigrants could create trillions of dollars of taxes. Predictions for the future mostly include higher taxes for schools and hospitals and decreased health care quality. As an individual there is much one can do to get involved in the immigration debate. Various protests for either side of the debate occur regularly in most states, especially California. Below is a photo of a protest in Los Angeles against anti-immigration legislation with thousands of people attending (12):

Another way is by writing letters to local and national politicians. Below are the mailing and e-mail addresses of major politicians in office:

The President of the United States
The White House
Washington, DC 20500 (13)

e-mail: Comments@whitehouse.gov

Office of the Governor of California
State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814 (14)

or send messages

Office of the Governor of Texas
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428 (15)

or send messages

There are many other ways to get involved such as writing letters to newspapers like the Honolulu Advertiser and New York Times One can also join political groups to raise support for one’s cause such as:

Minuteman (anti-immigration)

The ACLU (pro-immigration)

Amnesty International (protecting refugees)

The most important aspect of the border debate is that American citizens take a stand for their opinion. It is our responsibility to get involved and make a difference.

Sources:

(1) Hulstrand, Fred. “Immigrants: North Dakota, Land of Opportunity.” Library of Congress, 1999. 15 September 2007.

(2) UC Berkeley “Anti-Chinese Movement and Chinese Exclusion.” American Memory, 2005. 15 September 2007.

(3) “Composition of Immigrants: 1840-1860.” US Bureau of the Census. 15 September 2007.

(4) “History.” Center for Immigration Studies. 15 September 2007.

(5) Wipf, Jennifer. “Historical Snapshot of Immigration.” Immigration Issues, 2007. 20 September 2007.

(6) Hoefer, Michael. “Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population in the United States: January 2006.” Homeland Security, 2007. 20 September 2007.

(7) “Illegal Immigration Divides, Poll Says.” NPR: Politics and Society, 2007. 20 September 2007.

(8) “How Refugees Come to America.” US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, 2007. 20 September, 2007.

(9) Newman, Lori. “At Issue, What Rights Should Illegal Immigrants Have?” Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2006. 20 September, 2007.

(10) Cosman, Melanie Pelner. “Illegal Aliens and American Medicine,” Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, vol. 10, spring 2005, pp. 6-10. 20 September, 2007.

(11) McKinley Jr., James C. “Flow of Illegal Immigrants to US Starts to Slow.” International Herald Tribunal, 2007. September 20, 2007.

(12) Bailey, Holly. “A Border War.” Newsweek, 2007. September 23, 2007.

(13) “Contacting the White House.” The White House, September 23, 2007.

(14) “Governor of the State of California.” Santa Cruz Public Libraries, September 23, 2007.

(15) “Contacting the Governor.” Office of the Governor: Rick Perry. September 23, 2007.