United States Immigration Policy

AN ANALYSIS OF THE
UNITED STATES IMMIGRATION POLICY

INTRODUCTION

More than any other country in the world, the United States has the largest number of immigrants. The United States has an estimated 35 million immigrants, far above the second rank Russia at 13 million (Sarin 1).

The United States was built on immigration when Christopher Columbus landed in Plymouth. The United States has always had a strong history concerning immigration. Not until the United States was declared a free country did immigration start to increase. For this reason the constitution was forced to place laws on who could enter, how long they may stay, and when they must leave (Immigration Law 1).

During 1901-1910 the first big peak of immigration came from Europe with 8.7 million immigrants, then in 1981-1990 the last big peak of with 7.3 million (Duignan and Lewis 104). Throughout the history of immigration to America there have been extreme peaks and lows.

The role that we will assume is a person in the working class that is concerned with immigration and its impact on society. The organizational role that the reader will assume will be the head of Congress of Immigration and Nationality. The secondary audience will be the other congress members of Immigration and Nationality.

Purpose, Scope, Limitations, and Significance

The purpose of the study is to recommend the current United State 's immigration policies need to be changed.

The analysis will determine (1) whether immigrants have higher levels of poverty and welfare than native citizens, (2) if the naturalization process is too simple or too firm, (3) if the crime rates of immigrants are higher than native citizens, and (4) if more immigrants are unemployed and what kind of jobs they are taking.

The significance of the report is to determine if the current immigration laws need to be changed. The report is limited to how the United States will change the immigration laws.

Sources and Methods

Various types of books concerning current and existing laws of immigration policy were consulted for specific facts and examples to help explain various laws intact in the present as well as in the past. In addition, electronic databases containing articles from countless national and specialty periodicals were explored to uncover information and opinions concerning the current issue of immigration in the United States.

A questionnaire survey (shown in the appendix) of students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln was conducted to gain knowledge of their views about the United States immigration policy, and to determine what types of opinions the majority felt.

Dated sources, older than three years old, were used in the study to compare and contrast the past and present. Also, numerous web sources were consulted because the study required more information than two web sites provided.

RESULTS OF THE STUDY

The results of this study will be represented by four categories: the immigration poverty and welfare levels, the naturalization process of the United States, immigration crime rates, and immigrant jobs and unemployment.

Poverty and Welfare Levels of Immigrants

A major finding in the report of importing poverty states that immigration is the major cause of poverty over the last 20 years (Camarota 1). According to diagram 1, over the 1994-2000 period, poverty rates fell much more quickly for immigrants than for natives. The national poverty rates of recent immigrants (those here for 10 or fewer years) fell about four times as fast as that of natives (11.6 percentage points, compared with 2.9 points); the rate for all immigrants fell 2.7 times as fast as that of United States that of United States natives (Chapman and Bernstein 11). Other examples can be further explained in diagram 2.

Diagram 1

Diagram 2

Source: Chapman, Jeff and Jared Bernstein. "Immigration and Poverty: How are they linked?" Monthly Labor Review 126.4 Apr. 2003. Wilson Web. 27 Oct. 2003.

"Findings that immigrants are increasingly likely to be poor, and are accounting for a growing share of our total poor population, should be disturbing to anyone concerned about the plight of America 's poor and the future of our republic" (Camarota 2).

A report from the Center of Immigration studies say that people of immigration is best contributor of poverty in the last 20 years. People in immigrant households living in poverty has gone from 2.7 million to 7.7 million from 1979 to 1997 (Camarota 1). Low education, high unemployment, and large family size contribute to the higher poverty rate of immigrants.

The major question involved in the debate over immigration policy has to do with whether or not immigrants pay their way in the welfare state. Immigrant participation has changed dramatically in recent years, according to the data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (Duignan and Lewis 124). Data can be used from the census survey to study the immigrant welfare participation during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.

In the 1970s immigrants were less likely to receive welfare benefits than native citizens. Then in the 1980 's the direction reversed and immigrants were one percent more likely to receive welfare benefits. Throughout this decade native households experienced a decline in welfare participation, and immigrant households experienced an increase. During the 1990s the welfare participation rate of immigrants and their households increased to 9.1 percent higher than the participation of rate of natives and their households.

The data concludes that recent waves of immigrants are more likely to receive welfare, cash, or government benefits, and are therefore less skilled in craftsmen and professional occupations.

Naturalization of Immigrants

Naturalization, by definition, is the way immigrants become citizens of the United States. In order to become a legal U.S. citizen, you must meet several requirements:
• Permanent Residency for 5 years. During this time, the applicant cannot leave the country for over 6 months.
• Marriage to a U.S. citizen for 3 years. The spouse must also have been a citizen for 3 years.
• Continuous residency is also required. This means that the applicant must not leave the United States for no longer than a total of 30 months.
• Must live in the state or district of intended application for 3 months.
• Applicants with aggravated felonies or murder charges may never become a U.S. citizen.
• Lying during the interview is not tolerated. This shows a lacking of moral character and may result in a revoked citizenship.
• Applicants must have an understanding of the English language. They must be able to read, write, and speak conversational English.
• Knowledge of history and principles of government civics are also required.

The applicants must also testify to their loyalty to the United States Constitution through the Oath of Allegiance. Upon taking this oath, the applicant becomes a legal U.S. citizen.

The Oath of Allegiance

I hereby declare on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United Sates when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.

Source: ("A Guide to Naturalization" 28)

Crime

Immigrant crime has had a long history in the United States. For over a century immigrants turned their communities into regions of lawless chaos. For example, the Italian Mafia, Chinese Triads, Japanese Yakuza, and various Mexican and Central American drug cartels, were all accompanied by the immigration of their various cultures.

In recent years it has become difficult to avoid labeling immigrants with crime. Supporters of keeping U.S. immigration at high levels argue that immigrants are no more involved with crime as native United States citizens. In a sense this theory is correct. FBI statistics show that levels of immigrant committed crime only account for about 19.6 percent (Horowitz).

These statistics are due to several explanations. For one thing, immigrants are victims of crimes committed by fellow immigrants, and are therefore too scared, by victimizers of the same nationality, and intimidated to report it. Also, a majority of FBI crime figures are copies of local crime reports, which often omit the mention of an offender 's national identity.

One major issue that shows how big of an impact immigrants have on crime has to do with states that have large immigrant populations are forced to devote large portions of their law enforcement and criminal justice budgets to investigating, apprehending, and incarcerating immigrants to ensure safety for the innocent. Thus a conclusion can be made that where there is a larger foreign influence, there is a larger problem with crime.

Jobs and Unemployment

More immigrants move into the United States everyday and they are taking cheap labor jobs. When they take these jobs they are most likely to end up in poverty, which affects the community greatly. They are less likely to provide proper funding for the schools and put pressures on the native citizens that are in the labor pool and are less likely to get hired because the immigrants are willing to work for cheaper.
People believe that the rise in unemployment is because of immigrants stealing American 's jobs. However, this is not true because the people only look at the jobs that immigrants are taking, they don 't look at the jobs that they are creating. Also, they spend there money on American goods and services, and by paying taxes they put money back into the economy and into United State businesses.

CONCLUSION

Many conclusions were made when researching immigrants ' involvement in poverty and welfare, crime, job involvement and unemployment. These conclusions include:

• Immigration is a major contributor to poverty, and immigrants are becoming more likely to enter the country into poverty.

• Thus, current immigrants are more likely to receive welfare, and are therefore not paying their way into the system.

• Although immigrants have to go through a lot of trouble to become a United States citizen, current naturalization procedures are based too much on memorization than on real-life experiences.

• Crime rates of immigrants are reported to be equal to those of native citizens; however, illegal immigrants are not considered in these reports. Also, immigrants are less likely to report crimes and police often report mistaken racial background.

• Immigrants are taking jobs away from the native citizens, but they are not making a rise in the unemployment rates by creating new jobs, and putting money back into the economy by buying United States goods and services.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are offered in regards to the United States system of Naturalization and Immigration:

• Have immigrants that are currently in poverty or on welfare receive more government help, through higher paying jobs, and community projects.

• Provide proper training for the immigrants so they can become semi-skilled or skilled in labor market.

• Have the immigrants that are living in the United States and are not eligible to become United States citizens be deported and not be able to return.

• Fixed the flaws in the FBI files so they do show nationality, and make sure that all crime is reported by more enforcement.

• Take care of the Cheap Labor Market by making sure businesses are enforcing the minimum wage, and not hiring illegal immigrants.

Works Cited

"A Guide to Naturalization." U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. 9 Sep. 2003. Retrieved 10 Nov. 2003

Camarota, Steven A. "Immigration and the Growth of America 's Poor Population." Minnesotans For Sustainability 2 Sep. 1999. Retrieved 10 Nov. 2003

Cited: "A Guide to Naturalization." U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. 9 Sep. 2003. Retrieved 10 Nov. 2003 Camarota, Steven A. "Immigration and the Growth of America 's Poor Population." Minnesotans For Sustainability 2 Sep. 1999. Retrieved 10 Nov. 2003