Immigration Reform in the United States of America - Term Paper Example

? Immigration Reform Immigration reform has been one of the most important as well as most debated issues in countries all over the world. However, the most important and most significant amount of debate has been raised in the United States of America. The country has been attacked many times by various terrorist groups and most of these times terrorists attacked the American people, in general, and the country, in particular, by immigrating into the country. Immigration reform policies are most essential to be implemented as these policies will not only provide the country and its citizens, greater amounts of support, but also raise the level of economic and social growth (Berkowitz et al., 19-21). This paper is aimed at providing a critical thoughtful process of the immigration reform that has been conducted in the United States of America, mainly after the incident of the 9/11 attack on the country. Comparative and Analysis: The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) has implemented reformatory policies aimed at providing anti-immigrant movements in the country. The most important mission of these policies is to achieve the aim of zero level of immigration in the country. These reformatory policies have blamed immigrants as the main cause of economic as well as environmental problems of the country. Immigrants are also blamed in regard to these policies as putting greater amount of pressure on the population of the country. The first policy in the context of immigration reform was implemented in 1979 by the chairman of the FAIR, John Tanton, who was also known as the "father of the anti-immigration movement" in the country. During this time policies related to immigration reform have been developed for the purpose of providing greater amount of economic and environmental supports to the country and also to reduce the growing level of population of the country (FEDERATION FOR AMERICAN IMMIGRATION REFORM, 1). Classical liberalism Classical liberalism has been playing an important role in the process of social, cultural as well as economic development in the country since a long time. The country has been highly liberal regarding migration of people from other countries into their country. Large number of people who came into this country from countries across the globe is living temporarily or permanently in this country. They have become an integral part of this country. Political, economic, social, cultural, educational – all these aspects did not (do not and will not) match with these immigrants. However, these people are increasingly becoming citizens of the United States of America. But the debate regarding increase in the amount of migrated people in the country occurred after the 9/11 attack of 2001 on the World Trade Center. After this attack, politicians and American people started to raise their voice against immigrations and the need for immigration reform has been realized during this time by politicians of the country (Fitz and Kelley, 4). Factions (Pluralism) Political leaders and people of the country have started to raise their voice against the immigration and different policies have started to be proposed during this time. These policies have been put forward by several groups of people who have argued that the level of safety of resources and lives of general people of the country to a great extent if these policies are implemented. In these reformatory policies mainly specifies groups or factions were targeted. These groups have been constructed including, mainly, immigrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and people of other middle-east countries. Mainly people who belong to the Muslim religion have been included in this group. “The House of Representatives preempted anticipated Senate action in late 2005 by passing an extreme enforcement measure (H.R. 4437) sponsored by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI). That bill, which would have felonized the undocumented population and many who interact with them, triggered an enormous backlash in which more than a million people marched across U.S. cities in protest. The Senate stalemated the House bill by passing a historic comprehensive immigration reform measure of its own in 2006” (Fitz and Kelley, 5). Ambition (Elites) The growing debated continued till 2007 and various ordinances and laws have been passed by the Senate to make the livelihood of undocumented immigrant workers and their family members even more difficult. During this time houses, offices and stores or shops of people who came from other countries have been raids by SWAT team and FBI. Different communities and groups have been using illegal reformatory policies in the country by excluding immigrant workers and also their family members from those groups and communities (Berkowitz et al., 22-24). In fact opinions of the elites differ from that of the public. In fact 60 percent of the public consider immigration as a threat while merely 14 percent of the elites or the leaders think the same. This gap has widened over time. This gap arises from economic reasons. The elites have little economic threats from the immigrants (Beck and Camarota 2). These policies and strategies of American people in order to reduce the number of immigrants in the country have been criticized all over the world. These destructive and pointless diversions have been doing nothing in providing solutions to the problems which have been affecting the country to a great extent. Instead these policies and strategies have been creating tremendous hardship as well as sufferings for numerous communities and families all the country. These diverse tactics and strategies have also been succeeded in the process of ‘highlighting the critical importance of creating a 21st century immigration system that serves the nation’s economic, security, and moral interests’ (Fitz and Kelley, 5). Federalist position The most important ambition of implementing policies and strategies related to immigration reform in the country has been reducing the level of terrorist crimes in the country and also reduction in the amount of monetary and capital resources lost during those terrorist attacks. The Federalist position regarding implementation of these policies related to immigration reform has largely been strict. Followers of federalist movements have been trying to reduce the amount of immigration into the country by implementation of various stricter policies and also laws. According to these people these stricter policies will improve the lives of Americans by securing resources of the country for them only (Berkowitz et al., 25-27). Anti-Federalist position On the contrary, followers of anti-Federalist positions have argued that immigrants have been helping the country to a great extent since historical times (Berkowitz et al., 25-27). With direct and/or indirect help of these immigrants various sectors of the country, such as culture, society, economy, education, science, arts, entertainment etc., have been enriched. Hence, these followers of anti-federalist position have argued that immigration reform should not so much strict and all the authorities related to criminal justice system of the country should not be included into these issues. Only those reformatory policies need to be implemented which will reduce the number of crimes committed by immigrants in the country and these policies should only be valid for those who do not have legal documents possessing the proof of citizenship of the country and/or proper documentation of works or studies which are to be done by those immigrants (Fitz and Kelley, 7-9). Constitutional perspectives Constitutional perspectives in regard to implementation of policies related to reforms of immigration policies have not been very strict and also have not been consisted of direct intervention of police and criminal justice authorities. These illegal and unethical behaviors have strictly been protested by various countries at different time periods. In these unethical processes of execution of immigration reform policies large number of innocent immigrants has been arrested and punished, mainly after the happening of 9/11 attack. The Constitution of the country has largely been against these inhuman activities. Although various changes in the Constitution of the country have been made since 2001 to give the criminal justice authorities and the police of the country to reduce the dominance of immigrants in the country, these changes have not been perfectly successful in reducing the rate of crime in the country caused by immigrants (Berkowitz et al., 29-31). In these contexts various recommendations have been proposed by the Senate: Deployment of smart border technologies which are designed for the purpose of disrupting the drug as well as human trafficking networks and connections on all sides of the American borders. Authorized and legal universal implementation of a secure ‘Electronic Employment Verification System’ in the country. This needs to be implemented along with implementation of another policy related to legalization of current undocumented population of the country. These policies are implemented along with establishment of accuracy as well as privacy benchmark in the new system. Institute antidiscrimination mechanisms are also needed to be used in the new system along with clear restore procedures for errors. These policies are aimed at ‘ensuring that no eligible worker is denied or delayed employment’. Establishment of unambiguous Federal control in the country over all civil issues related to immigration of workers and other professionals for the purpose of preventing state as well as local authorities ‘from attempting to regulate in this arena and to restrict state and local enforcement to the explicit parameters of Section 287(g) agreements’ (Fitz and Kelley, 9). Bill of Rights Perspective: Various Bills of Right have been implemented in the country in regard to application of immigration policies in the country. These bills have been implemented to secure the country from unauthorized immigrants and also to reduce the amount of economic and social loss which has been occurring since the past. In 1986, Immigration Reform and Control Act have been implemented for the purpose of reducing the amount of illegal workers in the country. In 2005, Border Protection, Anti-terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act have also been implemented in the country. In 2006, Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act has been implemented. All these acts have been used as the main instrument against the growing immigration problem in the country (Fitz and Kelley, 10-12). Solutions: Various solutions have been proposed by experts and critics of government policies related to immigration problems. Among these solution most important ones are implementation of stricter immigration policies has been the most important solution. The federalism perspective has been the most dominant concept in this context. Followers of federalist position have argued that immigration in the country should not be allowed at all. In this context the perspective of the state has been controversial. The state could not be able to implement stricter immigration reform policies and also it had failed to completely reduce terrorist activities in the country caused by illegal immigrants. This failure of the state has largely been explained by the political reasons as the government of America did not want to hamper strategic relationships with other countries. Under these circumstances, adoption of cooperative federalism perspective has been suggested by political experts, like Benjamin R. Barber and Jean Bethke Elshtain. Under this policy both the federal and state government holds the same power and control in implementing stricter policies related to immigration reform. States which are more likely to face immigration problems, like New York, Illinois, California, Texas etc., have been suggested to implement these stricter immigration policies (Fitz and Kelley, 12-14). Conclusion: Immigration reform has been one of the most debated issues in America. Various political parties and various political leaders have implemented various types of immigration reform policies in the country. Sometimes these policies have been praised by critics and sometimes these have been severely criticised. The debate related to immigration reform is expected to remain the most important social and political topic of discussion in distant future also. Effective legalization of immigration in the country can be a solution for the problem. References: Berkowitz, Howard P. et al. “Is FAIR Unfair? The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)”, Anti-Defamation League, 2010, February 29, 2012 from http://www.adl.org/civil_rights/is_fair_unfair.pdf Beck, Roy and Steven A. Camarota, An Examination of Divergent Views on Immigration, Backgrounder, 2002, February 29, 2012 from: http://www.cis.org/articles/2002/back1402.pdf “FEDERATION FOR AMERICAN IMMIGRATION REFORM”, Center for New Community, 2010, February 29, 2012 from http://www.newcomm.org/pdf/CNC-FAIR.pdf Fitz, Marshal and Kelley, Angela. “Principles for Immigration Reform Guidelines for Fixing Our Broken Immigration System”, Center for American Progress, 2009, February 29, 2012 from http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/12/pdf/immigrationreform.pdf Read More