Effectiveness of the Current US Immigration Laws - Research Paper Example

Effectiveness of the Current US Immigration Laws Introduction There is a wide array of dispute regarding the effectiveness of the migration policy regarding a nation. A large number of migration scholars state that the efforts of the policy makers in regulating in particular leading to immigration have come up with unsuccessful results. Thus more in depth analysis regarding the effectiveness of the immigration policies are to be executed in order to explore the laws and generate a platform which will be directed towards formulation and implementation of laws which will make the nation more secure in the future. There are different policies affecting the migration policies like labor market, macro-economic, welfare and trade and foreign policies. The policies effect on the specific pattern as well as selection of the migrants rather than overall magnitude and long term trends which aims at the structural political as well as economic factors in origin and destination countries (Czaika & Haas, 2011, p.5). The paper will be directing towards the analysis of effectiveness of the US immigration policies with theoretical foundations. Operation mechanism of the immigration laws in USA The immigration laws of USA falls under the purview of federal government and determines whether a person is an alien as well as the evaluation of the legal rights, duties as well as the duties and the obligations in the United States. From the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, an alien can be defined as someone “who is not a citizen or a national of the United States.” The law of immigration of the United States further oversees all the processes under which the aliens might enter the country gain a residential status and become a naturalized citizen along with the attainment of the full rights of a citizen. The framework operates under a regulatory dealing with the people who may enter the US and for how long the visitors may remain as well as gets evicted. The court of the United States of America generally refrains itself from the immigration matters unless the constitutional rights act as an issue. The duties of enforcement of the US immigration laws are usually shared by a large number of agencies. The Immigration and Naturalization Service has been replaced by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2003. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and U.S. Customs and Border Enforcement (CBE) are the agencies within DHS which are in the charge of handling the former “duties and responsibilities, naturalization, asylum, and permanent residence functions; and border patrol duties”. The U.S. department of State manages the consulates as well as the embassies around the world (Immigration Law, 2012). Notion of effectiveness and effect The term effectiveness is indeed an issue of debate and depicts a fuzzy picture. From the point of view of Webster dictionary the notion of effectiveness adheres to the production of a decided, decisive as well as desired effect. Again an effect is generally the power in bringing out the results. The major difference between the effectiveness as well as effects is that effectiveness is attached with a desired effect and effect is associated with the ‘actual’ fact. The very term ‘effectiveness’ does generate a relation with to the objectives of the policies and provides an additional dimension to the study of the effect of the policies related to migration. Thus it can be stated that a policy may possess an effect but this effect may not necessarily be robust enough in meeting the stated policy objectives or it may even act in the opposite direction to the intended effect (Czaika & Haas, 2011, p.6). The process evolves two problems further in which the first one associates with the establishment of causality and then proves that the change in the migration flows is a result of the policy change or not. As an instance it can be stated that it is highly tempting for attributing the recent considerable turn down of Turkish migration flows to European countries to increasing restrictions but it is also not clear to what extent this policy stands in effecting or rather act as a result of rapid economic growth in Turkey which may lead to the overall decline in Turkish emigration. The methodological inference is that any empirical strategy to measure policy effects requires the control for other destination and origin country migration determinants. But due to such endeavors most of the analyses on the policy effects have remained largely blind for the origin country migration determinants. The measurement of the policy effects on migration is generally visualized as a theoretical as well as the methodological challenge which can be regarded as a more basic problem in determining what the intended effect is and also analyzes that if the real objective can be identified at all or not as policy objectives are rarely acts as singular. There can be also a major difference between the stated as well as real or hidden objective of the migration policy. There exists a space between unambiguous policy rhetoric or ‘discourse’ and real policy procedures (Czaika & Haas, 2011, pp.6-7). The discursive gap and broken U.S. Immigration laws The gap which is being discussed in the previous section points towards the considerable gap between the discourses as well as that of the actual. Proper implementation is not done as there is association of the business as well as other lobby groups who significantly influence the migration policies and their outcomes. This can be regarded as the discursive gap in the migration policies. The discursive gap can are influenced by more or less hidden agendas of various political parties and interest groups, businesses, trade unions, civil society groups and so on. Political, legal as well as domestic and international constraints also stand in the way of hindering the range of possible policy actions (Czaika & Haas, 2011, p.21). In the year 2001, when President George took office his first foreign policy act was to meet with the Mexico’s new president Vicente Fox. Both of them declared their shared intentions regarding the reforms in the immigration laws. At the beginning of his second term Bush made an earlier call for immigration legislation particularly with a temporary worker program with Mexico. This effort did not succeed largely because of the divide on the immigration within the own party of the President. Some Republicans favored the reforms of immigration because of the benefits in the business while others rigorously opposed provisions which would allow for legalization for approximately 12 million unauthorized immigrants. It can be stated that immigration system was declared as broken and ineffective (McCabe & Meissner, 2010). Diversity Visa Program The Diversity Visa program in the US mandated by the congress allows up to 55,000 diversity visas on an annual basis which are drawn at random among all the entries to persons who strictly meet requirements of eligibility from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States (Diversity Visa (DV) Program, 2012). Immigration and Nationality Act making immigration difficult The 1990 Immigration Act instituted the Diversity Visa lottery program. The Act was directed towards amending the existing immigration and nationality act in changing the level as well as the preference system for admission of the immigrants to the United States and also provide for administration as well as for other purposes. Initiating in the year 1991, every year Attorney general of US from the information decides the regions or the countries as high or low admission states. A high admission state is one in which the region has at least 50,000 immigrants for acquiring a permanent residency visa. The High admission states are not provided with visas under this act in order to promote diversity. The 6 different regions are mainly Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania, South America, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. Visas are provided to the countries in these regions that do not meet the quota. For qualifying the visa the immigrants must possess a school diploma or its equivalent along with 2 years of job and 2 years of training in that job. The Secretary of the State is in the power of keeping track with demographic features of the immigrants and visas are issued to the people meeting all the qualifications along with a random selection. The children and the spouses of the immigrants are also granted visas in obtaining permanent residency. In the year 1991, displaced Tibetans were given 1000 immigrant visas for a period of three years (Stone & Faubert, 2012). Requirement of establishing cultural democracy Cultural diplomacy acts as an important device in helping a country to improve its global image as well as amplify the international understanding as well as that of dialogue. However the United States of America have emphasized a lot on the cultural diplomacy paradigm but it lags behind the aggregate notion of the cultural diplomacy of the world. The visa procedures of the United States have become excessively restrictive and act as a solids hindrance in the cross cultural exchange. The immigration reforms in the year 1990 and a more outright restrictive visa procedures implemented after the attacks of September 11, 2001 can be viewed as a shutting down process for a large number of meritorious artists into the land of United States. The immigration Act created O-1 and P-1 visas for visiting artists. The O-1 category was only the artists with extraordinary abilities with sustained national or international acclaim was eligible in entering the United States. Within the P-1 category the internationally acclaimed athletes as well entertainment groups were allowed. Again under the proposed Immigration Naturalization Service (INS) rules there was a requirement that the groups should be internationally recognized for at least one year. Further labor organization consultation as well as an annual cap of 25000 was imposed. These laws have been vehemently opposed by the arts organizations. The organizations claimed that the new restriction policies would be slowing down the job market of America. They also stated that the presentation by the foreigners actually generate employment from the stagehands to that of the carpenters as well as restaurant workers. The arts organization also stated that the other countries will be reacting adversely if the restrictive provisions were enforced in a stringent manner. The actual evidence of the retaliation of the foreign countries was encountered when the countries all over the world started appealing to reciprocal provisions with open criticism to the United States protectionist policies which would be inhibiting the process of cross cultural exchange. The labor unions also started in safeguarding the American jobs and increased the standards of admission of the most exceptional artist. It can be concluded that if the United States makes the process of entry much difficult for the international artists then the other countries will be also less willing to be opening borders to the American artists and thus will be devoid of the long term benefits of the cross cultural exchanges. United States have to realize that establishing an effective cultural diplomacy is actually a two way street (Fang, 2011, pp. 2010-2011). The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act In the year 1996, the US government enacted the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 on September 30 resulted in a significant change in the existing environment of U.S. immigration laws. The Act was promoted as an illegal immigration bill but it can be stated that the far reaching provisions made a serious impact as well. Some of the important provisions are the collection of departure for every alien who departs the U.S. and matching of the records against the record of the arrival of the alien. The Act also led to the identification of the non immigrants who remain beyond their period of authorized stay (Chang, 2012). But the security of the country can be said to be in threat due to the reluctance of the officers neglecting the worst criminal offenders within the alien population. A large number of the federal laws required the agency in initiating deportation actions against the aliens convicted in of aggravated felonies as quickly as possible. The Congress also raised the grant and employment for a Justice Department program in speeding up the process. But it was found that thousands of criminal aliens have been released into the public after their serving tenure as a consequence of the failure of INS in screening and sending those people into deportation hearings. Again several instances of absconders roaming in the country have been found. The illegal fugitives who have been ordered deported by the immigration judges have been found to evade the law. Around 314000 numbers of fugitives were missing (Malkin, 2002). Later on investigation it was revealed that two of the terrorist pilots gained flying training at the Huffman Aviation International in Venice, Florida in the month of September 2000. These men entered the United States of America on a visitor’s visa. It was further analyzed that the applications of these men were changed from the visitor to that of vocational students which were processed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Another pilot infiltrated the country on October 9, 2000 with an F-1 student visa for the purpose of studying English at English as a second language (ESL) center in California, USA. In this case it was also revealed that the student never attended the institute and the institute also never reported to the student to be missing (Huffman Aviation, 2012). This also shows the ineffectiveness of the law. The Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act This law has been passed in the year 2005 and it is also recognized as the “Sensenbrenner Bill” after the name of the bill Wisconsin Republican Jim Sensenbrenner and it is presently considered upon by the senate of the United States of America. The provision of the Act includes fencing of around 700 miles i.e 1120 Km in US-Mexican border which have encountered majority of the illegal immigrant crossing. The Act also requires the federal government for taking custody of the illegal aliens who are detained by the local authorities, mandating the employers in verifying the legal status of the workers through electronic means, elimination of the Diversity immigrant Visa program and prohibition of the grants to the federal state or the local government agencies that stands in the enactment of sanctuary policy. However the effectiveness of the policy should be judged. Many human rights activists have stated that this law will be infringing on the human rights of the asylum seekers by stripping important due process protections. The Act also inflicts a criminalizing status over which the immigrants do not possess any control. It also dramatically limits the access of the immigrants associated with essential services. The Act also defines the undocumented illegal immigrants as felons and would also be punishing anyone who will be assisting them. Viewing in this dimension is also necessary as it imposes unnecessary strictness to which a large number of people are exposed (New Immigration Law in USA, 2012). However the Obama administration is to trying to fix this problem by implementing the attributes of DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) will stop deporting as well as grant permits to the younger illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children and have led law abiding lives. Obama is trying to establish a plan towards infusing citizenship for the people living in USA and have attended college or served in the military (Joyner, 2012). Provision of dynamic effectiveness US president Barack Hussain Obama imparts his deep commitment in fixing up the broken immigration system and establishing an effective immigration policy paradigm. He states that the enforcement resources should be highly focused on prevention of harm of the people from entering into the country. The employers should be given chance to play by the rules by a reliable way for the purpose of verifying that the employees are legally appointed in the country. The immigration laws should be such that it would continue to reunify families and encourage them in training within the world class institutions of the country for developing new technologies rather than doing it abroad. The innocent people should be refrained from punishment who have been brought in to the land by their parents illegally. The people who live in the US illegally must also be held accountable for their actions and to get on to the right side of the law by proper registration and undergoing national as criminal background check. For the establishment of a smart 21st century system the citizens apart from enjoying their rights will be highly responsible which will create a path for transparent legal status which will clearly reflect the values of United States of America (Fixing the Immigration System for America’s 21st Century Economy, 2012). Conclusion . United States of America being one of the superpowers of the world has from the dawn of the 19th century been following the policies of strict immigration rules so that the country is safe from all types of international as well as domestic threats which could bolster adverse consequences to its national security. However the immigration laws imposed have been found to be not fully effective in its implementation. It has been found although stricter laws were made but the internal failure can be held responsible for the breathtaking incident of 9/11. Again after that the laws have been made so much stricter than it dragged the nation in the bad books of cultural diplomacy. There has been also evidences of implementation gaps and punishment of the young innocent people. However the present administration under Obama is trying to establish a transparent immigration system where the foreigners as well as the existing citizens should cater to the development in the country in a harmonious manner. References Czaika, M & Haas, D.H, (2011), The effectiveness of immigration policies: A conceptual review of empirical evidence. Retrieved on October 8, 2012 from: http://www.imi.ox.ac.uk/pdfs/imi-working-papers/wp-11-33-the-effectiveness-of-immigration-policies Chang, H. J. (2012), The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, Retrieved on October 8, 2012 from: http://www.americanlaw.com/1996law.html Diversity Visa (DV) Program, (2012), Retrieved on October 9, 2012 from: http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_1322.html Fixing the Immigration System for America’s 21st Century Economy, (2012), Retrieved on October 9, 2012 from: http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/immigration Huffman Aviation, (2012), Retrieved on October 9, 2012 from: http://911review.org/Sept11Wiki/HuffmanAviation.shtml Immigration Law, (2012), Retrieved on October 8, 2012 from: http://www.hg.org/immigration-law.html Joyner, J. (2012), Obama to Ignore Immigration Law, Pretend DREAM Act Passed, Retrieved on October 8, 2012 from: http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/obama-to-ignore-immigration-law-pretend-dream-act-passed/ Stone, S. & Faubert, C. (2012), SUMMARY: Focus on diversity visas provision, Retrieved on October 9, 2012 from: http://library.uwb.edu/guides/USimmigration/1990_immigration_and_nationality_act.html Fang, A. K. (2011),US Immigration Law: A Barrier to Effective Cultural Diplomacy, Retrieved on October 9, 2012 from: http://www.cjicl.com/uploads/2/9/5/9/2959791/cjicl_19.1_fang_note.pdf McCabe, K & Meissner, D. (2010), Immigration and the United States: Recession Affects Flows, Prospects for Reform, Retrieved on October 9, 2012 from: http://www.migrationinformation.org/usfocus/display.cfm?ID=766 Malkin, M. (2002), The Deportation Abyss: "It Ain't Over 'Til the Alien Wins", Retrieved on October 9, 2012 from: http://www.cis.org/DeportationSystem New Immigration Law in USA, (2012), Retrieved on October 9, 2012 from: http://www.mapsofworld.com/usa/immigration/new-immigration-law-in-usa.html Read More