Immigration Reform in the US - Essay Example

number Immigration Reform In the United s of America, immigration reform is a major step towards regulation ofthe borders. Research shows that immigrants are responsible for the greater increase in the population and work force of US. Political, social and economic discussions related to immigration reforms indicate that it is the best alternative for controlling abuse of the borders. In this case, it should involve strict rules of immigration as well as transparent ways of working and doing business sin US. Over the years, violation and trespass of the borders has been common along the Mexican, Canadian and ports that neighbor US. That is why the current government has come up with proposals to enhance legal migration along the borders. This paper outlines the issues regarding illegal migration across the border of US, alternative plans to account for the undocumented immigrants and proposals on the importance of immigrants. It also proposes the impact of legal migration to the economy of US and betterment of the future. What plans need to be made for the 11 million undocumented immigrants now in the US? Immigration reform in the US is a proposal that is aimed at increasing the number legal immigrations into the country. For example, the guest worker reform that was supported by President George Bush aimed at ensuring the number of guests who come to work in the US are registered in the country. However, the issue of illegal immigration is a controversial one since the government is unable to handle all the cases of illegal immigrations in the country. The people who support immigration reform stipulate that illegal immigrants into the country cost the US taxpayers approximately $338.3 billion. This issue has been associated with weaken law enforcement in the country thus putting safety of government officials and the citizens of the US in jeopardy. For instance, in 2001, President George W. Bush and the former president of Mexico Vicente Fox wanted to pass an immigration policy whose aim was to benefit the Mexican emigrants in the US (United States Congress b 32). The immigration reform and Control Act of 1986 stipulates that it is illegal for employers to hire illegal immigrants in the country. However, there was a non-immigrant visa system which allowed the lesser-skilled employees to work in the US. However, since the year 2006 amnesty, the US was said to have approximately 12 million immigrants who were not documented. The number of undocumented immigrants was estimated to make up to 5 percent of the workforce in the US. Moreover, it was also revealed that about 70 percent of the undocumented immigrants had come from Mexico. However, in 2006, the US House of representatives enacted the following reforms in order to ensure the safety of the country. They include Anti-terrorism, Border protection, and illegal immigration act. Moreover, the Senate enacted the Comprehensive Immigration Reform act in 2006 in order to ensure for the safety of the country. However, neither of these bills were enacted as law because of the differences that they had. In 2009, the issue of immigration reform was under critical debate. This is because the Obama administration began discussions about comprehensive immigration. The administration embarked on incorporating the following sections to the comprehensive immigration reform act (DiMarzio and Papademetriou 45). These include preventing the overstays of visas, refraining people from working without a permit in the US, to legalize the number of immigrants who were undocumented in the US, help immigrants adjust to life in the US, fix border enforcement and adapt the number of visas that were available during the changing economic times. Research reveals that immigration has received significant attention from the nation’s media. The areas that receive influx of immigrants have been regarded as being politicized. His is an illustration that the influx of new residents is not the one that leads to anti-immigrants attitudes. For instance, the issue of immigration in the country has led to the increase of anti-immigration attitudes by approximately 9.9 percent. These thoughts play a vital role in terms of have been noted to affect the political attitudes of Americans significantly. However, the people who live close to the areas that has a large number of immigrants do not show significant negative attitudes. On January 2013, the bi-partisan group in the US set the principles that were supposed to be implemented in the comprehensive immigration reform thus strengthens the US immigration reform initiatives (UnitedStatesCongress a 36). Therefore, it is evident that the US immigration reform is an issue that receives significant attention from the media, the government and the US citizens in order to ensure that the country safeguards itself from threats that originate from immigration such as terrorist attacks, overburdening of the tax payers thus allowing the government to allocate resources efficiently to the people of the US. What plans need to be made for the 11 million undocumented immigrants now in the US? In order to guard itself from the threats that are associated with the issue of immigration along the Canada, Mexico borders and ports. It is vital for the government regard the issue of immigration as a form of arbitrage. This is a strategy whereby the economies that are aging at a rapid pace should bid for the energies that are associated with the newcomers in order to ensure that the economy remains afloat. For instance, since the workforce is expected to age and the resources are declining, the government should focus on ways in which it can build a reserve of its workforce. For instance, the government should look for ways in which it can import labor that has sufficient skills to drive the productivity of the country forward. However, the skills of the immigrants that the government aims for should not be merely focused on education. This is because education is not regarded as a factor of productivity. Most of the disciplines that people learn in most institutions do not have significant economic contribution. Therefore, if the government opens doors to undocumented high school graduates who do not have sufficient job skills would not bring lasting economic impacts to the economy. Therefore, the economic policies that are set should mostly be focused on gaining specific skills and abilities from the immigrants as opposed to being focused on ethnic constituencies and politics (UnitedStatesCongress, 65). For instance, the US should focus on Mexico’s growing educated and skilled workers thus ensuring that the immigrants bring overall economic impacts to the economy as opposed to overburdening the taxpayers. For example, the US should implement the strategies that Canada has implemented such as making accommodations that favor skilled and entrepreneurial immigrants. However, research reveals that he US has been quite slow with regard to adopting this strategy. Research reveals that approximately 13 percent of the immigrants who came to the US in 2011 did no come as a result of employment based preferences. However, they were mostly focused on family reunification. Therefore, the US should ensure that paves way for skills-oriented policies in order to ensure that the immigrants who come to the country have an overall positive contribution to the country. What should be done to ensure that 40 percent of immigrants who enter the US legally do not overstay with time limit? Immigration is regarded as part of the American society. It is regarded as presenting a colorful to the US economy. Initially, the immigration policies in the country were mostly focused on the country’s expansion endeavors. However, with the onset of the 20th century, the immigration policies that have been set have allowed the country to screen and monitor new immigrants. The people who are granted visas into the country are given a small time limit to stay in the country. Once the visa expires, a person is supposed to return back to his country and he or she may be charged for overstaying in the country. Therefore, the immigration office network plays a vital role in terms of monitoring the activities that immigrants engage in the country because overstaying is regarded as an illegal activity. Therefore, in order to prevent overstaying, the Immigration Control Office normally works together with other countries and travelling agencies in order to monitor incidences of smuggling, fraudulent documents and other illegal activities that immigrants may engage in (DiMarzio & Papademetriou, 12). The immigration Control agents also work with local and national institutions which play a vital role in terms of tracking people within the country. Moreover, the government requires all employers to ask for social security number and a photo ID of the employees. Without these documents, the possibility of a person being an immigrant is high. Crime is also an efficient way of looking for people who have overstayed in the country. Therefore, the immigration officials normally check the records of offenders in order to determine the people who have the right documents and those who do not have. Works Cited DiMarzio , Nicholas and Demetrios G Papademetriou. U.S. immigration reform: challenges and choices for the future. Texas: University of Texas, 2007. Print. United States Congress a. Comprehensive immigration reform: becoming Americans, U.S. immigrant integration. Pennsylvania : Pennsylvania State University, 2007. Print. United States Congress b . U.S. Economy, U.S. Workers, and Immigration Reform. New York: Government Printing Office, 2007. Print. Read More