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Illegal Immigration and Reform

A common topic of conversation for many Americans concerns the origin and heritage of their ancestors. Whether it be about a Swedish grandfather who ditched the name of Johnson in order to get his mail, or the great-grandfather who emigrated from Germany during the Civil War and ended up fighting on the wrong side, almost every American has a unique and interesting past that revolves around one common issue: immigration.

Although immigration of the past may hold warm and friendly connotations for many Americans, discussions about present-day immigration revolve around the issue of illegal immigration. Over the last several decades, millions of people have entered the United States without permission. Many risk entering through illegal means in order to get jobs and earn higher wages for themselves and their families than they might otherwise in their own country. Many other immigrants become illegals by overstaying their visas and failing to return to their country of origin.

The debate over what to do with illegal immigrants is potent and not necessarily categorized neatly as a Left/Right political issue. Some Americans believe that our current immigration laws should be enforced through stronger border patrols, workplace raids, and deportation. Others believe that immigrants constitute a vital workforce for our economy, and that consequently reform is needed to make it easier for foreign workers to enter and remain in the country legally. Some suggest that complete and total amnesty is needed to fix America’s immigration problems, a position standing in stark contrast to those who argue that all immigration to the United States should be disallowed.   

The proposed solutions to illegal immigration are vast and varied, and the issue is not likely to go away any time soon. In order to better prepare you to enter the debate, this library section provides information on the history, current reality, opinions and reform ideas regarding this issue.

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Quote Page

Quotes on illegal immigration and immigration reform from politicians, legislation, economists, philosophers, and experts in the field.

Commentary or Blog Post

Tancredo, a noted critic of illegal immigration, uses this piece to describe what the U.S. would look like if there where no illegal immigrants in the country.
This piece discusses the 287(g) program which "relinquishes, with no meaningful oversight, immigration enforcement power to local law enforcement and corrections agencies." As the title suggests, those who condemned the Bush administration for its use of this program were equally chagrined at the Obama administration's extension of the same.
An Alabama law to tackle illegal immigration is coming under fire from some business leaders in the state, who say the measure is undermining Alabama's economy even before it takes effect.
This piece describes American public opinion on various immigration issues. Conducted during the time of Arizona's controversial illegal immigration law, the piece declares that a majority of Americans think immigration is a good thing.
The overall findings of this poll show a significant divide between the perception that minority voters want legalization and increased legal immigration and the reality, which is that they want enforcement and less immigration.
The law's supporters believe it will protect Arizona residents from problems caused by illegals, while the law's opponents adamantly declare that it mandates racial profiling.
Karlyn Bowman examines the opinions of the nation on immigration and compares them to the opinions of those in Arizona.
The December 2010 issue of Cato's Immigration Reform Bulletin describes the process of naturalization. Anderson describes the costs, rules, and important requirements of citizenship, and notes that some of these are harder than people might realize.
Daniel Griswold argues for illegal immigration legalization on the grounds that it has worked effectively in the past.
Griswold believes that a good economy needs the low-paid, unskilled labor force often supplied by illegals, but he also believes that this need is not properly filled through amnesty.
This article describes George W. Bush's issuance of clemency for two border patrol agents. The agents were convicted of shooting an illegal alien at the Mexican border.
The authors of this piece were the chief instigators of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act that is commonly accused of granting amnesty to illegal aliens.
The tough economic circumstances of the past few years have helped to reduce the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S.
Anderson declares that immigrants believe English is key to their success in America, and therefore have a great desire to learn it.
The massive Republican takeover of Congress in 2010 causes Stuart Anderson to wonder whether or not the 2011-2012 Congress will enact immigration reform legislation parallel to legislation implemented after the historic 1994 election.
Federal immigration law determines whether a person is an alien, the rights, duties, and obligations associated with being an alien in the United States, and how aliens gain residence or citizenship within the United States.
Sandy Ikeda declares that "legal, and especially illegal, immigration is to a certain extent the unintended consequence of welfare-state capitalism."
Commenting on the common arguments against the controversial Arizona immigration law, Jonah Goldberg strives to point out their fallacious tendencies.
A federal judge temporarily blocked enforcement of Alabama's new law cracking down on illegal immigration, ruling Monday that she needed more time to decide whether the law is constitutional.
The Obama administration is challenging a new Alabama law that would let the police detain people stopped for traffic offenses who are suspected of being in the country illegally, a law described as one of the toughest of its kind nationwide.
Binswanger argues that it is an issue of individual rights, and he cites Rand (who immigrated to the U.S. from Soviet Russia) as the premier example of the benefits derivable from open immigration.
Since Becker believes that both amnesty and eviction are unappetizing solutions to the problem, he suggests that setting up a system of payment in return for legal settlement in the U.S. would be beneficial to both immigrants and current U.S. citizens.
I have received many questions and requests for assistance in the wake of Pres. Obama's announcement on August 18, 2011 of prosecutorial discretion.
There has been much discussion and confusion over the recent policies and memoranda from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) concerning 'prosecutorial discretion.' Some people mistakenly believe that it is some sort of 'amnesty.'
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced federal officials would focus their deportation efforts on 'criminal aliens, those who pose a threat to public safety and national security, repeat immigration law violators' and known gang members.
Clarence Jones uses this piece to sympathize with the citizens of Arizona over their recent, but controversial, immigration legislation.
If anyone had any doubt about President Obama's lack of respect for the Constitution, the separation of powers or the rule of law, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano dispelled that doubt on Aug. 18.
Outsourcing immigration enforcement to an ill-trained and poorly supervised assortment of state and local law enforcement agencies creates a lot of problems.
This piece reports on Utah's attempt to create a unique piece of immigration legislation.
The Utah legislature concocted an interesting bill when they combined increased illegal immigration enforcement with a guest worker program.
It would be wise to provide a variety of government services to illegals while also implementing policies that would make this form of unofficial amnesty more appealing to the general U.S. population.

Chart or Graph

Over the past two decades, border enforcement has increasingly become a priority, with the Border Enforcement budget increasing sevenfold from 1980 to 1995 and then more than tripling from 1995 to 2003.
The foreign-born population includes naturalized citizens, lawful permanent residents (LPRs), certain legal nonimmigrants (e.g., persons on student or work visas), those admitted under refugee or asylee status, and persons illegally residing in the United States.
These two maps demonstrate the drastic increases the U.S. has seen in illegal immigration over the past 30 years.
The cost of the naturalization process has escalated. In 1985, the cost of filing was only $35. This rose to $90 by 1991.
Americans remain more likely to say immigration should be decreased (45%) rather than kept at its present level (34%) or increased (17%), but the gap between the two most popular options has narrowed from a year ago.
An estimated 8.5 million of the total 10.8 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States in 2009 were from the North America region, including Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America.
The number of unauthorized residents declined by 1.0 million between 2007 and 2009, coincident with the U.S. economic downturn.

Analysis Report White Paper

This paper compares the 2008 government bailouts with the 1986 illegal immigration amnesty program. The author describes some of the many problems that occurred with the amnesty program several decades ago, among which is the great potential for fraudulent immigration applications. In sum, North's close contact with immigration problems leads him to urge policy...

This research shows that the illegal immigration population rose dramatically during the Congressional discussion of amnesty in 2007, but then diminished after the amnesty bill was voted down, and that illegal immigration decreases during times of economic crisis.
This piece examines the effects that illegal immigration amnesty has had on the American working class.
Part III of this paper examines human rights abuses of illegal immigrants by Border Patrol agents at the Mexico-U.S. border. This examination focuses on several Border Patrol abuse cases, and it explains the legal rights possessed by illegal immigrants who find themselves the victims of abuse by Border Patrol agents.
Matt Mayer assesses the growth of illegal immigrants in the U.S. since 1980.
Included in the report are statistics on the historical nature of immigration, information on illegal immigration, and other data relating to this issue.
We find that immigration had small negative effects in the short run on native workers with no high school degree and on average wages while it had small positive effects on native workers with no high school degree and on average native wages in the long run.
This study examines the economic impact of increases in the number of immigrant workers by their education level and experience in the work force, using Census data from 1960 through 2000.
Does the state have the right to exclude these ordinary people? In the following, I argue that the answer to this question is no.
This report uncovers the immigration implications that the House version of the infamous health care bill held.
This study examines the economic impacts that illegal immigration legislation could have on the United States.
In this paper we analyze the long-run impact of immigration on employment, productivity and its skill bias.
We need flexible limits on immigration that rise and fall with U.S. labor demand, coupled with strict enforcement of tough wage and labor laws that protect all workers, regardless of where they were born.
The report begins by focusing on the complaints raised by 204 persons released into Mexico after being apprehended by agents of the U.S. Border Patrol, the INS, U.S. Customs, and other law enforcement agencies.
This piece gives some historical background on the immigration policies of the last century, and also gives a variety of refutations to the major arguments offered for stricter immigration enforcement.

Video/Podcast/Media

In this podcast Daniel Griswold reports on the Congressional progress on immigration reform.
According to Jim Harper, the current immigration system cannot exist properly without a national identity program.
Since President Obama is attempting to take on immigration reform once again, Griswold highlights the mistakes of the past and declares that the U.S. needs a "guest worker program" to take care of its economic needs.
This CNN news clip focuses on the governmental services in which illegal immigrants take part, including public education, health care, and prisons, and also argues that illegal immigrants are reducing economic benefits for Americans who would like the jobs that illegals often take.
Tamar Jacoby argues illegal immigrants take low-wage jobs that Americans do not want. This in turn allows businesses to expand, spurring economic growth and benefiting the American economy.
Although the future president waffled on the issue at first, he finally declared that he was in support of illegal immigrants receiving driver's licenses.
George Mason University economist Bryan Caplan gave the following speech at The Future of Freedom Foundation’s “Economic Liberty Lecture Series.” He discusses and and finds wanting the most common arguments for immigration restrictions.
Witnesses testified about U.S. border security and how border patrol operations on federal lands might be impacted by environmental laws.

Primary Document

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.
Any alien, being a free white person, who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for the term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen.
Any free white person could receive citizenship providing they had renounced their allegiance to their previous state/sovereignty by name, lived in the United States for five years at least.
This act was the first attempt at standardizing immigration and naturalizing foreign citizens. It was done under threat of war with France.
This act allowed the President at any time to order any aliens he deemed dangerous to be deported.
This act was to be implemented on all new aliens providing they were no longer subjects of any nation the U.S. was at war with at the time of application.
The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress approved an act banned transportation of 'coolies' in ships that were either owned or not owned by citizens of the United States of America.
Established the position of Commissioner of Immigration, reporting to the Secretary of State; validated labor contracts made by immigrants before arrival; exempted immigrants from compulsory military service; established the office of Superintendent of Immigration for New York City.
The Senate and House Representations of the United States of America in Congress approved a law stating that any immigration of Chinese, Japanese, or any Asian country, to the United States must be free and voluntary.
An act in which the State Commission and officers were in charge of checking the passengers upon incoming vessels arriving in the U.S.
The 1891 Immigration Act was a revised version of the 1882 Immigration Act. As in the 1882 Immigration Act, this act declared that certain classes of individuals were unfit to become American citizens.
The 1917 Immigration Act, also known as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act, was a law passed by Congress that restricted the immigration of 'undesirables' from other countries...
The objective of this act was to temporarily limit the numbers of immigrants to the United States by imposing quotas based on country of birth.
This act repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, established quotas for Chinese immigration, and allowed Chinese nationals in the U.S. to become naturalized citizens.
The G.I. fiancée act was devised to expedite the entrance of foreign-born fiancées of members of the U.S Armed Forces that served in WWII.
This act helped those individuals who were victims of persecution by the Nazi government or who were fleeing persecution, and someone who could not go back to their country because of fear of persecution based on race, religion or political opinions.
This act was put in place to allow the entrance of foreign-born spouses and unmarried children of members of the U.S. Armed Forces regardless of their race.
The McCarran-Walter Act moved away from excluding immigrants based simply upon country of origin. Instead it focused upon denying immigrants who were unlawful, immoral, diseased in any way, politically radical.
The Hart-Cellar Act abolished the national origins quota system that had structured American immigration policy since the 1920s, replacing it with a preference system that focused on immigrants' skills and family relationships with citizens or residents of the U.S.
The Immigration and Naturalization Act. It was enacted on October 24th 1968 and declares that anyone, regardless of age or race, shall achieve citizenship through 'naturalization through active-duty service in the armed forces.
The Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1975 sets forth the allowance of provisions for those who fled from the Southeast Asian countries as well as those who cannot return to those countries due to the threat of violence or ill-treatment.
This Act extended special immigrant status to non-citizens who have served honorably in the U.S. armed forces for at least 12 years.
This act addresses many aspects of immigration (both legal and illegal), and the responsibilities placed upon not only immigrants, but those enforcing legal immigration.
The Act was passed in order to unify the intelligence and law enforcement agencies of the United States.
To prohibit certain subversive activities; to amend certain provisions of law with respect to the admission and deportation of aliens; to require the fingerprinting and registration of aliens; and for other purposes.
This law was enacted to "deter terrorism, provide justice for victims, provide for an effective death penalty, and for other purposes.
The legislature declares that the intent of this act is to make attrition through enforcement the public policy of all state and local government agencies in Arizona.

This highly controversial bill passed the House, but stalled in the Senate. It proposed much stricter legislation against illegal individuals, including some aspects which criminalized citizens for aiding or hiring illegal aliens.

The USBP’s primary mission is to detect and prevent the entry of terrorists, weapons of mass destruction, and illegal aliens into the country, and to interdict drug smugglers and other criminals along the border
The coming of Chinese laborers to the United States be, and the same is hereby, suspended; and during such suspension it shall not be lawful for any Chinese laborer to come.
The debate in both the House of Representatives and the Senate over the first 'Quota Law' restricting immigration into the United States, became an occasion for the legislators to define the meaning of America.
The immigration reports include statistical reviews, emigration and immigration conditions in Europe and other parts of the world.
This document contains a variety of official data and statistics on the subject of illegal immigration in the United States.
The Immigration Act of 1924 sought to limit the immigration of aliens into the United States, and for other purposes.
Starting in 1991, every year the Attorney General, decides from information gathered over the most recent five year period the regions or country that are considered High Admission or Low Admission States.
The INA is divided into titles, chapters, and sections. Although it stands alone as a body of law, the Act is also contained in the United States Code.
The Immigration Reform and Control Act attempted to solve the problems that the increasing population of illegal immigrants was posing for the United States.
This testimony transcript relays information about the influence that immigration compliance raids had on specific manufacturing plants.
Operation Wetback was a repatriation project of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service to remove illegal Mexican immigrants ('wetbacks') from the Southwest.
The illegal aliens who are plaintiffs in these cases challenging the statute may claim the benefit of the Equal Protection Clause, which provides that no State shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
The 9/11 Commission made immigration and document security recommendations after completing their investigation in 2004.
Respondent resident aliens filed this suit, claiming that petitioners, the Attorney General and other federal parties, targeted them for deportation because of their affiliation with a politically unpopular group....
The Secretary of Homeland Security shall take all actions the Secretary determines necessary and appropriate to achieve and maintain operational control over the entire international land and maritime borders of the United States.
The ultimate aim of these hearings is: one, to do oversight on what we’re getting in return for the considerable federal investment in border security; two, to see what we can do to improve it.
Daniel Griswold makes the case for legalizing illegal immigrants, arguing that legalizing illegals would promote "a free society and a free and efficient economy", and would eliminate the dangers and mistreatment that many illegal immigrants face.
This report addresses the performance of 287(g) agreements between Immigration and Customs Enforcement and state and local law enforcement agencies.
This manifesto seeks solidarity with America's immigrants and encourages an immigrant-friendly immigration policy in the state of Utah.
The defendants were convicted for assault, discharge of a weapon in the commission of a crime of violence, tampering with an official proceeding, and deprivation of civil rights.
This report describes the findings of Amnesty International’s research into human rights concerns along the United States’ border with Mexico, primarily recent allegations of brutality by officers of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).
This bill modifies state law and enacts the Illegal Immigration Enforcement Act. Among other things, this legislation seeks to create stricter standards for dealing with illegal immigrants in Utah.

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