Background on Immigration

2020 Immigration Issues

PRO-Border wall: (DHS): Currently wall construction continues at the southwest border with the administration's goal of 450 new miles of wall system on track for the end of the calendar year. The current status:
- 341 new miles completed
- 240 new miles under construction
- 157 new miles under the pre-construction process
- ANTI-Border wall: (USA Today): FactCheck: 307 miles of wall have been built, though just 5 miles are new
TRUMP: Wall is working beyond our wildest expectations (Aug. 2020)
BIDEN: Voted YES on building a fence along the Mexican border (Sep 2006)
PENCE: Unsecured Mexican border is a national emergency (Mar 2019)
HARRIS: Reform system, against "vanity project" of border wall (Feb. 2019)
NEWS: Latest statements on Mexican Border from presidential candidates and political pundits
Northern Triangle: (FAS 2019): Approximately 265,000 people have left the Northern Triangle region of Central America (composed of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras) in each of the past five years, with the majority bound for the US. The Northern Triangle includes some of the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere, with a legacy of extreme inequality.
TRUMP: Cut off aid $700M to Central American Northern Triangle (Apr 2019)
BIDEN: $750M to Central America to address root cause of migration (Jun 2018)
HARRIS: Coyotes out of business on very dangerous southern border (Feb 2019)
PRO-Northern Triangle:
1. High levels of violence continue to plague Central America's Northern Triangle.
2. People are fleeing community-level violence, which is often personal and direct.
3. Countries of the Northern Triangle are not providing security for their citizens.
4. The dangers people are fleeing are documented in skyrocketing requests for asylum.
5. There is no migration crisis at our border.
ANTI-Northern Triangle: (Devex.com): The State Department has determined steps that "Northern Triangle" governments must take for resumption of full U.S. foreign assistance, but stated it has no timeline for determining if or when that may happen. The letter said the money was cut off last year as a "wakeup call" to the Northern Triangle countries "to demonstrate political will and do more to stop illegal immigration to the US."
Coyote: (MarketWatch): "Coyote" is a common term for human smugglers along the U.S.-Mexico border. With tighter immigration policies and increased patrols by U.S. authorities, many would-be migrants feel they have little choice but to use coyotes to guide them across the border. Coyotes can charge between $6,000 and $10,000 per person to smuggle into the U.S., often via dangerous crossings in the desert.
Deportation Statistics: (OnTheIssues): There are two ways to reduce the population of undocumented aliens in the United States:
APPREHENSION means preventing illegal immigrants from crossing the border (or turning them away once caught at the border);
DEPORTATION means arresting and holding legal proceedings to remove undocumented aliens already within the United States.
President Trump has increased apprehensions but only held steady on deportations. President Obama decreased both apprehensions and deportations.
TRUMP: Deporting drug dealers, murderers, and "bad dudes" (Feb 2017)
BIDEN: No deportations unless aliens committed a felony in the US (Mar 2020)
Border Apprehensions: (CBP): Total Illegal Alien Apprehensions By President (annual total on Southwest Border):
- Trump: 517,000
- Obama 413,000
- Bush Jr: 1,002,000
- Clinton: 1,379,000
- Bush Sr: 1,031,000
- Reagan: 1,056,000
- Carter: 752,000
- Ford: 564,000
- Nixon: 273,000
- Johnson: 61,000
- Kennedy: 24,000
Majority Minority: As a result of its changed makeup and rapid growth, new immigration since 1965 has altered the nation's racial and ethnic composition. In 1965, 84% of Americans were non-Hispanic whites. By 2015, that share had declined to 62%. [Ed.: Whites are projected to become the minority nationwide by about 2045]
ICE: ICE was created in 2003 and now has more than 20,000 law enforcement and support personnel in more than 400 offices in the US and around the world. ICE'S mission is to protect America from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration that threaten national security and public safety, through the enforcement of more than 400 federal statutes.
PRO-ICE: (The Guardian): ICE is not responsible for patrolling or securing US borders; ICE is tasked with detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants living in the US. Under Obama, the unit prioritized removing those who had committed serious crimes, but the Trump administration has broadened its mandate to target anyone in the US illegally.
ANTI_ICE: (ACLU): Many of ICE's removal tactics take away even the right to a fair hearing in court, as the government rushes to judgment and tries to ram people through a rubber-stamp system that ignores individual circumstances.
TRUMP: ICE guards dangerous southern border against criminal aliens (Feb 2019)
BIDEN: Re-examine ICE & start from scratch (Jan 2019)
PRO-DACA: (CNN Aug. 2020): The Supreme Court blocked Trump's attempt to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program established in 2012 that protects undocumented immigrants [who were raised in the US, known as DREAMers] and allows them to work in the US. DHS announced the program would limit renewals to one year instead of two and still not accept new applicants.
ANTI-DACA: (InformedImmigrant.com): On June 18, 2020, the Supreme Court ordered the Administration to start accepting new DACA applications. Though the Supreme Court ordered this, USCIS did not begin to accept new initial applications.
TRUMP: Americans are DREAMers too; pass a bipartisan compromise (Jan 2018)
BIDEN: Make DACA permanent; much work remains to be done (Jun 2020)
HARRIS: Immediately reinstate DACA protection, including parents (Jun 2019)
NEWS: Latest statements on DREAMers and DACA from presidential candidates and political pundits
ANTI-Refugee: (Immigration Forum): The number of refugees accepted to the United States each year is set by the President in consultation with Congress. The refugee limit for 2020 is 18,000, the lowest is has been since the passage of the Refugee Act of 1980. The number of U.S. refugees from Syria and Iran dropped considerably in 2018 due to implementation of the latest version of the Trump administration's travel ban.
PRO-Refugee: Inscription on the Statue of Liberty since 1903:
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
TRUMP: Protect America by banning refugees from terrorist countries (Mar 2017)
BIDEN: Refugee policy is an embarrassment (Feb 2019)
PENCE: Muslim-country ban has solid constitutional foundation (Feb 2017)
HARRIS: Welcome refugees and immigrants, instead of a border wall (Feb 2019)
NEWS: Latest statements on Refugees and Asylum from presidential candidates and political pundits
Family Separation: (CNN 2020): In 2018, the Trump administration announced the so-called "zero tolerance" policy: criminal prosecutions of every adult illegally crossing the border. Doing so resulted in the separation of thousands of families, including those with infants, some only a few months old, because children can't be kept in federal jail with their parents.
PRO-Family Separation: (CNN 2020): Several immigrant rights organizations are outraged by a new choice U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is presenting to migrant parents: Separate from your child or stay together in detention indefinitely. It is in compliance with the Flores court agreement, which prohibits ICE from holding minors for more than 20 days.
ANTI-Family Separation: (Texas Tribune) Lawyers submitted a court filing with a grim update: They have not yet been able to reach the parents of 545 separated children. About two-thirds of those parents are believed to be somewhere in Central America--without their children.
TRUMP: Didn't start family separation but ended it (Jun 2019)
BIDEN: Reunite families; end outrageous treatment (Jun 2019)
HARRIS: Kids whose parents crossed border are treated like criminals (Jul 2019)
Sanctuary Cities: (America's Voice): There's no single definition of what is a sanctuary city, but generally speaking, it's a city (or a county, or a state) that limits its cooperation with federal immigration enforcement agents in order to protect low-priority immigrants from deportation, while still turning over those who have committed serious crimes.
PRO-Sanctuary City: (CNN 2018): In the early days of his administration, Trump signed an executive order trying to keep federal funds from going to sanctuary jurisdictions. Roughly 300 sanctuary jurisdictions rejected more than 17,000 detention requests, between 2014 and 2015.
ANTI-Sanctuary City: (WhiteHouse.gov): Sanctuary cities are preventing Federal authorities from locating and arresting dangerous criminal aliens and removing them from our country.
TRUMP: Cut off federal funds to sanctuary cities (Nov 2015)
PENCE: End sanctuary cities; those policies drive wages down (Oct 2016)
BIDEN: Sanctuary cities exist because feds can't enforce their laws (Sep 2007)
NEWS: Latest statements on Sanctuary Cities from presidential candidates and political pundits

2014-16 Election Immigration Issues

Border Fence: Dealing with the Mexican border provides a primary difference between Democrats and Republicans in the 2016 election. Republicans (and some moderate Democrats) call for building a fence; progressives oppose it as just another form of devaluing Mexicans. Building a fence is more about politics than about construction logistics; focusing on the construction aspects implies support for overriding the political difficulties.
Anchor babies: Opponents of illegal immigration decry foreigners who travel to the United States while pregnant, have a child in the U.S., and then use that child's citizenship to get the rest of the family into the U.S. This law is based on the 14th Amendment, which says that any person born in United States territory is automatically a citizen. It was passed after the Civil War to ensure citizenship for all former slaves.
Talking about immigrants means talking about Latinos: half of all immigrants today are from Latin America. And talking about immigrants means talking about the Latino vote: 70% of Latino voters supported Obama in the last election. The most important demographic is that Latinos make up 17% of the voting population now, but that will rise to 29% by 2050.
Latinos support immigration reform (and in particular, amnesty) with the same lopsided support with which they support Democrats: over 70% favor amnesty.
The Latino vote will become increasingly determinative of future election results, which is why Republicans are so actively recruiting Latino candidates (for example, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX, and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FL), to try to switch the current party loyalty.
Comprehensive reform is a politicized buzzword that means “provide amnesty and citizenship benefits for illegal immigrants already here, while securing the border and prosecuting illegal employers against new illegal immigration.” Opponents of comprehensive reform would prefer a piecemeal approach: their buzzword is “secure the border first,” before dealing with any benefits or any other issues.
President Obama in late 2014 issued an Executive Order deferring deportation of five million illegal immigrants who came to America as minors (known as DREAMers, for the DREAM Act). Opponents claim Obama unconstitutionally bypassed Congress. Supporters claim that Congress failed to pass comprehensive reforms for years, so Obama had to act unilaterally.

2012 Election Immigration Issues

Anti-immigration advocates often seek Official English status (the US has no official language), which would enforce assimilation of non-English speaking immigrants. Similarly, anti-immigration advocates seek to terminate Bilingual Education, which is currently funded in school systems with large non-English-speaking populations.
The "Simpson-Mazzoli Act" refers to the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, was the immigration reform supported by President Reagan. Its opponents claimed that it granted amnesty in exchange for tightening immigration law, but that the tightening never occurred while the amnesty did.

Arizona Law

In April 2010, the state legislature of Arizona passed a law, S.B. 1070, which allowed state police to check for legal papers of people suspected of being illegl immigrants.
Proponents say that the AZ law only enforces federal law in a circumstance where the federal government has failed to enforce its own law.
Opponents say that the AZ law constitutes "racial profiling", and targets Latinos and especially Mexicans.
The author of the AZ law, State Senate President Russell Pearce, was subjected by the people of his legislative district to a recall vote as a result of the AZ law, and lost his seat in Nov. 2011.

Immigration Issues

The US admits about 660,000 legal immigrants per year (1998 figures).
The Immigration Act of 1990 allows for 480,000 immigrants with family in the US; 140,000 immigrants in needed employment fields; and the rest under per-country limits and diversity limits.
Foreign-born people accounted for 8% of the US population in the 1990 census; in the decades prior to 1930, the figure was 13%.
About 5 million illegal aliens reside in the US (1996 figures).
55% of all illegal aliens come from Mexico. (Other Latin American countries account for another 20%).
40% of all illegal aliens live in California. (TX, NY, FL, and IL account for the next 40%).
The illegal alien population is growing by about 275,000 each year.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) runs the Border Patrol as well as interior enforcement.

Immigration Advocacy

Pro-immigration advocates sometimes accuse anti-immigration advocates of racism, because of the large Hispanic component of current immigration. In that view, immigration restrictions are seen as limiting growth of the Hispanic population.
Anti-immigration advocates often seek Official English status (the US has no official language), which would enforce assimilation of non-English speaking immigrants. Similarly, anti-immigration advocates seek to terminate Bilingual Education, which is currently funded in school systems with large non-English-speaking populations.

Immigration Buzzwords

The biggest components of the immigration debate is how many legal immigrants to allow, and how to prevent illegal immigration.
Liberals and libertarians generally oppose restricting immigration. Look for buzzwords like "promote diversity" to define the liberal attitude, or "we're a nation of immigrants" to define the libertarian attitude. Any reference to providing illegal immigrants with services beyond emergency medical treatment, or any reference to "clemency" for illegal immigration, implies a strong pro-immigrant stance.
Moderate liberals and libertarians will oppose restricting immigration while paying lip-service to restrictions on illegal immigration. Look for buzz-phrases like "promote immigration, block illegal immigration" and "separate the functions of the INS and the Border Patrol," which mean the same thing.
Conservatives and populists generally favor restricting immigration. Look for buzzwords like "protect our borders" or "strengthen the INS". A call for "Official English" is a strongly anti-immigration stance, because most immigrants are from non-English speaking countries. That's the same attitude as "End bilingual education," which focuses primarily on Spanish-speaking immigrants.
Moderate conservatives and populists will favor restricting illegal immigration while paying lip-service to allowing legal immigration. The result is the same as moderates in favor of immigration: calls for separating out legal immigration from illegal, but with a focus on enforcement against illegals instead of a focus on respecting immigrant rights.
H-1B Visas refer to visas for "specialty occupations." Generally, H-1B visas are issued in the fields of science, technology, engineering, or other professional services. H-1B visa holders are non-residents but may apply for permanent green cards.

Click for Amazon books on Immigration

The Fence and the River

From Birthers to Anchor Babies

The Sanctuary Movement

Debating Immigration

Click for citations from above references:

USA Today, "Fact check: Trump administration has built more border wall than meme claims," by Camille Caldera, Sep 6, 2020

DHS, "Wall Construction Update," September 29, 2020

Federation of American Scientists, "Central American Migration: Root Causes and U.S. Policy," June 13, 2019

Washington Office on Latin America, "Five Facts about Migration from Central America's Northern Triangle," 15 Jan 2016

Devex.com, "State Department lays out criteria for resumption of 'Northern Triangle' aid," by Teresa Welsh, 13 January 2020

MarketWatch, "This is what Trump was talking about when he said 'coyotes' were taking children across the border," by Mike Murphy, and Nicole Lyn Pesce, Oct. 22, 2020

Customs and Border Patrol, "Key findings about U.S. immigrants," by Abby Budiman, August 20, 2020

Pew Research chart, "Key findings about U.S. immigrants," by Abby Budiman, August 20, 2020

World Economic Forum, "These 3 charts explain the complex history of US immigration", by Joe Myers, 01 Feb 2017

Pew Research, "Modern Immigration Wave Brings 59 Million to U.S., Driving Population Growth and Change Through 2065", Sept 28, 2015

ICE.gov, "US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement," Official Website of the Department of Homeland Security

The Guardian, "US immigration: what is ICE and why is it controversial?", by Jamiles Lartey, 4 Jul 2018

ACLU, "ICE and Border Patrol Abuses," downloaded Oct. 2020

CNN Aug. 2020, DACA recipients challenge latest Trump administration attempt to gut program, by Priscilla Alvarez, August 28, 2020

InformedImmigrant.com, DACA Decision at the Supreme Court 2020

Immigration Forum, "Fact Sheet: U.S. Refugee Resettlement," October 7, 2020

CNN 2020, "Family separation and the Trump administration's immigration legacy," by Priscilla Alvarez, October 7, 2020

NBC, "Family separation is back for migrants at the U.S./Mexican border, say advocates," by Julia Ainsley, May 15, 2020

Texas Tribune, "The parents of 545 children separated at the border still haven't been found," by Teo Armus, Oct. 21, 2020

America's Voice, "Immigration 101: What is a Sanctuary City?," October 9, 2019

CNN 2018, "What are sanctuary cities, and can they be defunded?", by Tal Kopan, March 26, 2018

WhiteHouse.gov, "What You Need to Know About Sanctuary Cities," March 13, 2018


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