Arizona is being vilified for passing a law that seeks to allow the state to do the job that the federal government should do and that is to maintain control of the Arizona borders. That is one of the basic requirements for a sovereign nation and for the past half-century, federal officials seeking political favor have given lip service to that concept.
In fact, rather than enforcing the law, Congress has taken the opposite course of granting amnesty to illegal aliens people who have broken the law. Amnesties clearly do not solve the problem of illegal immigration. About 2.7 million people received lawful permanent residence ("green cards") in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a result of the amnesties contained in the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986.
Did that work to stem the tide of illegal immigrants? Absolutely not. The former illegal aliens were replaced by new illegal aliens and shortly, the number of illegal aliens had risen according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to over 5 million as relatives of newly legalized illegal aliens came to the U.S. to join those family members who now held lawful permanent residence papers (green cards).
The Statue of Liberty is a monument dedicated to freedom and liberty. She never meant that foreigners have the right to violate America's immigration laws.
There are many politicians, clergy and normal citizens who use the inscription on the base of the Statute of Liberty to justify their compassionate defense for illegal immigration.
However, most of those are not individuals who have immigrated here legally. The vast majority of citizens who have legally come to the U.S. are against amnesty for those who have not played by the rules. By granting amnesty, politicians are basically throwing away the rule of law and tearing down the framework of this sovereign nation.
Shortly after the nation's founding, Congress passed the Naturalization Act of 1790 to set the framework for immigration to the country. While flawed by its racial criteria limiting citizenship to free white persons until after the Civil War and thereafter to eligibility of Asian immigrants, the U.S. concept of legal versus illegal immigration has been revised over time but procedures to attain citizenship have had certain legal prerequisites including quotas from various countries and/or regions.
The 1965 Immigrant Act specified seven preferences for Eastern Hemisphere quota immigrants: (1) unmarried adult sons and daughters of citizens; (2) spouses and unmarried sons and daughters of permanent residents; (3) professionals, scientists, and artists of exceptional ability; (4) married adult sons and daughters of U.S. citizens; (5) siblings of adult citizens; (6) workers, skilled and unskilled, in occupations for which labor was in short supply in the United States; and (7) refugees from Communist-dominated countries or those uprooted by natural catastrophe. Since 1965, two million Asian quota immigrants, two million non-quota immigrants, and one million refugees outside the seventh preference have arrived.
Legal immigration into the U.S. fluctuated throughout the 20th century because of varying economic conditions. But the changes made by the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 drastically increased the number of immigrants allowed into the United States. The chart below depicts the increase in population per decade during the 20th century.
The immigration policies, particularly, since the 1940's, have been responsible for a major portion the population growth of the U.S.
According to various official government data, the number of illegal aliens in the country fluctuates from 8 to 12 million. The Department of Homeland Security Office of Immigration Statistics published a report using data through 2008 that attempted to analysis the problem.
Moreover, despite the politicians hopes that previous amnesties would stop the problem, the following table from the Homeland Security report shows that illegal aliens continue to come to the U.S. in larger numbers.
The Homeland Security also had two additional tables which show as of January 2008 various aspects of the problem.
Clearly, the problem is not getting any smaller and that the major increase in illegal immigration remains from the North American continent with Mexican nationals being the largest number as shown in the following table.
The big question is whether the estimates by the government can be trusted. Clearly, those on the front-lines of the invasion of illegal aliens do not agree with the government data. However, the Tucson sector of the Border Patrol union local 2544 commented in 2004 on the number of illegal aliens in the country as follows:
"There are currently 15 to 20 million illegal aliens in this country by many estimates, but the real numbers could be much higher and the numbers increase every day because our borders are not secure (no matter what the politicians tell you - don't believe them for a second)".
In Undocumented Immigrants: Facts and Figures (Jeffrey Passell, Randy Capps, and Michael Fix, Washington, DC: The Urban Institute, January 12, 2004), the demographers estimated that nearly two-thirds of all illegal aliens lived in just six states: California (27%), Texas (13%), New York (8%), Florida (7%), Illinois (6%), and New Jersey (4%).
Since the passing of the Immigration and Reform Control Act (IRCA), 6 million illegal aliens have received amnesty in the United States. The IRCA Amnesty was supposed to "wipe the slate clean" and instead it's led to the current situation of 12-20 million illegal aliens living in the country or perhaps, even more. Since 1986, Congress has also passed seven additional amnesties as follows:
| 1. Immigration and Reform Control Act (IRCA), 1986: A blanket amnesty for some 2.7 million illegal aliens |
| 2. Section 245(i) Amnesty, 1994: A temporary rolling amnesty for 578,000 illegal aliens |
| 3. Section 245(i) Extension Amnesty, 1997: An extension of the rolling amnesty created in 1994 |
| 4. Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (NACARA) Amnesty, 1997: An amnesty for close to one million illegal aliens from Central America |
| 5. Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act Amnesty (HRIFA), 1998: An amnesty for 125,000 illegal aliens from Haiti |
| 6. Late Amnesty, 2000: An amnesty for some illegal aliens who claim they should have been amnestied under the 1986 IRCA amnesty, an estimated 400,000 illegal aliens |
| 7. LIFE Act Amnesty, 2000: A reinstatement of the rolling Section 245(i) amnesty, an estimated 900,000 illegal aliens |
In 2007, based upon a major grass-roots campaign, the last attempt to pass an amnesty bill during the Bush administration went down to defeat. The Bush administration immigration measure would have granted legalization to an estimated 12 million unlawful immigrants if they passed background checks and paid fines and fees.
The Obama administration having passed health-care reform is now gearing up to move the immigration reform bill. The question is whether the Obama administration is willing to lose additional popularity in the face of rising concern from citizens about the impact illegal aliens have on a sputtering economy and a high unemployment rate.
Politicians seeking to provide amnesty to current illegal aliens are currently facing a backlash from citizens who no longer believe the estimates of illegal aliens issued by the government as evidenced by the passage of the Arizona law.
There are several issues to be addressed in any comprehensive immigration policy.
As the demographics of the country changes thanks to the baby-boomers and birth rates that barely reproduce the population, population growth from immigration is required to enable the country to continue to grow. However, that growth should be obtained from immigrants that can assimilate into the society by learning the language and provide the society with skills and resources that benefit society.
As of 2007, the labor force participation Rate was as shown in the following chart.
One is the need for immigrants to this country whether they are skilled or not. The second is to handle those who have disregarded our laws and have taken advantage of various loop-holes such as the anchor-baby problem.
The term “anchor baby” may be unfamiliar to most Americans but it succinctly describes a troubling aspect of American immigration.
An anchor baby is defined as an offspring of an illegal immigrant or other non-citizen, who under current legal interpretation becomes a United States citizen at birth. These children may instantly qualify for welfare and other state and local benefit programs. Additionally with the passage of the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, the child may sponsor other family members for entry into the United States when he or she reaches the age of twenty-one (See also Chain Migration). The sheer numbers are staggering. In Stockton, California (2003), 70 percent of the 2,300 babies, born in San Joaquin General Hospital’s maternity ward were anchor babies.
The problem is currently growing at an alarming rate. Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas is the second busiest maternity ward in the country with almost 16,000 new babies arriving each year. In the first three months of 2006, over 70% of the women giving birth were illegal immigrants who also largely charged the county with the major portion of their care.
It is probably impossible to strip anchor babies of their citizenship but allowing them to sponsor other family members should probably be on the table.
The current green card system and its quotas has created a situation where many of our engineering and technical graduates from foreign lands have to return home rather than remaining in the U.S. and becoming productive citizens. If the Health Care Reform bill is not repealed, the number of doctors and nurses in the U.S. will quickly become critical. For example, for the Fall 2009 semester, over 80% of all applicants to U.S. engineering, technical and medical schools were foreigners. Since 1988 when the State Department changed the rules on green cards, the U.S. has in effect been moving faster down the slippery slope caused by a deterioration of its standards for education at all levels.
The agriculture industry requires migrant workers ... whether they are US citizens or immigrants with a guest-worker card. To reduce the illegal immigration problem, it is necessary to be able to issue large numbers of green cards and to track via properly-issued social security numbers and identification papers and tracking RFID's so that guest-workers do not overstay their visas. The Department of Homeland Security should be required to gear up and implement a secure program within the next six months.
It is relatively simple to monitor RFID's world wide. If illegal immigrants are found in the US without proper papers, it should not require the INS more than a couple of days to escort them to the nearest airport and put them on an airplane for their country of origin prepaid. However, the next time they are discovered in the US illegally, the penalty is simply death. Harsh, yes.
The U.S. has been built by immigration ... legal immigration, mostly, where those coming here were assimilated into the society, largely learned English and thought of themselves as "Americans."
Beginning in the 1960's, the diversity movement began to grow and many citizens under 40 in the 21st century have little understanding of the Constitution and the beliefs of our founding fathers.
A sovereign nation ceases to exist when it can not control its borders and the U.S. is in danger because of that deficiency. While we need immigration, it should be immigration that is lawful and with individuals who can contribute to society rather than being a burden.
Let the debate continue ... But do not castigate Arizona ... they are merely doing what the Federal Government should be doing if it was interested in enforcing laws which are currently on the books.
Fred Richards
May 1, 2010
Corruptisima republica plurimae leges. [The more corrupt a republic, the more laws.] -- Tacitus, Annals III 27
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