Modern Immigration In The United States

I’m an American citizen.

In reviewing the various coverage of the strangely-named ‘Immigrant Day’, I have a couple of questions about modern immigration in the United States. They are as follows, as is a summary and explanation why I feel that a day like this was good for America. (Thanks to the Center for Immigration Studies for use of web content.)

If we are all considered immigrants, especially by those who are protesting on ‘Immigrant Day’, when and why were immigration laws developed limiting the number of immigrants?

I found a excerpt, I’d like to share from the Center for Immigration Studies’ Web Site:

Before the era of rapid communications and transportation, America encouraged relatively open immigration to settle its empty lands. After certain states passed immigration laws following the Civil War, the Supreme Court in 1875 declared the regulation of immigration a federal responsibility. The Immigration Service was established in 1891 to deal with the big increase in immigration which started in 1880. (http://www.cis.org/topics/history.html)

Perhaps our ancestors or even our recently deceased relatives were immigrants. The fact is they were able to come into this country at a time when there was no strict regulations on immigration, before the Immigration Service was even established. However, today, we have laws in place, restricting immigration. Therefore, I feel that the illegal aliens living inside the United States, according to law, must either become U.S. citizens or be made to leave. So, you get fined for running a stop sign, but you get a slap on the wrist for being in the country illegally? Only in America.

How many illegal immigrants are here in the country?

The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) estimates that in January of 2000 there were 7 million illegal aliens living in the United States, a number that is growing by half a million a year. Thus, the illegal-alien population in 2003 stands at at least 8 million. Included in this estimate are approximately 78,000 illegal aliens from countries who are of special concern in the war on terror. It is important to note that the 500,000 annual increase is the net growth in the illegal-alien population (new illegal immigration minus deaths, legalizations, and out-migration). (http://www.cis.org/topics/illegalimmigration.html)

Protesting against laws that were designed to regulate population control, national security, drug trafficking, unemployment, and so on, makes very little sense to me. I’m all for the Star-Spangled Banner being sung in as many languages as it can be because diversity of culture and race and ancestry is very important to the development and identity of the United States and its citizens. However, our identity needs to be developed legally. How can America set an example of what is just when our own identity has been influenced illegally for the past one-hundred years?

There are so many issues and questions about the immigration laws. It simply boggles the mind to anticipate the lack of enforcement of said laws, and the consequences, seen and unseen, that have manifested within the United States because of the poor enforcement.

In looking to today’s protesting, I have one conclusion:

Legal Immigration: fine. Illegal Immigration: Those who fall under this category are taking jobs away from American people who have a right to that employment. Those with no legal right to be here should be legally responsible for becoming a citizen. If an illegal is not a citizen within one year of entering the United States, the individual should be physically, yet professionally, escorted out of the country and not allowed to return for five years.

Granted, this track would be difficult and expensive, but this idea would create regulating jobs for U.S. citizens, and also the once-illegal immigrants would become tax-paying Americans.

In closing, I just want to say ‘Happy Immigrant Day’ to you all. Enjoy yourselves. Instead of doing harm to America by not working or purchasing, I’m glad to see that the majority of Americans went about this day like any other. It was important to our country as a whole because it raised awareness, and questions an issue that effects all of us.

I wasn’t scheduled to work today, but had I been, I would have.