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Acknowledgements

First of all, we would like to express our appreciation to our supervisor, Mrs. for helping us to

complete this graduation paper. Without her precious guidance and persistent help, the paper

would not have been possible.

We also appreciate all the support from teachers, friends and family to help us finish this

graduation paper. Thank you all for always be beside us, give us treasury advice as well as

encourage us to overcome difficulties. Your support is the motivation for us to work harder to

accomplish the final paper.

We hope that this report will provide general knowledge about American immigration

policies from 18th century to 21st century, their impact and prediction about future trends. We

also expect to contribute this report as a study material for SOFL students in studying

American culture. Finally, we await more studies related to our topic to be developed in order

to provide students with detailed information about immigration policies in the 21st century.

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List of tables and figures

Table 1: Changes through the three National Acts

Figure 1: Source Areas of Immigrants to the United States, 1820-1919

Figure 2: Vietnamese Refugee Arrivals to the United States FY 1975-2002

Figure 3: Permanent Resident admitted from 1986 to 2011

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Table of contents

ABSTRACT..............................................................................................................................V

INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................1

CHAPTER 1: IMMIGRATION POLICIES FROM 18THTO 19TH CENTURY.................4

1. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND..............................................................................................41.1 Foundation for the policy.........................................................................................41.2 Waves of immigration..............................................................................................51.3 Civil war (1861-1865)..............................................................................................6

2. IMMIGRATION POLICIES FROM 18TH TO 19TH CENTURY......................................................72.1 Discrimination in the U.S. citizenship policies in 18th century................................7

2.1.1 Naturalization Act of 1790....................................................................................72.1.2 Naturalization Act of 1795....................................................................................82.1.3 Naturalization Act of 1798....................................................................................9

2.2 Discrimination in the U.S. citizenship policies in the 19th century.........................102.2.1 Naturalization Act 1870......................................................................................102.2.2 Page Act of 1785.................................................................................................112.2.3 Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882...........................................................................11

CHAPTER 2: IMMIGRATION POLICIES IN THE 20TH CENTURY............................13

1. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND............................................................................................132. IMMIGRATION POLICIES IN THE 20TH CENTURY...............................................................17

2.1 Unwanted immigrants exclusion policies...............................................................172.2 Asian Exclusion policies........................................................................................172.3 Policies towards Europeans....................................................................................182.4 The return of Asian immigrants..............................................................................192.5 Policies towards refugees.......................................................................................20

2.5.1 Policies towards Jewish refugees........................................................................202.5.2 Policies towards Cuban refugees........................................................................202.5.3 Policies towards Vietnamese refugees................................................................21

2.6 Immmigration reform policies................................................................................222.6.1 Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA)......................................222.6.2 Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1990...................................................232.6.3 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRaIRA).......................................................................................................................23

CHAPTER 3: IMMIGRATION POLICIES IN THE 21ST CENTURY............................25

1. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND............................................................................................251.1 Legal and Illegal Immigrants..................................................................................25

1.1.1 Legal Immigrants................................................................................................251.1.2 Illegal Immigrants...............................................................................................26

1.2 Economic recession................................................................................................28

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1.3 Terrorism................................................................................................................282. U.S.IMMIGRATION POLICIES IN THE 21ST CENTURY........................................................29

2.1 Policies under Bush administration........................................................................292.1.1 USA Patriot Act..................................................................................................302.1.2 Homeland Security Act and the Birth of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).............................................................................................................................302.1.3 Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002........................322.1.4 Intelligence Reform and Terrorist Prevention Act of 2004................................322.1.5 Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005…............................................................................................................................332.1.6 Real ID Act of 2005............................................................................................332.1.7 Secure Fence Act of 2006...................................................................................342.1.8 Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007.............................................35

2.2 Policies under Obama administration.....................................................................352.2.1 Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act of 2009...........................................................................................................................362.2.2 DREAM Act of 2010..........................................................................................372.2.3 IDEA Act of 2011...............................................................................................372.2.4 Immigration Reform that Works for America’s Future Act of 2013..................37

CHAPTER 4: HIGHLIGHT FEATURES OF THE THREE PERIODS..........................39

1. THE U.S. IMMIGRATION IN 18TH AND 19TH CENTURY......................................................392. THE U.S. IMMIGRATION IN 20TH CENTURY.....................................................................403. THE U.S. IMMIGRATION IN 21ST CENTURY......................................................................42

CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................44

REFERENCES........................................................................................................................46

REFECTION...........................................................................................................................52

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Abstract

“We are a nation of immigrants. We are the children and great grandchildren of the ones who

wanted a better life, the driven ones, and the ones who woke up at night hearing that voice

telling them that life in that place called America could be better. They came not just in

pursuit of the riches of this world but for the richness of this life.”

- Mitt Romney, 2012-

"America is a nation of immigrants." This popular quote shows the irreplaceable role of

immigrants in American culture and history. It is estimated that 99% of today's American

population has their ancestors coming Europe, Africa, or Asia. Through four centuries of

heavy immigration, America has become the most wealthy and powerful nation in the world

with a unique diverse culture. In this graduation paper, American immigration policies

throughout four centuries will be analyzed to help the audience understand the way

immigrants in America were treated from the very first day until present days to built a

flavorful ‘salad bowl.’

1

Introduction

1. Rationale of the study

Immigration really has a huge impact on the U.S.’s history and development. Generations of

immigrants and their descendants settled down in the utopia and gradually support America to

become the most powerful country in the world. America is a nation of natural resources, job

opportunities, democracy and the idea of ‘going from rags to riches’, which attracts millions

of immigrant from all over the world come to pursuit their American dreams. Immigrants not

only contribute to the economic development but also turn American society into a ‘salad

bowl’ – a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society with distinct qualities. However,

immigration also brings drawbacks to America. The government has to cope with occupation

problems, accommodation, environments, etc. Besides, social and cultural conflicts,

discrimination and illegal immigration still remain unsolved problems to the country.

Therefore, in order to ensure the security and prosperity of America, policy makers are always

aware of building reasonable and necessary immigration policies to protect both citizens’ and

immigrants’ rights.

On September 11th 2001, terrorism attacked the United States of America, leaving Americans

with irreparable human and property loss. Chaos appeared everywhere in America, the

government and citizens were worried about the security of the most powerful nation in the

world. Since then, domestic and foreign policies began to change including immigration

policies to comprehensively protect the country.

Since immigration has an undeniable importance to the development America, we choose the

“Immigration policies in the U.S.” with the hope to provide main knowledge about past and

present immigration policies (from 18th to 21st century), important features in each period and

2

also effects of present policies on immigrants. Besides, there would be predictions about

future immigration trends based on available policies today. However, due to the time limit,

we will concentrate on discussing about naturalization and citizenship in the 18 th-19th century

since it was the period when the country was established. The 20 th century coped mainly with

policies relating who allowance to enter the U.S. and the major changes in the U.S.

immigration system in the 21st century.

2. Objectives of the study

The graduation paper aims at giving general information about immigration policies in the

U.S. from the establishment of the country (18th century) until present days (21st century).

Essential features and comparison between centuries will be made to see changes in the

policies and their impact on immigrants. In addition, available policies in the 21st would be

analyzed to predict future tendencies in the immigration process to America.

3. Research problem

The changes in the U.S. Immigration Policy have been getting attentions worldwide.

However, there are not many studies related to the topic in Vietnam. Therefore, the study has

been conducted in order to provide an overview of American immigration policies. We hope

that the information will be useful for students in learning American culture as well as for

those who intended to study or to work in America after graduation.

4. Research method

In order for the paper to be successfully conducted, secondary data analysis has been used to

gather and analyze necessary information about immigration policies in the United States. We

also reviewed sources and made comparisons to see the main similarities and differences of

each period. Data was gathered from reliable sources such as articles, reports on the history of

the U.S. immigration policy on both Vietnamese and English; immigration law enforcement

3

documents; reports on immigrant population published on official website of American

federal agencies such as Migration Policy Institute,…

5. Scope of the study

The study concentrated at immigration policies in America from 18th century to present days.

Structure of the study

The study will contain four main parts main part

Chapter One will present American immigration policies in 18th and 19th century

Chapter Two will deal with American immigration policies in 20th century

Chapter Three will illustrate American immigration policies in the 21st century

(present days).

Chapter Four will cope with Findings

4

Chapter 1: Immigration policies from 18thto 19th century

1. Historical Background

1.1 Foundation for the policy

Enacted on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was a milestone marking the

formation of a new nation called the United States of America and had no dependence on

Great Britain. The new government would officially have its own right to make laws,

establish relations with foreign nations, conduct trade, and do anything else on its own hands.

The opening of the United States Declaration of Independence stated as follows: “We hold

these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their

Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of

Happiness.” The sentence laid the foundation for a new nation in which all Americans were

given equal rights through the constitution. But there was a fact that the ringing words of the

Declaration of Independence, “all men are created equal,” were meaningless for millions of

slaves in this newly created land. That was proved obviously in the immigration policies we

are going to mention below. Moreover, the word “men” used in the declaration was worth

noticing. The word “men” originally referred to both male and female. However, in reality,

man was sometimes also used in Old English to refer only to males. Especially, in a context

that American women had no right to vote at that time, Jefferson had to be using the word

“man” in its principal sense of "males.” Therefore, the discrimination in terms of gender to

some extent still remained (Butler, 2014).

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1.2 Waves of immigration

Since the earliest days, the United Stated has been considered a golden land for people from

all around the world. Emma Lazarushas inscribed on the Statue of Liberty a piece of poem:

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-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door

Each wave of immigrations has contributed to this land of opportunities a rich variety of

cultures and religions.

Most of the early settlers were British who came for profit and also for religious freedom. The

first successful English colony was founded at Jamestown, Virginia. English Puritans and

Protestants, who disagreed with the teachings of the Church of England, established

settlements in the northeastern region. In the new world they could worship as they pleased

(Fiedler, Norman-Risch &Jansen, 1990).

The Northern and Western Europeans who arrived between 1840 and 1880 were often

referred to as the “old immigration.” At this time, China was facing many problems such as

population explosion and food shortage. On the occasion of the Gold Rush in 1849, thousands

of Chinese people rushed into West Coast in hope of seeking as much gold as possible and

having a better life there. They mainly helped build the Panama Railway, the world's first

transcontinental railroad by working on the Central Pacific from 1864 to 1869.

Also according to Fiedler, Norman-Risch & Jansen (1990), up until 1800, the overwhelming

majority came from Northern and Western Europe. Many left Europe to escape poor harvest,

famines or political unrest. From 1845 to 1860, because of a serious blight on the potato crop

6

in Ireland, hundreds of thousands of Irish people came to the U.S. Likewise; Germany was

under severe economic depression and religious intolerance that forced many Catholics to

leave. Therefore, German immigration also contributed a large number of immigrants to this

flux. Between 1852 and 1854, over 500,000 Germans came to live in the U.S. in hopes of

building a better life for themselves and their families.

The new immigrants brought along with them different languages and astonishing variety of

cultures to the United State and created a well-known picture of America called a melting pot.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1845) wrote that immigrants “will construct a new race, a new

religion, a new literature” in the United States. Most of them with different cultures gradually

assimilated to the dominant American culture here which was called White Anglo Saxon

Protestants (WASPs). However, many groups, for instance black ones, whose ancestors were

brought over as slaves, were not regarded by the majority as true Americans. It seemed that

the issue of discrimination has happened since the very beginning and raised lots of questions

about human rights.

1.3 Civil war (1861-1865)

Civil war happened from 1861 to 1865. The causes of the Civil War were very complicated

since the war started. Among a variety of reasons, slavery was the main one which led to the

political tension in the 1850s. The Northern antislavery political forces strongly protested the

expansion of slavery into the Western territories. Meanwhile, the South tried their best to

protect their rights to their own slaves. Getting angry with this issue, seven Southern states

declared their independence from the Union. This major cause adding to many other conflicts

created the most traumatic episode in American history. But it resolved two matters that had

vexed Americans since 1776. It put an end to slavery, and it decided that the country was not

a collection of semi-independent states but an indivisible whole. (Toward the City on a Hill,

7

n.d.). The evidence was that on January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued The

Emancipation Proclamation proclaiming the freedom of slaves in the ten states.

2. Immigration policies from 18th to 19th century

The period from 18th to 19th century witnessed the formation of America. Immigrants could

enter the country at this time without restrictions. Therefore, policies in this period mainly

focused on how to enable foreign-born immigrants to become legal American residents with

naturalization Acts. Entrance allowance policies only appeared later in the last half of 19 th

century.

2.1 Discrimination in the U.S. citizenship policies in 18th century

2.1.1 Naturalization Act of 1790

After the Revolutionary War, the newly created government set up laws relating to

immigration. The first immigration policy was issued in 1790 when the U.S. Congress

established a simple system that enabled foreign-born people to become U.S. citizens. The

first Naturalization Act issued on March 26, 1790 by the Senate and House of Representatives

of the United States of America in the granting of national citizenship. The U.S. Congress set

up a uniform rule of naturalization for aliens, or foreign-born people to become U.S. citizens.

As stated in provisions of Article I, Section 8 of the Act, any alien who wanted to be a free

white person shall have resided within the limits and under jurisdiction of the Unites States

for the term of two years. After a two year residency, a free white person of good moral

character had one year more in the state of residence to apply for citizenship. The individual's

citizenship was also extended to any children under the age of 21, regardless of their

birthplace. And the children of citizens of the United States that may be born beyond sea, or

out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born citizens. It’s worth

noting that the policy left out indentured servants, slaves, most women, as well as immigrants

8

from the Pacific (such as Asians), all of whom were considered dependents and thus incapable

of casting an independent vote.(Naturalization Act, 1790). From the policy, it was obvious

that the U.S. government started closing its open attitudes about immigrants by limiting those

who could become naturalized citizens on the basis of race and gender. In his essay with the

title “The Racial Barrier to American Citizenship”, Gordon (1945) wrote that “The first

American nationality law enacted by Congress on March 26, 1790, restricted eligibility for

naturalization to “free white persons”…. It seemed clear that the racial limitation was

designed to exclude two categories: (1) chattel slaves, both Negro and White, and (2)

Indians….. The designation of “free white persons” as the sole group eligible for

naturalization continued without change for eighty years.”

2.1.2 Naturalization Act of 1795

Five years later, on January 29, 1795, another Naturalization Act was enacted in place of the

Naturalization Act of 1790. Basically, the new Act still restricted citizenship to “free white

person”. Notably, the law raised the residency requirement to five years. Then, immigrants

intending to naturalize had to go to their local court and declare their intention at least three

years prior to their formal application. There are some differences between the 1975 Act and

the 1790 Act. Firstly, the period of required residence increased from two to five years in the

United States. Secondly, the state of residence changed from one to two years. Thirdly, in this

law, two step naturalization processes needed to be made. In addition to the declaration of

intention and oath of renunciation, the 1795 Act required all naturalized persons to be

"attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States" and be "well disposed to

the good order and happiness of the same” (The Naturalization Act 1795, n.d.).

9

2.1.3 Naturalization Act of 1798

After the Naturalization Act 1795, on June 18, 1798, President John Adams signed into law

the Naturalization Act, the first of four laws known as the Alien and Sedition Acts. It required

immigrants to reside in the United States for 14 years before becoming eligible for citizenship

and nine years in the state of residence when applying for citizenship (Glass, 2009). In

comparison with the previous Act, the 1798 Naturalization Act increased the amount of time

necessary for immigrants to become naturalized citizens in the United States from five to

fourteen years. Like the Naturalization Acts of 1790 and 1795, this act also restricted

citizenship to "free white persons". “Congress viewed America as a school for equality and

democracy. But by preventing foreign-born people of color from becoming citizens, the act

established that American citizenship contained its own aristocracy, that of race” (James,

2004).

A number of changes can be seen in the table below:

Table 1: Changes through the three National Acts

Naturalization Act 1790 1795 1798

Residence period 2 years 5 years 14 years

Notice time 1 year 3 years 5 years

Eligible category Free white

person

Free white person Free white person and

native born whose

father has been U.S.

citizen

10

In the above table, the "residence period" refers to the period they had to live in the United

States before they could become a citizen. The "notice time" refers to the period that

immigrants had to wait after declaring their intent to become a citizen. The increased

residence restrictions implemented from the Naturalization act of 1790 to that of 1798

reflected a policy that favors native-born citizens over immigrants. Moreover, the content of

these Naturalization Acts also revealed that citizenship was headed to men. The naturalization

act in 1790 left out most women, it also declared that "the right of citizenship shall not

descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States...." This

prevented the automatic grant of citizenship to children born abroad whose mother, but not

father, had resided in the United States. Citizenship was inherited exclusively through the

father. The gender and racial discriminations were shown clearly from the very beginning.

2.2 Discrimination in the U.S. citizenship policies in the 19th century

2.2.1 Naturalization Act 1870

On July 14, 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant signed into the law the Naturalization Act that

created a system of controls for the naturalization process and penalties for fraudulent

practices. This act extended the naturalization process for aliens of African nativity and to

persons of African descent. Asians and other people of color were not included in this act and

remained excluded from naturalization (Naturalization Act of 1870, n.d.). Through the

content of the act, it was obvious that the U.S. Congress responded to the growing anti-Asian

sentiment in the American society. This sentiment came from the fear and threat of competing

with Asian immigrants for job and economic opportunities. This Act restricted all

immigration into the U.S. to only white persons and persons of African descendants, barring

Asians from U.S. citizenship. In comparison with previous policies, Naturalization Act 1870

was more flexible when allowing African Americans to be citizens of the United States.

11

However, there were so many problems remained unresolved. One issue was clear: race was

obviously a determining factor in one’s ability to be naturalized in the United States.

2.2.2 Page Act of 1785

The problem of discrimination still remained and raised many questions in later immigration

policies. On March, 3, 1875 the Page Act was signed into law which was considered the first

restrictive federal immigration law. The law was named after its sponsor, Representative

Horace F. Page. It was commonly referred to as the Asian Exclusion Act because according to

section 3 of the law, this legislation prohibited the importation of Chinese laborers who did

not voluntarily consent to come to work in America and Chinese women for the purposes of

prostitution. This law showed obviously that the anti-Asian sentiment, especially anti-Chinese

was growing. Tens of thousands of Chinese laborers were brought to California and the

American West as a result of the gold rush (1849) and the building of the transcontinental

railroad (1860s). Although the Chinese were usually considered economic assets and good

residents, their growing numbers alarmed many people living in the West. The main provision

included the prohibition of contracted labor from “China, Japan, or any Oriental country” that

was not “free and voluntary”, prohibition of immigration of Chinese prostitutes and exclusion

of two classes of potential immigrants from all countries: convicts and women “imported for

the purposes of prostitution”. Since the law enacted, the number of Chinese women coming to

the United States decreased significantly (Page Act of 1785, n.d.).

2.2.3 Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

It is said that the Page Act 1875 paved the way for Chinese Exclusion Act which was signed

by President Chester A. Arthur on May, 6, 1882.The Act stated that:

In the opinion of the Government of the United States the coming of Chinese laborers to this

country endangers the good order of certain localities within the territory . . .

12

Therefore, Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United

States of America in Congress assembled, That from and after the expiration of ninety

days next after the passage of this act, and until the expiration of ten years next after

the passage of this act, 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, or, having so come after the expiration of said ninety days, to

remain within the United States (Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), n.d.).

The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first major law restricting immigration to the United

States. After the Gold Rush of 1849, a large number of Chinese people moved to the West

Coast as a center of economic opportunity. At first, all most of them worked in some fields

such as gold mines, agriculture, laundries, textile industry and played a major role in the

construction of western railroads. The increasing number of Chinese labors put Americans at

risk of losing their jobs. As a result, the law was enacted in response to economic fears,

especially on the West Coast, where native-born Americans attributed unemployment and

declining wages to Chinese workers. As a result of the law, the number of Chinese in the

United States dropped significantly. It was one of the most significant restrictions on free

immigration in U.S. history, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese. Kevin L. Brennan (n.d.)

wrote that “the act signaled the emergence of new era in U.S. history that was defined by

skepticism and sometimes hostility toward immigration, especially by those of a different

race.” It was initially intended to last for 10 years, but was renewed in 1892 and made

permanent in 1902. It was finally repealed by the Magnuson Act on December 17, 1943.

13

Chapter 2: Immigration policies in the 20th century

1. Historical background

On the contrary to the last period, 20th century was a period full of political events leading to

the huge waves of immigrants from all nations in the world. Therefore, policies in this period

concentrated on the allowance to enter America. Naturalization and citizenship processed

were less mentioned in this period because of the time limit.

According to Ward (n.d.), there was a huge wave of immigration in the U.S. from the mids-

1840 to 1920. Immigrants came to America in this period helped to increase the nation’s

population from 17.1 million in 1840 to 105.7 million in 1920. As listed in the image below,

immigrants came from Northwestern, Southern, Eastern and Central Europe, West Indies,

Middle and South America, Oceania as well as Asia. Hirschman & Mogford (n.d.) noted that

it was the American Industrial Revolution in the period which motivated millions of

immigrants to come for new jobs. World War I (1914-1918) also made 14.5 million of

immigrant enter the U.S. to look for occupations and to avoid political pressure. Since the

number of immigrants increased dramatically in the period, several new policies were

implemented to remove disqualified immigrants from the country, which would be discussed

further in the following part (U.S. Citizenship and Migration Services, n.d.).

14

Figure 1: Source Areas of Immigrants to the United States, 1820-1919 (Ward, n.d., p. 3)

American immigration turned to a whole new stage with the outbreak of World War II (1939-

1945) between two sides: the Axis including Germany, Italy and Japan fighting against the

Allies including the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and China. Due to the

massive war, the number of immigrants allowed in the U.S. decreased sharply from 1.3

immigrants in 1907 to 50,000 in 1937 and 24,000 in 1943. Moreover, Japanese, German and

Italian immigrants living in North America faced the change in Americans’ attitude towards

them. However, German and Italian immigrants had been ‘deeply assimilated into American

culture’; therefore, they did not receive bad treatments from the U.S. government. One

million of Japanese immigrants referred as ‘enemy aliens’ after the Pearl Harbor attack in

1941. They were confined in internment camps and suffered hard life there. Meanwhile,

Chinese immigrants received new special privileges as China was America’s ally in the war

with the Magnuson Act of 1943. Asian immigrants in general and Mexican immigrants were

15

permitted to enter the United States thanks to the contributions of their people in World War

II (World War II and immigration, 2011).

The U.S. government gave permission for a large number of refugees in the 20 th century.

There were three main groups of refugees in this period namely Jews, Cubans and

Vietnamese. From 1938-1941, thousands of Jews came to America thanks to German-

Austrian quota and these people were the first Jews in the U.S. Due to the outbreak of World

War II and especially the Holocaust, a lot of Jews had been killed and tortured in

concentration camps. Therefore, the American Jewish community decided to demand the U.S.

government to save Holocaust victims. Until 1952, 137,450 Jews had been admitted to the

U.S. and settled for a new life (United States policy towards Jewish refugees, 1941-1952,

n.d.).

Cuban immigration to the U.S. began from the late 19 th century for trading activities of sugar,

coffee and tobacco. Later in the early 20th century, America still maintained a good affair with

Cuba and the country admitted a lot of political refugees to escape from the dictatorial regime

of Fulgencio Batista. In 1959, the successful revolution led by Fidel Castro brought

approximately one million to the U.S. However, since the new Cuban government became an

ally with the Soviet Union, the number of immigrants decreased. The first highly-accepted

Cuban refugees were 200,000 rich people and members of Batista regime coming to flee from

the new government. From 1965 to 1973, 300,000 Cubans more succeeded in entering the

U.S. and these first immigrants were greatly welcomed. Nevertheless, the third wave of

125,000 Cuban refugees faced difficulties because thousands of them were prisoners in Cuba.

The U.S. confined these ‘undesirable elements’ in jail for years. Until 1980s to 1990s, many

Cubans tried to enter the U.S. by using homemade vessels and the two countries came to an

agreement that the U.S. would return any ship from Cuba (Library of Congress, n.d.).

16

Campi (2005) stated that in 1975, 130,000 Vietnamese refugees having ‘close ties’ with

American government in the Vietnam War entered the U.S. These people were afraid that the

new government in Vietnam would see them as risks, so they decided to find a way to settle

in America. Firstly, they were delivered to centers for refugees in California, Arkansas,

Florida, and Pennsylvania. Later on, Vietnamese immigrants were resettled in different

regions of the country to avoid “ghettoism” (p. 1). The second wave of refugee started in 1978

with three million of immigrants (including Laotians and Cambodians). Most of immigrants

arriving in America this period wanted to stay away from Chinese invasion in 1979 and to

find a new political regime which was more suitable for them rather than staying in Vietnam.

17

2. Immigration policies in the 20th century

2.1 Unwanted immigrants exclusion policies

In the first decade of immigration in the 20 th century, changes in terms of exclusion had been

made to prevent undesired immigrants coming to the nation. First of all, the assassination of

President William McKinley by an anarchist named Leon Czolgos marked the exclusion of

anarchists (non-governmental people) from the country with the Anarchist Exclusion Act of

1903. The Act also excluded people with mental disabilities such as insanity, lunacy or

epilepsy. Beggars, polygamists and prostitutes were categorized “inadmissible” (Immigration

Act (United States) (1903), 2011). Until 1907, more types of people were added to the

exclusion list in the Immigration Act of 1907 including persons with “immoral purposes”,

contract labor, persons who could not earn money due to physical or mental problems and

persons suffering from feeble-mindedness, imbecility or tuberculosis (Immigration laws, n.d.)

Furthermore, there were new standards for female immigrants in the 1907 Act. Upham-

Bornstein (2012) also stated that women coming to America with any ‘immoral purpose’

would be excluded. The government also refused to admit women working as prostitutes for

three years since entering the United States or female suspects of prostitution.

2.2 Asian Exclusion policies

Upham-Bornstein (2012) found that due to increasing immigrants to the U.S. in the early 20 th

century, the Congress used the 1907 immigration act in order to restrict both new and old

immigrants. Asians were not allowed to immigrate to America through Hawaii. Asian women

who wanted to get marital status to stay in the U.S. also had to leave the country. Later in

1917, the area called Asiatic Barred Zone was identified with the Asiatic Barred Zone Act to

stop Asian immigration after the gold rush in 19th century (Tucker & Creller, n.d.). Jalalpour

18

(n.d.) stated that people from China, Asia and ‘Pacific Islanders from Turkey and Saudi

Arabia in the west to the Polynesian Islands in the east’ were prohibited from entering the

U.S. The exclusion of Asians continued with the Johson- Reed Act in 1924. According to the

Act, Asian and also African immigrants and their descendants were excluded from the

country (Adler, n.d.).

2.3 Policies towards Europeans

Porter (2012) stated that the Emergency Quota Act (signed into law in May 19 1921) was the

first law at federal level to restrict immigrants from Europe. According to the law, only “three

percent of the total number of immigrants from any specific country already living in the

United States in 1910” was allowed to enter the country annually. Moreover, the Act favored

immigrants from Northern and Western Europe. With 357,000 immigrants accepted annually,

175,000 were from Northern and Western Europeans. Eastern and Southern Europeans were

less favored because native-born citizens were afraid that these immigrants could not be

completely assimilated into Americans. Languages, customs and religions were considered

“threats” that may destroy the original American culture.

According to Adler (n.d.), in 1924, the Johnson-Reed Act continued to reduce the national

origin quota for immigrants to two percent. Later in 1929, the government set an immigration

cap of 150,000 annually for all countries based on the proportion of immigrant population in

1920. The Johnson-Reed Act indeed prevented a large number of Jews from entering the U.S.

Only ‘highly-educated’ Jews could immigrate as refugees, a typical example of these

admissible immigrants was Albert Einstein. Eastern Europeans were also restricted to a

number of less than 10,000 immigrants per year.

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Finally, the immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 only favored immigrants from Northern

and Western Europe (The immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter Act),

n.d.) According to Boyd (n.d.), only “highly-qualified” immigrants, their families and

relatives could have visas to America in order to serve the labor needs of the country. In this

period, immigrants were mainly from northwestern Europe namely Great Britain (65,000),

Germany (26,000) and Ireland (18,000).

2.4 The return of Asian immigrants

Chesley (2009) noted that after the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, it was the first time

Chinese immigration was allowed again with the Magnuson Act of 1943 (Chinese Exclusion

Repeal Act). Because China was America’s ally in World War II, the government decided to

permit immigrants from China and also allowed Chinese people in the U.S. to become

naturalized citizens. Dewey (n.d.) also stated that the government still set an annual quota of

105 visas for China, which made the number of Chinese immigrants rise again. Later in 1946,

immigrants from India and Philippines were permitted because the U.S. wanted to enhance

the relationship with these countries. Chinese people could also earn visas through India and

Philippines. Asian immigration was slightly liberalized later in 1952 with the Immigration

and Nationality Act (McCarran-Walter Act). A system of standards based on immigrants’

skills and their families was set to choose the best Asian immigrants to America (The

immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter Act), n.d.). Boyd (n.d.) noted that

Asian immigrants were only provided with 2000 visas annually.

Asian immigration was recovered with the immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (Hart-

Cellar Act) thanks to the “chain immigration and sponsorship”. Americans and permanent

residents could have the right to ‘sponsor’ their relatives to enter the U.S. Workers of some

in-need occupations and political refugees were also accepted (Le, 2014).

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2.5 Policies towards refugees

2.5.1 Policies towards Jewish refugees

In the early of 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the War Refugee Board

to help rescue thousands of Jews from European countries such as Hungary and Romania. He

also chose Fort Ontario, New York to be a free refugee port for non-Nazi-occupied refugees.

The rest of refugees, called displaced refugees, had to face anti-Semitism from Poland,

Hungary, Romania and Soviet Union. Displaced refugees were not rescued until 1945 when

President Harry S. Truman passed “Truman Directive” order to admit about 8,000 displaced

Jews to the U.S. In 1848, under the pressure of the American Jewish Community, the

Congress accepted 80,000 more Jewish displaced refugees. Eventually in 1952, 137,450

Jewish refugees (100,000 among them were displaced ones) succeeded in settling in the

United States (United States policy towards Jewish refugees, 1941-1952, n.d.).

2.5.2 Policies towards Cuban refugees

Later in 1966, an act for Cuban refugees was implemented called Cuban Adjustment Act

(CAA) in order to prevent Cuban immigrants from increasing uncontrollably. Before the Act,

Cubans immigrating to the U.S. had to earn immigration visas, or they would be excluded,

even the ones who came before 1966 because of no visas, identity checks and unemployment.

However, the Government found that there would be difficulties for Cuban refugees to

possess a visa due to the war and impoverishment in their country. Therefore, CAA was

approved to adjust several rights for Cuban refugees. According to the Act, the Attorney

General had the authority to decide permanent resident status for Cubans who had been

staying in the U.S. for one year. Legal Cuban immigrants would be provided with permission

to have occupations, school enrollments and healthcare services. Moreover, any Cuban who

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had been in America for two years could apply for permanent residence status, which was a

special privilege for Cuban refugees only (Reynolds, 2013).

2.5.3 Policies towards Vietnamese refugees

Campi (2005) noted that in July 1979, America officially became a country for refugee

resettlement after the First Geneva Conference on Indochinese Refugees. Vietnamese

refugees could have chances to go to the U.S. as legal immigrants after the Conference.

Vietnamese government started the Orderly Departure Program (ODP) to stop illegal

departures to America. The ODP permitted 167,000 detainees (and their family members) and

523,000 Vietnamese refugees, immigrants and parolees to come to America. Later thanks to

the 1996-2003 Resettlement Opportunity for Vietnamese Returnees (ROVR), 18,000

Vietnamese were resettled. In total, 759,482 Vietnamese had arrived in the United States as

refugees in the period of 1975-2002.

Figure 2: Vietnamese Refugee Arrivals to the United States FY 1975-2002 (Campi 2005, p. 3)

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2.6 Immigration reform policies

2.6.1 Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA)

According to Baker (2013), 2.8 million undocumented immigrants had been legalized thanks

to the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. First, immigrants applying for

occupations in the U.S. had to go through an investigation of their immigration status,

because hiring a disqualified immigrant was illegal. Cooper and O’Neil (2005) also stated that

the Act required employers to only hire qualified immigrants, not undocumented ones.

Employers had to check and do examination of employees’ documents to ensure their legal

status to work in America. Secondly, 1986 Act provided two groups of immigrants with

‘paths to citizenship’:

The first were immigrants who had resided in the United States for a relatively

uninterrupted period since January 1st, 1982 and applied between May 5, 1987 and

May 4, 1988. The second were Special Agricultural Workers (SAW), those who had

worked with certain types of crops in the United States for 90 days or more in the

1984, 1985, or 1986 and applied between June 1, 1987 and 5 November 30, 1988.

Both types of applicants would be disqualified if they had committed three

misdemeanors or a felony in the United States prior to application. After the

acceptance of their application, all applicants were given the status of `Temporary

Resident Aliens', a step towards green card status, lasting 18 months. After this period,

upon completing a proof of English test and civics test, they were given permanent

resident status.

There were over three million immigrants applied for a chance to become a legal American

citizen during this period and 2.7 million were admitted successfully, making IRCA “the

largest immigrant legalization process” in America (Cooper and O’Neil, 2005, p. 3).

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2.6.2 Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1990

First of all, the Act established a world immigration cap for the first time of 700,000 visas per

year from 1992 to 1994 and 675,000 after 1994.Immigrants were categorized as three types:

family-based (U.S.’s citizen relatives), employment-based (priority workers, certain special

immigrants and investors), and diversity (immigrants who did not visas due to historical

changes). Secondly, non-immigrants were put into more specified types such as B non-

immigrants (visitors), D non-immigrants (workers working abroad) and H1B, H2B non-

immigrants (skilled and lesser-skilled workers). Thirdly, the Act also provided work

authorization or a temporary stay for close relatives of legalized citizens in the 1990 Act.

Next, the Attorney General was the only one responsible for the naturalization process, not

the state and federal courts like in 1906. The following important feature was criminals

defined as “aggravated felony” – “drug trafficking (of any amount), money laundering, and

crimes of violence for which a term of five years imprisonment was imposed” (p. 336) – had

to be excluded. Finally, there were new changes added to the exclusion and deportation of

undesirable aliens based on health-related and security aspects. People with infective diseases,

physical or mental disorders or drug abuse would be excluded. Any immigrant who was a

member of “a Communist or any other totalitarian party" or was related to “terrorist

activities” was also on the verge of exclusion to protect national security (Leiden & Neal,

1990).

2.6.3 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996

(IIRaIRA)

According to Klenowski (2012), on September 30th 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the

Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRaIRA) in order to

streamlined all the current laws and acts and specially implement enforcement, fines and

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sanctions on illegal immigrants in the U.S.. The Act included six main titles mainly focusing

on preventing illegal immigrants to enter the country.

Title I: Improvements to border control, facilitation of legal entry, and interior enforcement. 

Title II: Enhanced enforcement and penalties against alien smuggling and document fraud. 

Title III: Inspection, apprehension, detention, adjudication, and removal of inadmissible and

deportable aliens. 

Title IV: Enforcement of restrictions against employment. 

Title V: Restrictions on benefits for aliens. 

Title VI: Miscellaneous provisions. 

The 20th century ended with many policies applied to adapt to essential historical events in the

world. The events clearly had a huge impact on the way U.S. government treated their

immigrants and war refugees. This period also witnessed the return of Chinese immigrants

after a long time of prohibition in 19th century. Finally, 20th century is a time for law

fulfillment and standard establishment. The acts in 1986, 1990 and 1996 played an important

role in completing immigration laws in the following century.

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Chapter 3: Immigration policies in the 21st century

1. Historical Background

1.1 Legal and Illegal Immigrants

1.1.1 Legal Immigrants

According to Wasem (2013), in the year of 2011, there were 1 million people admitted as

legal immigrants in the U.S.As can be seen from the chart, the total number of legal

immigrants to the U.S. from 2000 to 2011, although came through several declines, saw a

gradual increase. The total number of legal immigrants has increased from more than 600,000

to over 1,000,000 in 11 years from 2000 to 2011. In comparison with the period of 1986 to

2000, this number has never crossed 1,000,000 immigrants (apart from those immigrants

legalized by IRCA – Immigration Reform and Control ACT of 1986). The number of legal

immigrants has even been more than 1,200,000 in 2006. It can be inferred that the number of

legal immigrants increased faster from the beginning of 21st century.

Figure 3: Permanent Resident admitted from 1986 to 2011

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(From U.S. Immigration Policy: Chart Book of Key Trends, 2013)

1.1.2 Illegal Immigrants

According to Migration Policy Institute (2003), Jeff Passel of the Urban Institute in an

analysis estimated that the number of unauthorized immigrants was about 9.0 million in 2003.

The report from Migration Policy Institute also stated that the states that had the largest

unauthorized immigrants in 2000 were California (2.2 million) and Texas (1.0 million).

Illegal immigrants are considered as a major problem for such prosperous country like the

United States, as everyone is eager for the land of “American Dream” where they can have

better life. But still not everyone can enter the United States, they have to qualify many kinds

of standards; and this has caused an increasing number of “uninvited guests” to the United

States. Hipsman & Meissner (2013) noted that illegal immigrants or unauthorized immigrants

enter the United States by crossing the land border without being screened between formal

ports of entry, using fake documents for admission at a port of entry, or overstaying a valid

temporary visa.

Department of Homeland Security estimates that 59 percent of unauthorized residents are

Mexican born. El Salvador accounts for 6 percent, Guatemala 5 percent, Honduras 3 percent,

and China 2 percent. The ten leading countries of origin also include the Philippines, India,

Korea, Ecuador, and Vietnam, which represented 85 percent of the unauthorized immigrant

population in 2011. Loopholes in the U.S. immigration policy from the end of 20 th to the

beginning of 21st century has led to the fact of an exceeding 500,000 illegal immigrants to the

America each year, according to Passel & Cohn (2011). The estimation from the U.S. Census

Bureau has pointed out that there are about 8 million people living illegally in the U.S. in

2000, mostly in California, Texas and New York. According to Grieco (2003), Mexicans took

the largest proportion, at about 8 million, which was 69% of all the illegal immigrants. From

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1990 to 2000, the number of unauthorized Mexican residents staying in the U.S. had

increased by 140% - from 2 million to 5 million people.

Social welfare problems arose due to this situation. Illegal immigrants tent to use services and

preferential treatment as equal as the Americans; however, national budget has to carry a big

burden every year due to their lack of taxpaying. According to Camarota (2004), it was

estimated, in 2002, that illegal immigrated households have spent $26.3 billion USD of the

federal government, but paid just $16 billion USD of tax. This has created a great net budget

deficit up to $10.4 billion USD. The largest payments of the federal budget belonged to

Medicaid program, which cost $2.5 billion USD; medical treatment for health insurers

accounted for $2.2 billion USD; food aid programs such as food tickets or free lunch for

schools took up to $1.9 billion USD; costs for federal prisons and court system were about

$1.6 billion USD…

A large part of illegal immigrants are uneducated labors, which are living in poverty. A third

of illegal immigrants in the U.S. at the age of 25 and older have not finished their high school.

One in four immigrants has not finished grade 9, while this rate among Americans is just one

in twenty. This has led to a high unemployment rate among immigrants: 5.4% of all the

working aged immigrants. The number of unauthorized residents working in service area is

greater than natives, and they receive less income than natives. This situation can be referred

that once illegal immigrants have no or little income, they seem to have no ability to pay their

tax because they have spent all of their income to afford their families or themselves, which

may lead to a big loss in federal budget, a greater burden to public service because illegal

immigrants, who cannot pay their taxes, receive the same public treatment as those who have

paid taxes. This also leads to a greater burden to public service area, and thus creates an

unstable society with violence, robbery, smuggling, etc.

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1.2 Economic recession

In the last decade of 20th century, the US was a prosperous country. According to Gordon

(2000), economic output remained high, accounting for 4.9% in 1995-1999. Unemployment

and inflation were both low. A lot of progressions in computer technology had led to the

application were applied widely in management and production; therefore, outcome were

higher. A promising future of information technology had attracted the investors. Shares in

information technology area became popular and higher led to a higher speculation. Experts

called this “Dot-com bubble.” The prosperity of the U.S. ended in 2000, when the “Dot-com

bubble” exploded, which together with the sharply increase of petrol price and interest rate

had pushed the economy into deep recession from 2001 to 2003. Stock points decreased

sharply, especially information technology. NASDAQ index went down for 1,700 points at

the end of August 2001, which was 65% lower than its peak in March 2000. Trade deficit and

current account deficit were both extremely high, at $350 billion USD and $445 billion USD.

Due to the impact of the economic recession, unemployment rate has increased sharply in

both native and immigrant population. This has pushed policy makers to a decision to adjust

the immigration laws in order to avoid loss in federal budget, and to solve the unemployment

problem.

1.3 Terrorism

The last but not least factor that leads to the change in the U.S. immigration policy is national

insecurity after the September 11 attacks to New York and Washington D.C. The attack was

one of the most severe damages in the U.S. history. According to Vietnam Plus (2011), 2,996

people died in the attack, in which 2,669 were Americans, 372 foreigners from approximately

70 countries including 19 terrorists. The impact of the attack was spread all over aspects of

the country including the society, culture, politics, military and other countries as well.

American citizens want their government to enforce a new strict immigration policy. A survey

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carried out by the Fox News in November 2001 had pointed out that 65% Americans agreed

with the detention of all the immigration activities in the time of terrorism fight. Another

survey was carried out in 2002 from Gallup told us that 58% the Americans wanted the

government to cut down on immigration activities. It can be inferred that the 9.11 event has

set off the alarm to the United States security. The country was no more the safest one in the

world as the terrorists passed through all of its security level. After the event, the government

needed to reconsider immigration as the first factor that makes a major impact on national

security.

2. U.S. immigration policies in the 21st century

2.1 Policies under Bush administration

The election of George W. Bush in 2000 marked a new step in the U.S. immigration policy.

President George Bush saw the importance of immigration to the economy after the last

ineffective changes in the US immigration system. The President called for a new and large-

scale temporary worker program. He also saw that Hispanic population was growing and

played an important role in elections. At the very first days as the President, George W. Bush

showed his intentions to improve the U.S. relationship with Mexican leaders, boosting

economies and setting the first steps for the later immigration renovation. He met Mexico’s

newly elected President, Vicente Fox five times in nine months.

However, negotiations between the United States and Mexico failed due to the terrorist

attacks in New York and Washington D.C. in September 11st 2001. After the event, the U.S.

Congress passed many tough measures to control border security and support data collection

and information sharing on suspected terrorists, and broadened the government’s power to

control and deport immigrants. According to David Burnham, the co-director of Syracuse

University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), an organization that

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gathers government data: "After 9/11, the Bush administration tried to see immigration

enforcement as a way to fight terrorism,"

2.1.1 USA Patriot Act

In an effort to deal with the situation after the September 11 event, the U.S. Congress on

October 26th 2001 passed the "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate

Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001." a.k.a. USA PATRIOT

ACT. According to the United States Department of Treasury (2001), the Act aims to deter

and punish terrorist acts in the U.S. and around the world, to strengthen law enforcement

investigatory tools, and other purposes. Several aspects of the Act were related to immigration

policy, detention and deportation. USA PATRIOT ACT encourages immigration law

enforcement and border security. The Act allows authorized agencies to search, monitor,

detain, or even deport terrorist suspect. It also allows the agencies to keep foreigners up to 7

days for interrogation. On the other hand, the Act helps the federal government strengthen

border security, especially along the northern border with Canada (Panetta). USA PATRIOT

has set a step for most of changes in immigration policies in a decade after the September 11

event. Federal government and the public saw the immigration policy enforcement as an

important part of national security.

2.1.2 Homeland Security Act and the Birth of the Department of Homeland Security

(DHS)

November 2002, Congress released Homeland Security Act, which led to the big change in

the federal government since the 1940s by creating the Department of Homeland Security, or

DHS. The mission of DHS is to develop and coordinate the implementation of a

comprehensive national strategy to secure the United States from terrorist threats or attacks.

The director reported to the president and was given broad authority to coordinate federal,

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state, and local law enforcement agencies efforts. Department of Homeland Security

combined 29 program functions that were transferred from 10 agencies, referred to as the

legacy agencies. In addition, legacy agencies transferred resources for support functions, such

as offices of inspectors general and management and support. DHS was created to improve

the government’s coordination of efforts to protect against threats to the homeland. Its

missions are to prevent terrorism and enhance security, secure and manage borders, enforce

and administer immigration laws, safeguard and secure cyberspace, and ensure resilience to

disasters.

Office for Immigrant Affairs and Immigration under the Department of Justice after

reorganized to DHS was divided into 3 offices: United States Customs and Border Protection,

Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Citizenship and Immigration Services

Under Bush, the majority of immigrants who were deported by the U.S. were just under what

so call “returned.” Nobody took their fingerprints or put a permanent mark on their

immigration records. Instead, U.S. authorities put them on buses and sent them back across

the border. According to Department of Homeland Security, between 2001 and 2008, there

were over 8.3 million informal “returns”. There were, by contrast, just 2 million “removals.”

They are the ones that had to go through individual reviews, with an officer if not a judge, and

become part of deportees’ permanent records (Caplan, 2014). But in the second half of the

Bush administration, DHS decided to increase the number of “removals” and limit the number

of “returns.” The government hoped to prevent immigrants from going back into the country

illegally by making it clear that the U.S. knew who they were, and could punish them more

harshly if they showed up again.

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2.1.3 Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002

Eight months after the event 11.9, on May 14th 2002, the Enhanced Border Security and Visa

Entry Reform Act of 2002 was signed by President George Bush (Jenks, 2002). The new law

represents the comprehensive response to the continuing terrorism situation in the United

States at that time.

“The Border Security law contains some terms that are critical to the ability to border control.

Among the most important are:

A requirement that the Immigration and Naturalization Service (or INS) make

interoperable all its internal databases, so that all information about a particular alien

may be accessed with a single search;

A requirement that federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies share data on

aliens with the INS and the State Department

A requirement that all travel and entry documents, including visas, issued to aliens by

the United States be machine-readable and tamper-resistant and include a standard

biometric identifier.”

The new law showed the efforts of the U.S. in regaining control of borders and entry

procedures, in order to protect the country and its citizens from terrorism.

2.1.4 Intelligence Reform and Terrorist Prevention Act of 2004

In September 2004, Senator Susan Collins introduced the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism

Prevention Act. The Act initiated the most dramatic reform of the Intelligence Community

since its foundation. Reform efforts initially met some resistance from some members of

Congress. According to Peritz & Rosenbach (2009) although facing opposition from the

members of the House Armed Services Committee and concerns that a national intelligence

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director with control of defense intelligence assets could interfere in the chain of command

between the Secretary of Defense and field commanders; the Bush administration, however,

supported the legislation and pushed for compromises that protected the Pentagon's

authorities while still creating the needed national intelligence authority to focus, guide, and

coordinate the Intelligence Community. The Act addressed many areas of reform, including

organizational and leadership reforms.

2.1.5 Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005

According to McCabe & Meissner (2010), in December 2005, the House of Representatives

passed the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005,

which was sponsored by Republican. The Act became the first and only approach to

immigration reform. Many parts of the Act were about building fences at borders. The

building of a high-tech fence along the Mexico border was mentioned in the bill. Its most

controversial provision would have made unauthorized presence in the United States a felony

crime. Also in 2006, sponsored by Senator Edward Kennedy and Senator John McCain, the

Senate took up legislation. Known as a comprehensive reform, many aspects of immigration

were considered in the bill as it called for border security, an increase in low-skilled visas, a

legalization program for unauthorized immigrants, visa backlog reduction, a mandatory

employer verification program, and state grants to fund education and health services for

immigrants. Unfortunately the bill was defeated.

2.1.6 Real ID Act of 2005

In 2005, the REAL ID Act was approved by the Bush Administration in order to reduce the

risk of terrorist’s breaking into places considered as the most vulnerable targets like airlines

agencies, federal agencies or nuclear power plants by fraud IDs. According to the Act, in

order to be granted license or ID in REAL ID standard, citizen must show documents such as

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birth certificate, social security number, residence proof letter and his or her legal presence in

the U.S. Although having been approved by the Congress since 2005, the total enforcement of

the Act was still delayed many times due to the opposition from many states. Some concern

that issuing new IDs may lead to negative effects such as wasting billions of dollars, while

citizens may struggle with complicated procedures. (McCabe & Meissner, 2010)

2.1.7 Secure Fence Act of 2006

McCabe & Meissner (2010) noted that Congress enacted the Secure Fence Act late in 2006.

Once again, the issue of border protection was raised. In the Act, the construction of 700

miles of double-layer fencing along the Southwest border was mentioned. The Act also called

for the creation of a virtual fence along the entire Southwest border. A few months earlier,

President Bush had sent 6,000 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to provide

intelligence, surveillance, training, and logistical assistance to the Border Patrol.

In 2007, a similar reform was called. The Senate tried to enact comprehensive reform

program. The proposal in 2007 just has some different aspects from that of 2006. The bill's

cosponsors, Kennedy and Senator Jon Kyl, called for largely similar reforms. A standing

commission on nonimmigrant visas and a restructuring of immigrant admissions based on a

points system were additional elements in the 2007 bill, which also failed.

Thus, despite mounting pressure to fix a broken immigration system, legislative attempts over

three consecutive years generated heated public and legislative debates, but were, in the end,

unsuccessful in establishing new policies. Frustrated by federal inaction, many state and local

governments soon began to take immigration matters into their own hands. State legislatures

passed over 150 laws in 2007 alone, many of which were intended to restrict immigrants'

access to public benefits and beef up immigration enforcement; others aimed to improve

immigrant integration.

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2.1.8 Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007

This proposed act would, among its many parts, allow illegal immigrants to live and work

legally in the U.S. with a work authorization card, after paying a fine and other fees. It would

also create a temporary worker program, in which workers would have to return home every

two years, staying in their country for one year in between. A separate new program would be

created for agricultural workers. The bill, if passed, would be the biggest changes to

immigration law in more than 20 years, as it may offer millions of illegal immigrants a legal

stay in the U.S. while trying to secure the nation’s borders. However, the bill did not survive

after a Senate vote on June 7, 2007(Pear & Hulse, 2007).

2.2 Policies under Obama administration

Since the election, Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation was one of the targets that

Obama wants to achieve along with other prior legislations like economy, health care,

financial reform or climate. As stated in the Campaign booklet called “Blueprint for Change”,

the plan for immigration of the first African-American president of the United States consists

of three main parts.

The first part is to improve the U.S. immigration system. Obama wants to mention about the

Comprehensive Immigration Reform, which would fix the dysfunction in the immigration

system and immigration law as well. The President also hopes that the Immigration Reform

would increase the number of legal immigrants to keep families together and fill up the

“holes” in the labor market, to meet the demand for jobs from employers.

The second part mentioned in Obama’s plan is to “Bring People Out of the Shadows”. It can

be inferred that with this plan, The President shows his sympathy for the undocumented

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immigrants who obtain their good behavior to the society, learn English, or are willing to

obey the law if they do anything wrong.

The last part of Obama’s plan is working with Mexico. As the neighbor of the United States,

the number of immigrants from Mexico always accounts for a very high amount of all the

immigrants coming to the U.S. in both legal and illegal aspects. That is why Obama plans to

work with this neighbor country in order to decrease the number of illegal immigrants, and to

promote economic development as well.

2.2.1 Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and

Prosperity Act of 2009

In 2009, Senator Luis Gutierrez announced the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for

America’s Security and Prosperity Act of 2009. The bill, according to the summary from

Immigration Policy Center (2009), contains 6 main parts. The first part is Border Security,

Detention and Enforcement; Employment Verification; Visa Reforms; Undocumented

Immigrants Legalization; America’s Workforce Strengthening and New Americans

Integration. It can be seen that these key components are similar to the Immigration Reform

and Control Act of 1986 as well as the Reforms which failed under Obama’s predecessor –

President George Bush. Skrentny & Redman (2011) pointed out that the most important part

in Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act of 2009 is

Border Enforcement, which is the only part in the Reform that earns super statutory status. It

even reaches the unauthorized border and visa overstaying. It can be inferred that Border

Enforcement has been built for a long time in the U.S. history; therefore, there is no doubt that

this component is important in the Act. But in the end of the year, Obama administration has

neither promoted nor supported this bill. He has fail both to produce and to enact a

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comprehensive reform as he promised to strongly support in his running for president

campaign.

2.2.2 DREAM Act of 2010

The Act, which passed the House earlier in December 2010, would create a change among

undocumented immigrants as it allows young immigrants who have lived in the country for at

least five years, entered the country before 16 and still be under 30 years old to be legalized.

But unfortunately, the immigration bill failed the morning of December 18th 2010 in the

Senate. It needed 60 votes, but the final count was just 55 to 41.

2.2.3 IDEA Act of 2011

Sponsored by Senator Zoe Lofgren, the Immigration Driving Entrepreneurship in America

Act, or IDEA ACT was introduced in 112th Congress in 2011. IDEA Act, which is another

edition of the Immigration and Nationality Act, deals with worker immigrant visa. It sets a

priority for those worker immigrants who already have master or higher degree in science,

technology, engineering or mathematics from an American institution of higher education.

The Act also considers a priority for immigrants who receive employment offer from

American employer. The Act sets a new immigrant visa category for entrepreneurs who intent

to engage in new commercial enterprises in the U.S. The revision of H-1B visa, L-visa, EB-5

visa is also mentioned in this Act. Unfortunately, the Act did not survive in a previous session

of Congress (“H.R. 2161 (112th): IDEA Act of 2011”, 2011)

2.2.4 Immigration Reform that Works for America’s Future Act of 2013

Giovagnoli (2013) written that the Immigration Reform that Works for America’s Future Act,

sponsored by senator Harry Reid, was introduced in the Senate in January 22nd 2013. The bill

was created to fix the U.S. broken immigration system. The bill consists of ten parts aiming to

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create a more effective immigration system. In a report called “The Economic benefits of

fixing our broken immigration system” introduced by the Executive Office of President in

2013, immigration system was mentioned as a broken one, too many employers were playing

with the system by hiring illegal immigrant workers. It was estimated that there were 11

million undocumented people working and living in the U.S. in 2013 according to the report.

However these 11 million people can get their citizenship, according to the measure of the

reform. The reform would create a process for illegal immigrants to earn their citizenship by

paying taxes, penalty, learning English. The broken immigration system is also brought about

by immigration detention. According to Smith (2011), the immigration system is violating

some of the freedom and liberty rights. Immigrants may be indefinitely detained while they

are still waiting for decisions on their cases. Immigrants are kept in harsh and inhumane

conditions while waiting for deportation. The bill was hoped to fix these mentioned problems.

However, the bill did not survive in a previous session of Congress.

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Chapter 4: Highlight Features of the Three Periods

1. The U.S. Immigration in 18th and 19th century

The 18th century was a period of time with many outstanding events not only in the United

State but also all over the world. The Declaration of Independence in 1776 which officially

declared the formation of the United State brought hope for many people from other

countries. Some people came here to escape the war devastation, famine or poverty. Some

people in search of religious tolerations also came here to seek religious freedom while others

looked to the new land for opportunities in the hope of building a better life. For many years,

people entered the country freely with no restrictions placed on the numbers allowed to come

in. After the Revolutionary War, the federal government created laws relating to immigration.

It is worth noticing that most of the U.S. immigration policies issued in the 18th and 19th

century shared something in common. In the 18 century, the U.S. Government issued three

notable immigration Acts including 1790 Naturalization Act, 1795 Naturalization Act, and

1798 Naturalization Act. All of them restricted citizenship only to “free white person” and left

out indentured servants, slaves, most women, as well as immigrants from the Pacific (such as

Asians). Up until 1870, The Naturalization Act was issued allowing African Americans to be

citizenship of the United State. However, there were not much of changes of immigration law

in the 19th century. The outstanding point of immigration laws in this period of time was the

anti-Asian sentiment, especially anti-Chinese. This was shown obviously in some policies

such as Page Act 1785 and Chinese Exclusion Act 1882. The historical situation of the

19thcentury could explain why such anti-Chinese policies were created. The numerous influx

of Chinese immigration raised a fear that Chinese was taking over jobs and posed a threat to

the U.S. society. Therefore, it could be easily understood why several laws were passed to

exclude them from society. The content of immigration laws issued in the 18th and 19th

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century raised a lot of questions about the discrimination against race and gender. The ringing

word of the Declaration of Dependence of The United State in 1776 “all men are created

equal” seemed to be useless for thousands of people. However, we also need to look back.

The world always has ups and downs at times with a variety of problems such as the

population explosion, war, poverty, and economic recession. Even though the United States

was a strong country, it could not solve all the world’s problems. It could hardly afford to

keep the door open to everyone, especially those who posed a potential threat to the

advantages of the U.S. society. That may explain for the discrimination the U.S. immigration

policies of this period. The immigration policies of the United States did certainly have many

changes in the next century.

2. The U.S. Immigration in 20th century

The beginning of the Industrial revolution in the later decades of 19th century (1820-1870) and

World War I had created the wave of new immigrants in 1920s. These “new immigrants”

helped to satisfy the labor needs in the era of mechanization. However, unlike the previous

period (18th-19th century), when immigrants were almost free to come to the U.S., the

government began to propose strict immigration policies since 1914 due to the risk of

unemployment for national workers. New immigrants came led to the incline of wages and

opportunities for native-born workers.

Secondly, the problem of discrimination was also reflected through the policies in the 20th

century. All of the major acts for immigrants in this century prohibited people with physical

or mental disabilities to enter the country, which was opposed to the “All men are created

equal” in the Declaration of Independence. In addition, the Emergency Quota Act in 1921

only favored immigrants from Northern and Western Europe because the first immigrants,

who came to America and also people in the ruling class at that time, were from North and

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West of Europe. Therefore, they worried that immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe

may affect American culture and also the superiority of the founding class of the nation. In

the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924, Asian and African immigrants were also excluded, which

displayed race discrimination in American immigration policies. Although Chinese, Indian

and Philippines immigrants were allowed to migrate to the U.S. again thanks to the Magnuson

Act of 1943, it was only because these countries supported America in World War II. Later in

the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter Act), the problem of

discrimination continued with the favor of immigrants coming from Northern and Western

Europe. Perhaps it was political changes that altered the ways U.S. government treated

immigrants from different countries unequally. However, after the Hart-Cellar Act of 1965,

immigration policies were more opened due to the labor market needs and the desire of

reformers to reduce discrimination. Policies for refugees were established and became a

permanent part of immigration laws nowadays.

From 1986 to 1996, U.S. government added amendments to gradually complete their law

system for immigrants. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 legalized almost

three million of immigrants, offered them the opportunity to reach the Legal Permanent

Residence status. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1990 showed detailed

categories of immigrants, non- immigrants and established an international cap for

immigrants around the world. Besides, the 1990 Act paid attention to illegal immigrants and

aliens to protect the national security. Finally, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant

Responsibility Act of 1996 focused mainly on how to treat illegal immigrants with strict

enforcement, fines and sanctions. In this ten-year period, immigration policies were not

affected by conflicts outside of the country. Instead, the government concentrated on building

a system of laws to protect and legalize qualified immigrants and to deport people who were

considered dangerous to the America. As the most powerful nation in the world, America

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could have the right to select the most suitable candidates to enter the nation. Immigration

policies in the next period (21st century) started to have new significant changes after

American security were threatened with the September 11th event.

3. The U.S. Immigration in 21st century

It can be said that the moment the first aircraft hit the World Trade Center was the start of a

widespread change in the whole immigration system of the United States. The September 11

event has pushed the debates over immigration among parties, among citizens to a new level.

Since then, the U.S. has always been staying alert with all the foreign behaviors. Over 10

years after the event, both Bush and Obama administration have seen the enforcement of

immigration legislation as the tool to protect the country from terrorism, and to maintain

national security. The U.S. has seen large scaled changes in immigration since the first days

after the September 11 event with the same purpose of sharing intelligent information among

authorized agencies, checking immigrants and visas more effectively. The time after the 9.11

event marked the reorganization in immigration agencies of the U.S., especially the

foundation of Department of Homeland Security. Thanks to the comprehensive enforcement

of the new immigration policies, the number of illegal immigrants in the United States has

declined in the 21st century. However, Comprehensive Immigration Reform was still a

question mark to the current government. After being introduced in 2007, 2009, 2011 and

2013, through 2 presidents George Bush and Obama, Comprehensive Immigration Reform

bill was still a bill. Immigration Reform was a major part in Obama’s plan in not only his

running for president campaign in 2008 but also in his first and second term as the President,

and it was a promise from Obama as he was the President of the United States at that time.

However, after many years after the election, people have not seen any action from Obama

over this. Another reason for the need of a reform in 21st century is the existence of a broken

immigration system. The current immigration system has been placed an unfair condition on

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the illegal immigrants. The question how approximately 11 million illegal immigrants can

earn their citizenship has not been answered when the immigration reform bill did not survive

in the previous session of Congress in 2013. These problems leave the year 2014 another year

of hope. We do hope that changes will happen in 2014 as the bill is in debates again.

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Conclusion

The United States is a country with a legacy of immigrants who traveled to America to escape

the devastation of war and the hardship of poverty or famine. Some people came seeking

religious freedom while others looked to the new land for opportunities to make their

fortunes. For many years people entered the country freely with no restrictions placed on the

numbers allowed to come in. After the Revolutionary War, the federal government created

laws relating to immigration. The outstanding point of these policies during the 18 thcentury

and 19th century is that these policies left out Asian immigrants. This point was shown clearly

in some policies such as the Naturalization Act in 1790, 1795, 1798 and 1870, especially, the

Chinese Exclusion Act in 1849. The anti-Asian sentiment, especially anti-Chinese raised a lot

of questions about the problem of discrimination. The discrimination against Asian people

remained for a long time. The ringing words of the 1776 Declaration of Independence of the

United State “all men are created equal” was completely opposite to the reality of the United

State in terms of making immigration policy from the beginning to the 19th century.

Turning to the 20th century, immigration policies appeared new changes to adapt to major

historical events namely World War I (WWI) and World War II (WWII). While 14.5 million

immigrants came to the U.S. during WWI to resettle or to flee from their country, the U.S.

government tended to reduce the number of immigrants sharply in WWII. Only immigrants

from allied countries with America like China and Mexico were permitted to enter, which was

a relatively new point than in the last period when the anti-Asian sentiment was popular.

Immigrants from the opposite side of the War to America suffered from strict control of the

government. After WWII, the government proposed a chain of acts to fulfill immigration laws

of the country and also to support holocaust victims, Cuban and Vietnamese refugees. From

1986 to 1996, the government started to reform immigration laws by setting international cap,

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introducing paths to apply for Legal Permanent Residence status and proposing penalties for

illegal immigrants or aliens. In short, in the first half of 20 th century, the U.S. government had

to alter immigration policies regularly in accordance with historical changes at that time. The

second half of the century showed government’s efforts to reform and complete the

immigration law system for the security and development of the country.

21st century marked a new era in the U.S. immigration policy. Changes in the immigration

policy have led to a birth of a comprehensive control system, from border security to visa

control, from external to internal control in order to protect the country more effectively. The

21st century changes in immigration policy also saw the biggest reorganization of the federal

government since the World War II with the foundation of Department of Homeland Security.

The word Reform was mentioned many times in 21st century, a reform in immigration system.

Intergovernmental agencies were established; information sharing was encouraged between

intelligence agencies. Thanks to the enforcement of comprehensive immigration policies, the

number of illegal immigrants to the U.S. has declined. But still, the Comprehensive

Immigration Reform, after 8 years in office of President George W. Bush, and 5 years in

office of President Barrack Obama has not yet been kicked off. We do hope that the fiscal

year of 2014 would be a good sign to start the Reform

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References