Life under U.S. immigration policy

Articles and Resources
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services is a government agency under the Department of Homeland Security that sets immigration policy and provides immigration and naturalization services. This website provides critical immigration information such as how to become a citizen, obtain work place authorization, asylum and refugee applications, secure permanent residency, and obtain a green card. It also includes family services covering topics such as the adoption process. This organization hold many field offices that allow the public to make an appointment to speak with a UNCIS employee regarding any immigration questions. In addition it operates a customer service phone line to address immigration questions from the public.

Working Conditions
Migrant workers face harsh manual labor conditions in the United States. In states such as California, migrant workers work as many as 70 hours per week picking fruit in the sun, maintaining grapevines, and gathering crops like asparagus. Wages are relatively low for unskilled labor supplied by migrant workers and work is often physically demanding. Among the most labor intensive activities, harvesting raisin grapes requires large numbers of migrant workers on a seasonal basis. Grape vineyards will bring in workers and pay them $0.15 to $0.18 for every 25 lbs. tray of grapes picked. As more and more Americans attend college and actively seek service sector jobs and positions paying well above the minimum wage, the need for a an unskilled labor force continues to grow. This trend has triggered an influx of undocumented Mexican workers into the United States to fill the nation’s labor needs.

Undocumented Workers
Undocumented workers still pay taxes and contribute to Social Security and Medicare. For example, a New York Times article reported that a migrant worker who makes approximately $8.25- $12.50 per hour contributes $2000 per year toward Social Security, and $450 toward Medicare. However, he will never receive Social Security benefits because he is an undocumented worker with a false Social Security number. This situation is not unique. The Social Security Administration groups such money into its Earnings Suspense File when the identity of the contributor is unknown. In fact, undocumented workers contribute an estimated $7,000,000,000 per year to Social Security and will never collect benefits.

It is estimated that 20% to 40% of the United States agriculture labor force is composed of undocumented workers. The Immigration and Reform Act requires workers to provide a green card and social security number to employers to prove they are legally allowed to work in the United States. However, false social security numbers and green cards are available for approximately $150 on many street corners of immigrant neighborhoods.

Living Arrangements
A study concerning living arrangements of Mexican immigrants and natives of the US suggests that workers tend to live with family or unrelated persons upon arrival, but as time goes on, these living situations tend to decrease in frequency. This research reflects the collectivist culture that exists in migration. Mexican immigrants often live with relatives and share a home with multiple families because it offers security. Immigrants often have limited English proficiency, earn relatively low incomes, limited or no benefits and may have unsteady work. Given these conditions, it is advantageous to share rooms to split the cost of rent and live with multiple families to help take care of children when parents are working. If there is unexpected unemployment, this arrangement is beneficial because the collective household can make the necessary housing payments, while the individual seeks new employment.

United States - Current Stance on Citizenship
United States citizenship is one of the most coveted rights that the U.S. government can grant. Most people become U.S. citizens in one of two ways: (1) By birth, either within the territory of the United States or to U.S. citizen parents (2) By Naturalization. In addition, the Child Citizenship Act allows any child under the age of 18 who is adopted by a U.S. citizen and immigrates to the United States to acquire immediate citizenship. According to Amendment XIV of the U.S. Constitution: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Historical Changes to Citizenship Process
The process of citizenship in America has continuously changed since the first European immigrants came to this country from England and the Netherlands. By the middle of the 19th century, the major source of immigration no longer came from western Europe, and had shifted to southern and eastern Europe, although Germany continued to be a major source of emigration. In 1882 Congress passed the first immigration statute, barring Chinese immigrants. Prejudice, formerly just vocally expressed, now became part of American law as it applied to immigration. In 1892, the government opened a special port of entry on Ellis Island in New York to handle the growing influx of immigrants. In 1924, the U.S. government passed laws to limit the number of immigrants from specific countries that would be admitted into America. These limits were based on the number of people from that country already living in the U.S. In 1965, immigration quotas were established according to who applied first; and national quotas were replaced with hemispheric ones. Preference was given to relatives of US citizens and immigrants with specific job skills. In 1978, Congress abandoned hemispheric quotas and established a worldwide ceiling. In 1986 Congress revised immigration law to deal with illegal aliens. Many of those who had been in the country since 1982 became eligible to apply for legal residency that would eventually permit them to stay in the country permanently. The revised immigration law of 1990 created a flexible cap of 675,000 immigrants each year, with certain categories of people exempted from the limit.

General
The United States of America is presented with many difficult circumstances surrounding illegal immigration law. Currently, there are a minimum of 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. The US government is faced with the question of how to deal with the immigrants already settled into jobs, communities, and even schools. According to US Federal law, if illegal immigrants are found by the authorities, they are simply deported back to their home country. However, deporting 12 million people is not as simple as just dropping them off at the border. There are many issues, often moral questions, that the government faces when deciding how to enforce immigration law.

Deportation Difficulties
It is important to understand that the deportation of an individual can cost the government thousands of dollars. Therefore, considering how many illegal’s there are, it is impossible for the government to deport everyone right away. It is simply physically and financially impossible. As a result we have huge numbers of illegal’s being held in detainment awaiting deportation. According to Julia Myers, who is the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the cost of deporting all 12 million illegals would be close to 100 billion dollars. to break down the costs, it costs about 94 dollars a day to detain illegal’s awaiting departure. The average time a person waits to be deported is 32 days. According to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, it costs about 1000 dollars in transportation to deport an individual. This average comes from the fact that some illegal’s can simply be taken by bus or van across the border, but some illegal’s must be flown to their home country. Even after the US incurs this huge financial burden, it is not uncommon for a foreign country to not accept the person back.

Immigrants Denied Reinstatement by Home Country
In the situation where persons are refused to be taken by their home country, there is much controversy over what to do with the person thereafter. One option is to keep the person detained until arrangements can be made for deportation. However the problem is that we incur even more cost by holding them in detention for longer periods of time. Often, immigrants are sent to the same prisons’ that terrorists, murders, and rapists are held. Even illegal children are sent to juvenile detention centers with children who have committed terrible crimes, sometimes even murder. The other option is to let the person go free within the US. Many conservatives believe that if the US decides to go this route, we will send a soft message to immigrants. However, many also argue that holding a person in detention or jail with no crime or due process of law is unconstitutional. Of course the counter argument to this is that Illegal Immigrants do not have constitutional rights in the first place. The current position of the republican office, specifically the Bush administration, is to uphold unlimited detention of immigrants. The Democrats tend to push for decisions based on an individual basis. 

Sanctuary Cities
The term sanctuary cities refers to well known cities that turn a blind eye on illegal immigrant laws. These cities such as New York, New Haven, and Los Angeles, have major inflows of illegal’s where immigrants often find large illegal communities where they are able to network and live in with more security. The primary and most significant issue is how to react to illegal’s that are living by the laws and regulations of the city. When illegal’s act as a good citizen would, for example, calling 911 or reporting a crime, many city officials and police ignore the fact that they are illegally in the US. If officials start arresting and deporting illegal’s for acting as a good Samaritan, then illegal’s will know to avoid the law at all costs. In cities where entire districts can be mostly illegal’s, a lack of police could mean rapid increases in crime. Because the deportation of hundreds of thousands of illegals is unreasonable, most police officers continue to ignore the fact that people are illegally in the US. 

Formality of Sanctuary Law
These Sanctuary policies have been informally in place for many years. However, with the recent rapid increase in illegal population, many liberal states are taking action to put these informal policies into writing. For example, the state of Maine imposed an Executive Order Called “An Order Concerning Access to State Services by All Entitled Maine Residents," in 2004. This EO forbids the reporting of illegal immigrants by state officials. This gave illegal’s access to many public services, even drivers licenses. This also raised much controversy across the nation because a valid driver’s license in Maine can be used in other states to drive as well.

Education


With increasing budget deficits in the public school system, many states are faced with the issue of illegal children in public schools. These deficits are not simply due to illegal immigrants; however, this is one of the leading causes. In 2005, it was estimated that illegal children cost the nation 12 billion dollars in public education. If you include the cost of children born in the US to illegal Immigrants, this figure increases to 28 billion. The continued budget cutting in most states for the arts and extracurricular activities can be attributed to these costs.However, as overwhelming as these costs can be, it can be argued that since the deportation of the 12 million illegal aliens is very unlikely, we should invest our tax dollars in the young generations. If public education were to “crack down” on this issue, many believe that we would be making it impossible for immigrants to ever work up the American dream ladder. Although many argue that they shouldn’t be here anyway, there is no question that refusing education to illegal children would be detrimental to society in the long run.