Immigration to the United States
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 Immigrants come from all over the world to live in a country that is
known for its democratic values. America is a land of opportunities where human
diversity is one of its strengths. The majority of
immigrants come here on a
voluntary basis but there are those who are forced to immigrate. At one point
the United States encouraged immigration when they had a vast amount of empty
lands and transportation and communications were in their introductory stages.
As transportation became more prominent and transportation costs fell,
foreigners found it more attractive to migrate to the United States. After the
Civil War in the U.S., some states introduced legislation regarding
immigration.
This action prompted the U.S. Supreme Court to designate regulation of
immigration policies to the federal government in 1875. The first big wave of
immigration to the United States began in the 1880s, and the government reacted
by creating the Immigration Service in 1891. When World War I began the number
of immigrants coming to the United States dropped especially the number of
immigrants from European countries. After the war ended, the number of
immigrants started to increase again. To deal with the high number of
immigrants
entering the country, the U.S. Congress introduced new immigration policies. The
government introduced the National Origins Quota Act in 1921. The quota limited
the number of legal immigrants to 3% of their current ethnic makeup in the
United States. This immigration quota system was altered three years later and
the percentage was lowered to 2%. In addition, Congress established the U.S.
Border Patrol as part of the Immigration Service.
When the United States was going through the Great Depression, immigration
levels dropped to below zero because few wanted to come into a country that was
experiencing a prolonged period of harsh economic conditions and uncertainty. In
the period after World War II, for about 20 years, the rate of immigration
remained relatively low. All the previous immigration policies and laws
introduced by Congress were combined into the Immigration and Nationality Act of
1952. Due to the large number of seasonal agricultural workers from
Mexico, the
U.S. and Mexican governments agreed on making the Bracero Program permanent.
Another change came in 1965 when Congress transformed the National Origins Act.
The new system would give preference to immigrant families so that they could be
united in the U.S. In addition, the system would bring in a higher number of
skilled immigrants to the U.S. In the past, the majority of immigration visa
applicants were of European descent. Today that is no longer true and the
majority of applications are from Asia and Latin America. The availability of
immigration visas annually continues to be limited by the U.S. government. In
the past, the U.S. did not have a specific policy regarding
refugees, but this
changed when the Refugee Act of 1980 was introduced.
The number of illegal immigrants attempting to cross the U.S. - Mexico border
continues to rise, but also the number of legal immigrants admitted has reached
new highs. It is estimated that legal immigration in the 1990s surpassed the
levels of the last previous peak of legal immigration from 1901 to 1910. During
that time period nearly 9 million legal immigrants were allowed into the United
States. From the period of 1968 to 1993, it is estimated that 16.7 million
immigrants entered the country legally. Of these 16.7 million legal immigrants
nearly 85% were from the Third World. This percentage is composed of nearly 50%
legal immigrants that came from the Caribbean and Latin America and about a
third came from the Asia region. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s some
illegal
immigrants in the U.S. have benefited from immigration policies that have
granted amnesty, created a system for refugees, and have raised the quotas for
the number of legal immigrants allowed. The number of legal immigrants allowed
is anywhere from 700,000 to 900,000 on an annual basis. The department that
deals with immigration services and benefits is now the USCIS or U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services which used to be known as the INS or
Immigration and Naturalization Service. In March 1, 2003 the USCIS became a part
of the Department of Homeland Security. However, the immigration enforcement
responsibilities fall under the Department’s Border and Transportation Security
Directorate which is more commonly known as the Bureau of U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement or ICE.
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