The United States has long been a beacon of freedom for immigrants, since the day it was founded in 1776. This country was created by immigrants and has flourished from the continual migration of individuals from their home countries to the US. While this country may have been founded by immigrants, there has always been some sort of push back against the migrants fleeing to the US for a better life. As part of the Obama administration, there is clearly something broken with our immigration policies. The influx of latin american immigrants to the United States has caused tensions throughout the country as individuals view these new immigrants as pests and ruining the way of life that has been established. However, the issues do not reside
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In 2011, Obama is quoted as saying, “We are the first nation to be founded for the sake of an idea—the idea that each of us deserves the chance to shape our own destiny. That’s why centuries of pioneers and immigrants have risked everything to come here… The future is ours to win But to get there, we cannot stand still” (Building a 21st Century Immigration System). Making an attempt to move our country forward, the Obama administration proposes multiple actions that can lead to a more efficient and safe way of immigrating. For one, dedicating unprecedented resources to building up and securing the border. Immigration and immigrants are not the problem, illegal immigration and illegal immigrants are. By ensuring that the border between the US and Latin America is more secure, it will reduce the amount of individuals entering the US illegally. With the Border more secure, it will force more individuals to take the legal approach to immigrating, rather than risking everything to just be sent back to their home country. Although the legal approach to immigration is preferred some individuals have little choices when it comes to entering the United States. An issues brought up in the article “Unintended Consequences of the US Immigration Policy”, in 1965 amendments to the Immigration and Nationality act passed, which instituted a cap on the number of immigrants, from the western hemisphere, that can apply for residence visas to 120,000 per year. This cap was further reduced in 1976, to just 20,000 issues visas for any single country. Further reductions were put in place to put the worldwide ceiling of residence visas at 270,000 in 1980. Placing this cap severely increases the number of individuals willing to take the risk to immigrate illegally, if they are not one of the lucky 20,000 from their country that year. Due to these caps placed on visas, many Latin
In 2011, Obama is quoted as saying, “We are the first nation to be founded for the sake of an idea—the idea that each of us deserves the chance to shape our own destiny. That’s why centuries of pioneers and immigrants have risked everything to come here… The future is ours to win But to get there, we cannot stand still” (Building a 21st Century Immigration System). Making an attempt to move our country forward, the Obama administration proposes multiple actions that can lead to a more efficient and safe way of immigrating. For one, dedicating unprecedented resources to building up and securing the border. Immigration and immigrants are not the problem, illegal immigration and illegal immigrants are. By ensuring that the border between the US and Latin America is more secure, it will reduce the amount of individuals entering the US illegally. With the Border more secure, it will force more individuals to take the legal approach to immigrating, rather than risking everything to just be sent back to their home country. Although the legal approach to immigration is preferred some individuals have little choices when it comes to entering the United States. An issues brought up in the article “Unintended Consequences of the US Immigration Policy”, in 1965 amendments to the Immigration and Nationality act passed, which instituted a cap on the number of immigrants, from the western hemisphere, that can apply for residence visas to 120,000 per year. This cap was further reduced in 1976, to just 20,000 issues visas for any single country. Further reductions were put in place to put the worldwide ceiling of residence visas at 270,000 in 1980. Placing this cap severely increases the number of individuals willing to take the risk to immigrate illegally, if they are not one of the lucky 20,000 from their country that year. Due to these caps placed on visas, many Latin