Immigration has been a touchstone of the American experience since the country’s founding. And the United States remains the world’s top destination for immigrants, accounting for about 20 percent of all international migrants. The United States Immigration Policy determines the number allowed in, the selection criteria used, and the level of resources devoted to controlling illegal immigration. Current Homeland Security policies consist of revisions to this selection process and the asylum process. According to the Borgen Project, an estimated 15.2 million people in the world are refugees forced to leave their home countries because of persecution, war or other kinds of violence (Williams, 2013). Data analysis suggests that conditions in their home countries are the driving force behind asylum seekers.
Some of the general public has worried that with all of the immigrants from the war torn countries that maybe a terrorist may pose as a refugee so that they can get in the United States and cause …show more content…
China was the top country of origin, with 10,151 Chinese receiving asylum in 2012, accounting for 34 percent of all asylum grants that year. The next four largest origin groups were from Egypt (2,882), Ethiopia (1,122), Venezuela (1,099), and Nepal (974) (Nwosu, Batalova, & Auclair, 2014). Together, nationals of these five countries made up more than half of all individuals who received asylum status in 2012. Of the five countries listed, all have had issues with terrorists or terror related groups as of late. So it would be important to do a more extensive background check on individuals from these places. For instance, when Tamerlan Tsarnaev stayed with his Aunt before going to the United States, he was actually in Chechnya studying and acquiring skills from different extremists and terrorist related