Immigration has become a divisive topic in the past year with many presidential candidates and legislators arguing on how it should be handled. The talking points on immigration have evolved to securing the southern border with Mexico and controlling the numbers of immigrants coming into the country. In estimates from 2013, the immigrant population is about 41.3 million individuals which is about 13 percent of the whole United States population (Zong and Batalova). This number includes refugees and asylees, permanent residents, naturalized citizens, the unauthorized, and individuals with temporary visas. The federal government has superior control to immigration when it comes to the naturalization process and vetting immigrants arriving to
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Many states decide to expand state funded programs to immigrants that are not covered by support of the federal government while other states allow only certain immigrants access to benefits. The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act created many constraints on benefits for legal immigrants provided by the federal government (The Pew Charitable Trusts). The access to state funded programs is separated into two different categories for immigrants that can qualify for it. There are authorized immigrants which are lawful permanent residents, humanitarian’s immigrants, and other types of legal immigrants as well as unauthorized immigrants that are undocumented immigrants, temporary workers, and individuals granted temporary protected status (The Pew Charitable Trusts). The views on how to handle immigration at the state level like the national level has become a growing one that has been …show more content…
California has the highest number of immigrants than any other state with about 10.3 million living there which is about 27 percent of the population (Zong and Batalova). Many benefits have been opened to authorized immigrants as well as unauthorized. The controversial subject of allowing unauthorized immigrants to receive in-state tuition has been brewing in various states. California became one of the first states along with Texas to pass legislation in 2001 that allows undocumented students to pay in-state tuition for public universities (National Conference of State Legislatures).The legislation passed requires undocumented students to have attended a high school in the state for a certain amount of time, reside in the state, and sign an affidavit that shows their intention to get a legal immigration status in the future. Years later, the state government of California passed another form of legislation that allowed undocumented students to receive state financial aid (National Conference of State Legislatures). It one of the five states that allow undocumented students to apply for financial aid funded by the state. This is one of the many public benefits allowed to unauthorized immigrants which on most occasions is only provided for authorized
Many states decide to expand state funded programs to immigrants that are not covered by support of the federal government while other states allow only certain immigrants access to benefits. The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act created many constraints on benefits for legal immigrants provided by the federal government (The Pew Charitable Trusts). The access to state funded programs is separated into two different categories for immigrants that can qualify for it. There are authorized immigrants which are lawful permanent residents, humanitarian’s immigrants, and other types of legal immigrants as well as unauthorized immigrants that are undocumented immigrants, temporary workers, and individuals granted temporary protected status (The Pew Charitable Trusts). The views on how to handle immigration at the state level like the national level has become a growing one that has been …show more content…
California has the highest number of immigrants than any other state with about 10.3 million living there which is about 27 percent of the population (Zong and Batalova). Many benefits have been opened to authorized immigrants as well as unauthorized. The controversial subject of allowing unauthorized immigrants to receive in-state tuition has been brewing in various states. California became one of the first states along with Texas to pass legislation in 2001 that allows undocumented students to pay in-state tuition for public universities (National Conference of State Legislatures).The legislation passed requires undocumented students to have attended a high school in the state for a certain amount of time, reside in the state, and sign an affidavit that shows their intention to get a legal immigration status in the future. Years later, the state government of California passed another form of legislation that allowed undocumented students to receive state financial aid (National Conference of State Legislatures). It one of the five states that allow undocumented students to apply for financial aid funded by the state. This is one of the many public benefits allowed to unauthorized immigrants which on most occasions is only provided for authorized