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Immigration Law and Policy

Emphasis on Enforcement

Since the 1990s, US immigration policy shifted toward immigration law enforcement as a response to terrorism. Even though fears of terrorism have been given as the justification for increased enforcement in immigration policy, enforcement is also supported by a economic approach which appeared to perceive each immigrant who enters the US illegally as the source of threat and therefore the problem.[1]  US immigration law and policy increasingly focus on control over individual workers and not over employers who actively or inactively recruit undocumented immigrants, or on changing the current system that constantly needs immigrant workers.

Important immigration laws[2]

  1. The Immigration and Nationality Act, INA, also known as the McCarran-Walter Act (1952, 1965) is the basic law that defines citizenship and immigration. In 1965, this Act abolished the national-origin quotas for immigration.
  2. The Immigration Reform and Control Act, IRCA, also known as Simpson-Mazzoli Act (1986). This Act made it illegal to knowingly hire or recruit unauthorized immigrants (those who are not authorized to work, regardless of their legal residency status).
  3. The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, IIRIRA[3]  (1996). By amending the INA, this Act
    1. Authorized state and local police to enforce civil immigration law when there is a “mass influx” of foreign nationals
    2. Allowed the attorney general to delegate immigration law enforcement authorities to state and local police
    3. Stated that public employees cannot be barred from reporting immigration–related information about a particular resident to the INS.[4]

    This Act resulted in an increase in the number of Border patrol agents and growing multi-agency collaboration on immigration enforcement.

  4. The Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, AEDPA (1996, 2005). This act added Title V to the INA, "Alien Terrorist Removal Procedures" and defined who was considered a member of a terrorist organization. The act also provided for the denial of asylum to alien terrorists.[5]
  5. The USA PATRIOT Act, (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act, 2001). The PATRIOT Act increases border enforcement and significantly endangers immigrants’ rights in the name of homeland security.
  6. Homeland Security Act, HSA (2002)This Act created the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other organization for executing the Patriot Act.

Proposed Legislation that did not become Law

  • The Border Protection, Anti-terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act, also known as the Sensenbrenner bill (HR 4437)[6](2005). This bill was passed by the United States House of Representatives but did not pass the Senate. This bill would have reinforced the fence on US-Mexico border, allowed for increased detention of immigrants, redefined the act of crossing the border without documents from a civil offense to a felony, and made it a crime for social services or religious agencies to serve undocumented immigrants. This bill caused widespread protests among the immigrant community and supports of immigrants' human rights.

Tactics against immigrant workers

  • ICE raids

    US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, increasingly uses workplace raids as a way to arrest large.

    • ICE-Local law enforcement collaboration
    • Violence against workers’ human rights
  • Social security record matching
    • The Basic Pilot system of INS, 1997
    • Operation Vanguard of INS, 1998
  • Border control

    The amount of budget for border control, the number of border patrol agents and the degree of violence on US-Mexican border have been rapidly increased.

    • Operation Blockade along the El Paso sector of the US-Mexican border, 1993
    • Operation Gatekeeper, 1994
    • Operation Streamline, 2005

Further Reading:

 

 

References:

1. Champlin, Dell and Eric Hake. Immigration as industrial strategy in American meatpacking. 2006, p60

2. Backgrounder on Immigration Law Enforcement, National Immigration Forum, August 2007. General Immigration Information, The Immigration Law Firm of New Orleans.

3. Text of the Act

4. Backgrounder on Immigration Law Enforcement, National Immigration Forum, August 2007.

5. General Immigration Information, The Immigration Law Firm of New Orleans.

6. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:H.R.4437

 

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