Illegal immigration to the United States

Illegal immigration to the United States refers to the act of foreign nationals voluntarily resettling in the United States in violation of U.S. immigration and nationality law. Those who have entered the United States in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act are subject to deportation, often after being found to be removable in a civil removal proceeding before an Immigration Judge. Though some categories of immigrants were turned away before the United States only began to attempt to regulate immigration with 1921's Emergency Quota Act. As there were no limits on immigration previous, there was no illegal immigration to the United States before 1921. America faced a large wave of illegal immigration from Mexico in the early 1950s but it was dealt with by President Eisenhower.

Under Paragraph (a), Title 8, Section 1325 of the U.S. Code, "Improper Entry By Alien", any citizen of any country other than the United States who

1. Enters or attempts to enter the United States at any time or place other than as designated by immigration officers; or
2. Eludes examination or inspection by immigration officers; or
3. Attempts to enter or obtains entry to the United States by a willfully false or misleading representation or the willful concealment of a material fact;

has violated civil law when in violation of the first two sub paragraphs (unless other laws were violated in the process), and criminal law if violating the third. If the accused violates sub paragraph 3 of paragraph a, then they could be fined and imprisoned for up to 6 months. Repeat offenses of this sub paragraph can bring up to two years in prison. Persons apprehended while attempting to enter the United States illegally after committing previous crimes in the United States are indictable for the attempt to illegally re-enter the country.Additional civil fines may be imposed at the discretion of immigration judges, but civil fines do not negate the criminal sanctions or nature of the offense.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a bureau of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is the primary federal agency tasked with enforcing the immigration laws of the United States of America.

Definition

Immigrants are classified as illegal for one of three reasons: entering without authorization or inspection, staying beyond the authorized period after legal entry, or violating the terms of legal entry.

Terminology

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the primary federal agency tasked with enforcing the Immigration and Nationality Act, defines an "alien" as "any person not a citizen or national of the United States" The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), the primary body of federal immigration law in the United States, also defines the term "alien" as “any person not a citizen or national of the United States.” The U.S. Department of State defines an "alien" as "a foreign national who is not a United States citizen"

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service defines an immigrant as "an alien admitted to the United States as a lawful permanent resident". The Immigration and Nationality Act defines the term “immigrant” to mean every alien not falling within a set of “classes of nonimmigrant aliens” spelled out in detail by the act, for example: diplomatic personnel, students residing within the US to attend school, athletes attending athletic events, ship and aircraft crew members; and others residing or staying within the United States on a temporary basis. The Act classifies aliens remaining within the US on a permanent basis as immigrants without regards to an individual’s legal status. The U.S. Department of State does not define "immigrant".

The Associated Press Stylebook, the primary style and usage guide for most newspapers and newsmagazines in the United States, recommends using "illegal immigrant" rather than "illegal alien" or "undocumented worker". According to Voice of America's, a weekly analysis of American English from the official international radio and television broadcasting service of the United States federal government, "The most common term by far, though, at least as reflected in the news media, is illegal immigrants" in reference to people who are in the United States without following immigration laws.

At the 1994 Unity convention, the four minority journalism groups – the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists , the Asian American Journalists Association and the Native American Journalists Association – issued a joint statement on the term illegal aliens: "Except in direct quotations, do not use the phrase illegal alien or the word alien, in copy or in headlines, to refer to citizens of a foreign country who have come to the U.S. with no documents to show that they are legally entitled to visit, work or live here. Such terms are considered pejorative not only by those to whom they are applied but by many people of the same ethnic and national backgrounds who are in the U.S. legally." Press releases from these minority journalism groups in 2006 reaffirmed this position and recommended using "undocumented immigrant" and avoid the term "illegal" as a label.

History of Illegal Immigration Legislation

Legislative Summary

No.	Year	Event Name	Effect / Impact
1	1882	Chinese Exclusion Act	Restricted immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. Prohibited Chinese naturalization. Provided deportation procedures for illegal Chinese in the United States.
2	1891	Immigration Act	Provided the first comprehensive immigration laws for the United States. Established the Bureau of Immigration within the Department of the Treasury. Directed the Immigration Bureau to deport unlawful aliens.
3	1921	Emergency Quota Act	Limited the number of immigrants from any country to 3% of those already in the US from that country in 1910.
4	1924	Immigration Act	Imposed the first permanent numerical limit on immigration. Began a national-origin quota system, which greatly restricted immigration from countries outside Northern and Western Europe.
5	1924	Japanese Exclusion Act	Unilateral prohibition of Japanese immigration.
6	1952	Immigration and Nationality Act	Continued national-origin quotas. Set a quota for aliens with skills needed in the United States.
7	1965	Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments	Repealed the national-origin quotas. Initiated a 7-category visa system for family unification and skills. Set a quota for Western Hemisphere immigration for the first time and set a country limit of 20,000 immigrants for the Eastern Hemisphere.
8	1976	Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments	Extended the 20,000 country limit for the Western Hemisphere.
9	1980	Refugee Act	Established the first systematic procedures for refugee admission. Removed refugees from the preference system for visa categories. Began a program for refugee resettlement.
10	1986	Immigration Reform and Control Act	Started employer sanctions for knowingly hiring illegal aliens. Created a program for legalizing illegal aliens already residing in the United States. Increased border enforcement.
11	1990	Immigration Act	Increased legal immigration ceilings. Tripled the numerical limits for employment-based immigration. Created a diversity admissions category.
12	1996	Illegal Immigration Act	Introduced a pilot telephone verification program for employer to authenticate the legal immigration status of potential workers. Expanded restrictions on access of legal immigrants to welfare benefits. Increased border enforcement.
13	2005	Real ID Act	Requires people entering federal buildings, boarding airplanes or opening bank accounts to present identification that has met certain security and authentication standards. Established national standards for state-issued driver licenses and non-driver identification cards. Waived laws that interfere with construction of physical barriers at the borders. Updated and tightened laws on application for asylum and deportation of aliens for terrorist activity.

• 1860s

"Until 1860, virtually all immigrants to the United States were from Germany, Ireland, and the United Kingdom." But after 1860, during the period of the expanding West and in the decade of the Gold Rush, enormous numbers of Chinese immigrants came to the United States to build railroads in the Midwest and work the mines of western America.

• 1870s

In 1875 a restrictive immigration law was passed forbidding the entry of “individuals who were destitute, engaged in immoral activities, or physically handicapped.” Thus, initially, US anti-immigration laws focused on the ‘‘types’’ of individuals who were not to be admitted into the United States rather than their nationality, country of origin, or their quantity.

• 1880s

In 1882 Congress passed the first general anti-immigration law called the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The Act was “a response to racism [in America] and to anxiety about threats from cheap labor [from China].” Partly as a result of the Act, the 1880’s were characterized by significant waves of immigrants from Austria, Hungary, Italy, Greece, Poland, and Russia. Chinese immigration was illegal, but little was done to enforce it.

• 1890s to 1920

The immigration Act of 1891 gave government greater powers to monitor and regulate immigration. More than a million immigrants entered the US each year for several years during the first two decades of the twentieth century. Over half of these were from Italy, Russia, and Austria-Hungary. Still with a focus on profiles of prospective immigrants rather than their nationality, in 1917 Congress passed legislation that required immigrants over age 16 to be literate in English or their own language, and it banned those from certain "barred zones" in Asia.

• 1920s

The first legislation involving numbers of immigrants did not occur until 1921 when Congress enacted the Emergency Quota Act. The Act limited the number of people who could enter the US from any country to 3% of those persons from that country living in the United States in 1910. This Emergency Quota Act of 1921 was followed by a more permanent Act of Congress enacted in 1924, which further reduced the quota to 2%. As immigration from the Western Hemisphere was not seen as a threat to US over-immigration, the 1924 Act did not apply to citizens of nations in the Western Hemisphere.

The first cases of illegal immigration into the United States consisted of Europeans. “An unintended consequence of the 1920s legislation was an increase in illegal immigration. Many Europeans who did not fall under the quotas migrated to Canada or Mexico, which [as Western Hemisphere nations] were not subject to national-origin quotas; subsequently they slipped into the United States illegally.” As a result of this, in the 1930s, the Bureau of Immigration turned most if its attention at enforcement and deportation.

• 1930s

Little immigration, legal or otherwise, took place in the 30’s as a result of the Great Depression. Few people migrated to the United States during World War II. The yearly quota of 150,000 immigrants from Europe for this period was not fully filled. The World War II refugee situation prompted the US to revise its immigration laws as previous laws did not concretely address the refugee issue. The result was the passing of several laws permitting displaced persons and refugees to enter the United States outside the quotas, and thus not being considered illegal immigrants.

• 1940s to 1960s

From 1943 to 1964, as the US economy took off after World War II, the United States established a special program (the Bracero program) for temporary agricultural workers from Mexico and other Latin American countries to meet U.S. agricultural labor shortages. The 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act again favored types of individuals wanted as immigrants over quantity of immigrants. Together with its 1965 Amendments, it favored individuals with skills over non-skilled labor, such as non-skilled agricultural labor.

In the early 1950's an estimated 1,000,000 Mexicans illegally crossed the border and began to take up residence and work inside the Untied States.

• 1970s

With the passage in 1976 of the Immigration and Nationality Act amendments extending the 20,000 country limit to Western Hemisphere as well, the United States saw a total number of illegal immigrants estimated at 1.1 million, or half of one percent of the United States population.

• 1980s

About 1.3 million illegal immigrants entered the US in the 1980s. In the 1990s, Mexico rose to the head of the list of sending countries, followed by the Philippines, Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, and China. To discourage and hopefully reverse current illegal immigration trends, Congress passed in 1986 the Immigration Reform and Control Act. It provided for employer sanctions for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants. The Act also legalized the status of illegal immigrants in the country already. In essence it provided an amnesty program.

• 1990s

Over 5.8 million illegal immigrants entered the US in the 1990s. The Immigration Act of 1990 significantly increased the number of visas for priority workers and professionals with U.S. job offers, such as nurses and for other white-collar professionals in high demand.

• 2000-2004

Still, it is estimated that in the first half of the decade starting in year 2000 over 3.2 million illegal immigrants entered the United States. The Illegal Immigration Act of 1996 aimed at targeting the employment of illegal immigrants even further by instituting a telephone verification method of the immigration status of potential workers. Year 2005 saw the enactment of the Real ID Act was enacted. The Act established that people entering federal buildings, boarding airplanes or opening bank accounts are to present identification that has met certain security and authentication standards. It established national standards for state-issued driver licenses and non-driver identification cards.It also waived laws that interfere with construction of physical barriers at the borders, and it updated and tightened laws on application for asylum and deportation of aliens for terrorist activity.

Present Day Illegal Immigration

The United States Government Accountability Office estimates that “between 400,000 and 700,000 illegal immigrants have entered the United States each year since 1992.” A substantial portion did so by crossing the United States–Mexico border and, to a lesser extent, the United States-Canada border.

In March of 2006 the Pew Hispanic Center (PHC) estimated the undocumented population ranged from 11.5 to 12 million individuals, a number supported by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO). Using data from March of 2004, PHC estimated that 57% of this population comes from Mexico; 24% from Central America and, to a lesser extent, South America; 9% from Asia; 6% from Europe, and the remaining 4% from elsewhere. According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the countries of origin for the largest numbers of illegal immigrants are as follows Mexico (5.97 million), El Salvador (470 thousand), Guatemala (370 thousand), India (280 thousand), and China (230 thousand). According to "The Urban Institute, a research group in Washington, D.C., estimates between 65,000 and 75,000 undocumented Canadians currently live in the United States." The Urban Institute estimates of the undocumented population in the [United States] "use U.S. Census data and Department of Homeland Security figures."

Modes of Entry

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, nearly half of all unauthorized migrants now living in the United States entered the country legally through a port of entry such as an airport or a border crossing point where they were subject to inspection by immigration officials.

As much as 45% of the total authorized migrant population entered the country with visas that allowed them to visit or reside in the U.S. for a limited amount of time. Known as “overstayers”, these migrants became part of the unauthorized population when hey remained in the country after their visas had expired.

Another smaller share of the unauthorized migrant population entered the country legally from Mexico using a Border Crossing Card, a document that allows visits limited to the border region, and then violated the terms of admission.

The rest of the unauthorized migrant population, somewhat more than half, entered the country illegally. Some evaded customs and immigration inspectors at ports of entry by hiding in vehicles such as cargo trucks. Others trekked through the Arizona desert, waded across the Rio Grande or otherwise eluded the U.S. Birder Patrol which has jurisdiction over all the land areas away from the ports of entry on the borders with Mexico and Canada.

The PHC has previously estimated that there are between 11.5 and 12 million unauthorized migrants in 2006. The calculations reported in this fact sheet suggest that roughly 4.5 to 6 million or 40% to 50% of the total migrants entered the country through ports of entry. Of them some 4 to 4.5 million entered with nonimmigrant visas, mostly tourists or business visitors, and another 250,000 to 500,000 entered with Border Crossing Cards.

In 1993, 283 Chinese immigrants attempted entry into the United States via a sea vessel. Ten of them arrived dead.

Method of Entry

Border Crossing

The unfenced rural mountainous and desert border between Arizona and Mexico has become a major entrance area for illegal immigration to the United States, due in part to the increased difficulty of crossing illegally into California. Dangers of illegally crossing the southern border into the US include: exposure to the elements, traffic accidents, and inhumane treatment at the hands of corrupt human traffickers.. “Exposure to the elements” encompasses hypothermia, dehydration, heat strokes, drowning, and suffocation. Also, illegal immigrants and coyotes may die or be injured when they attempt to avoid law enforcement. Martinez, points out that engaging in high speed pursuits while attempting to escape arrest can lead to death.

Often, the people that choose to sneak across the border employ expert criminal assistance - smugglers who promise a safe passage into the United States. These smugglers are called "coyotes" and are paid thousands of dollars per person they assist in crossing the border. Oftentimes, the money used to pay for this assistance is loaned - sometimes from loan-sharks who charge as much as 300 percent interest on short term loans.

The tightening of border enforcement has disrupted the traditional circular movement of many migrant workers from Mexico by increasing the costs and risks of crossing the border, thereby reducing their rate of return migration to Mexico. The difficulty and expense of the journey has prompted many migrant workers to stay in the United States longer or indefinitely.

Visa Overstay

Visa overstays are a second significant form of violation. A traveler is considered a "visa overstay" once he or she remains in the United States after the time of admission has expired. The time of admission varies greatly from traveler to traveler depending on what visa class into which they were admitted. Visa overstays tend to be somewhat more educated and better off financially than those who crossed the border illegally.

To help track visa overstayer the US-VISIT (United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology) program collects and retains biographic, travel, and biometric information, such as photographs and fingerprints, of foreign nationals seeking entry into the United States. It also requires electronic readable passports containing this information.

Fraudulent Marriage

People have long used sham marriages as a way to enter the United States. One of the most prominent cases was that of Nada Nadim Prouty, a Lebanese immigrant who gained entry into the US as a student, but then married fraudulently to stay in the country, and even became a US citizen and went on to become an employee of the FBI and the CIA. Engaging in a bogus marriage, went hi-tech with the case of a Russian woman and an American man arranging a marriage over the Internet.

Dangers

There are significant dangers associated with illegal immigration due mostly to its illicitness. Aside from the possibility that they may be intercepted and deported, some considerably more dangerous outcomes have been known to result from this activity.

Slavery

Indian, Russian, Thai, and Chinese women have been reported brought to the United States under false pretenses to be then used as sex slaves. “As many as 50,000 people are illicitly trafficked into the United States annually, according to a 1999 CIA study. Once here, they're forced to work as prostitutes, sweatshop laborers, farmhands, and servants in private homes.” US authorities call it “a modern form of slavery.”

Prostitution

The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women has reported scores of cases where women were forced to prostitute themselves. “Trafficking in women plagues the United States as much as it does underdeveloped nations. Organized prostitution networks have migrated from metropolitan areas to small cities and suburbs. Women trafficked to the United States have been forced to have sex with 400-500 men to pay off $40,000 in debt for their passage.”

Rape

The significant amount of rape has become a problem for some women illegally entering another country. “After the coyotes get the women across the [U.S.-Mexico] border, safely on U.S. soil, they gang rape them to show they have total control over them. They hang their panties in the trees as signs of the conquest. . . If the women are young and pretty, they are kept in houses of prostitution where they have to have their families buy them out or work their way out. Of course, none will testify to this because the coyotes know where they are from and can seek revenge on their families in Mexico."

Death

Death by exposure has been reported in the deserts of Southwest, particularly during the hot summer season.

Causes

See also causes for illegal immigration.

Supply / Push Factors

Mexico

Main article: Mexico

The Pew Hispanic Center has estimated that 56% of illegal immigrants come from Mexico.Therefore, it may be worthwhile to focus on causes specific to illegal immigration from Mexico.

Poor Fiscal Management

Mexico has a free market economy in the trillion dollar class and the highest income per capita in Latin America. The Mexican government's failure to follow through on its assurances to the Clinton administration that the Mexican government would invest billions of dollars in roads, schooling, sanitation, housing, and other needs to accommodate new factories, resulted in only a limited number of new factories ("maquiladoras") following NAFTA, the majority of which were produced in a zone near the U.S. borderFewer factories meant fewer factory jobs. This failure to invest in its infrastructure also meant that China was able to out compete Mexico in the production of inexpensive manufactured goods, thus displacing Mexican workers . The number of manufacturing workers dropped from 4.1 million in 2000 to 3.5 million in 2004. Also, the U.S. was able to out compete Mexico in the production of inexpensive corn . Consequently, the price of maize in Mexico fell 70% between 1994 and 2001, and the number of farm jobs dropped from 8.1 million in 1993 to 6.8 million in 2002.

Inequality of Wealth

Mexico has a high income disparity. Mexico has a free market economy in the trillion dollar class. Mexico has more billionaires than Switzerland including Carlos Slim, whom many sources say is the world's richest man and who owns 8% of the country's GDP.

However, Mexico's wealth is centralized in the hands of a minority. 17.6% of Mexico's population lives in extreme poverty, while 30.1% live in moderated poverty, making a total of 47.7% of the Mexican population living in conditions of poverty.

Participation of Authorities

The Mexican government has worked to make illegal immigration to the U.S. easier.

• It plans to produce 70,000 maps marking main roads and water tanks for people wanting to cross illegally into the US. According to Mauricio Farah of Mexico's Human Rights Commission, "The only thing we are trying to do is warn them of the risks they face and where to get water, so they don't die," But Russ Knocke, a spokesman for US Homeland Security said maps would not improve safety for those trying to cross the border, "It is not helpful for anyone, no matter how well intended they might be, to produce road maps that lead aliens into the desolate and dangerous areas along the border, and potentially invite criminal activity, human exploitation and personal risk,"

• the Yucatan government (a state of Mexico) also produces educational materials (a handbook and DVD) to instruct its citizens on how to cross the border and how to avoid notice as an illegal immigrant once the border has been crossed. This guide also tells immigrants where to find health care, how to get their kids into U.S. schools and how to send money home. Sara Zapata Mijares of the Los Angeles Yacatecan Club and officials in Yucatan say illegal immigration is a reality and the guide is a necessity to save lives. Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform says, "This is really the way they keep their corrupt system afloat, by sending their excess workers to the United States and getting billions of dollars in remittances every year ... so for them this is a worthwhile investment".

• The Mexican government distributes a comic book which instructs illegal immigrants on how to sneak across the border. That comic book recommends to illegal immigrants, once they've safely crossed the border, "Don't call attention to yourself. ... Avoid loud parties. ... Don't become involved in fights." The Mexican government defends the guide as an attempt to save lives. "It's kind of like illegal immigration for dummies," said the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, Mark Krikorian. "Promoting safe illegal immigration is not the same as arguing against it."

In 2005, the remittances from Mexican nationals worldwide was $18.1 billion. In 2003, former President of Mexico, Vicente Fox stated that remittances of Mexican nationals in the United States, both legal and illegal, totaled $12 billion, and were the largest source of foreign income for Mexico. .

Corruption

Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, a survey of international businessmen that ranks countries from least to most corrupt, ranks Mexico at 72nd place out of 179 countries. This is even lower than such notoriously corrupt countries as drug-ridden Colombia. According to Global Integrity's 2006 Mexico Country Report, corruption costs the Mexican economy as much as $60 billion a year. A survey by the Center for the Study of Private Sector Economics (Centro de Estudios Económicos del Sector Privado), a Mexican research firm, estimates that 79 percent of companies in Mexico believe “illegal transactions” are a serious obstacle to business development, . The 1994 economic crisis in Mexico associated with rampant government corruption resulted in a greatly decreased U.S. dollar value of Mexican wages relative to U.S. production workers.

Other Countries

China

People have been known to immigrate to the United States in order to be able to have children. Such was the case in 1993 of a Chinese couple who were resisting sterilization orders

Canada

The Portland Chronicle reports that between 65,000 and 75,000 undocumented Canadians are believed to live in the United States. They make up around 0.006% of the total illegal population.

Demand / Pull Factors

Family Reunification

The U.S.'s failure to enforce immigration policy assisted a "network effect" - furthering immigration as Mexicans moved to join relatives already in the U.S., often through Chain migration.

Availability of Jobs

The continuing practice of hiring unauthorized workers has been referred to as “the magnet for illegal immigration.”

Failure of US Government

Illegal hiring has not been prosecuted aggressively in recent years: between 1999 and 2003, according to the Washington Post, “work-site enforcement operations were scaled back 95 percent by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Major Illegal employers have included:

• Wal-Mart, which in 2005 agreed to pay $11 million to settle a federal investigation that found hundreds of illegal immigrants were hired to clean its stores. Wal-Mart used sub-contractors and claimed that it was unaware that the sub-contractors were employing illegal immigrants as janitors. In August 2006 Wal-Mart instituted a policy to require any contractors working for them to have in place a system of verifying worker eligibility and auditing their work sites to assure their projects stay in compliance, handing out their own fines to contractors for not staying in compliance with this policy. Contractors wanting to bid on Wal-Mart projects are now required to have a system in place to accomplish this outlined in their bid.

• Swift & Co.: in December 2006, in the largest such crackdown in American history, U.S. federal immigration authorities raided Swift & Co. meat-processing plants in six U.S. states, arresting about 1,300 illegal immigrant employees. Because Swift uses a government Basic Pilot program to confirm whether Social Security numbers are valid, no charges were filed against Swift. Company officials have questioned the program's ability to detect when two people are using the same number.

• Tyson Foods, has also been accused of actively importing illegal labor for its chicken packing plants; However, the jury acquitted the company after evidence was presented that Tyson went beyond mandated government requirements in demanding documentation for its employees. Tyson also used its enrollment in the Basic Pilot and EVP Programs (voluntary employment eligibility screening programs) as part of its defense.

For decades, immigration authorities have alerted ("no-match-letters") employers of mismatches between reported employees' Social Security cards and the actual names of the card holders. On September 1, a federal judge halted this practice of alerting employers of card mismatches.

Tamar Jacoby, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, argues that "[illegal immigrants] are going to get here as long as they have economic incentives to come." Jacoby further asserts that politicians and others use construction of a massive fence as a proxy to avoid addressing real issues.

Policy Issues

The Rockridge Institute asks, "What role have international trade agreements had in creating or exacerbating people's urge to flee their homelands? If capital is going to freely cross borders, should people and labor be able to do so as well, going where globalization takes the jobs?... Such a framing of the problem would lead to a solution involving the Secretary of State, conversations with Mexico and other Central American countries, and a close examination of the promises of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to raise standards of living around the globe.

Proponents of this wider strategy are generally critical of the current administration's approach to the issue:

• "Bush's 'comprehensive solution' entirely concerns the immigrants, citizenship laws, and the border patrol. And, from the narrow problem identified by framing it as an 'immigration problem,' Bush's solution is comprehensive. He has at least addressed everything that counts as a problem in the immigration frame.... But the real problem with the current situation runs broader and deeper."

Impacts

Economic

Main article: Economic impact of illegal immigrants in the United States

Two differing views exist related to the impact of illegal immigration on the U.S. economy.

Opposing Arguments

Strain on Local Resources

The impact of Illegal immigrants on some state and local governments can be a net loss, depending on the level of services provided by the state and local government, according to a December 2007 report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. This same report highlighted the difficulties in summarizing the aggregate data since little if anything is known about the amount of state and local taxes that are currently paid versus the amount of services received by illegal immigrants. Also, federal government aid to state and local government does offset to some degree the amount of services provided, however, the level of federal support to state and local governments was not incorporated into many of the summaries on services provided for this particular CBO report.

Editorialist Robert Samuelson points out that poor immigrants strains public services such as local schools and health care. He points out that "from 2000 to 2006, 41 percent of the increase in people without health insurance occurred among Hispanics", although he makes clear that these facts are true of legal as well as illegal immigrants. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, 25.8% of Mexican immigrants lived in poverty — more than double the rate for natives in 1999. In another report, The Heritage Foundation notes that from 1990 to 2006, the number of poor Hispanics increased 3.2 million, from 6 million to 9.2 million.

A California study, "California’s Undocumented Latino Immigrants: A Report on Access to Health Care Services", page 38, found about 90% of illegal immigrants in California do not have medical insurance.

Almost $190 million or about 25 percent of the uncompensated costs southwest border county hospitals incurred resulted from emergency medical treatment provided to undocumented immigrants However, illegal immigrants are no more likely to visit the emergency room than native born Americans .

The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) continues to bring injured and ill undocumented immigrants to hospital emergency rooms without taking financial responsibility for their medical care.

In 2006, the Oklahoma Health Care Authority estimated that it would spend about $9.7 million on emergency Medicaid services for unauthorized immigrants and that 80 percent of those costs would be for services associated with childbirth.

Madeleine Cosman writes in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons that the burden of illegal immigrants on the health care system in the US has forced many hospitals to close due to unpaid bills and the unfunded mandate of Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA). Between 1993 and 2003, 60 hospitals in California alone were forced to close, and many others had to reduce staff or implement other procedures which reduced the level of service they could provide. The article attributes these closings mainly to illegal immigration. [6]

Black Minority

Research by George Borjas, Jeffrey Grogger, and Gordon H. Hanson found that a 10-percent immigrant-induced increase in the supply of a particular skill group reduced the black wage by 4.0 percent, lowered the employment rate of black men by 3.5 percentage points, and increased the incarceration rate of blacks by almost one percent.

Wealthy vs. Poorer

Paul Samuelson, Nobel prize-winning economist from MIT, concurs asserting that there is no unitary, singular effect, good or bad, that arises from illegal immigration, but instead a variety of effects on Americans depending on their economic class. Samuelson posits that wealthier Americans tend to benefit from the illegal influx, while poorer Americans tend to suffer.

Education

Spending for public education of undocumented children and U.S.-born children of undocumented parents in K-12 public education in Minnesota for 2003-2004 was a total of $118.14 million to $157.53 million For the same time period, total spending in New Mexico at the state and local levels for schoolchildren was about $67 million

A report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform notes that in 2004 "the total K-12 school expenditure for illegal immigrants costs the states nearly $12 billion annually." This is a significant cost to states and, according to the newsbrief, "the enormous impact of large-scale illegal immigration cannot be ignored."

The Poor

Most Americans would not see any wage increases if illegal immigrants disappeared. However, high school drop outs would expect to see an average of 25 dollar a week raise if illegal immigrants disappeared. On the other hand, they would also see an increase in the costs of some goods and services[7]. Illegal immigrants are thought to have disproportionately affected certain groups of American citizens such as black and Hispanic poor. Research by George Borjas, Robert W. Scrivner Professor of Economics and Social Policy at Harvard University, shows that the average American's wealth is increased by less than 1% by illegal immigration. The effect on wages for middle class individuals was an overall wealth increase. However, illegal immigrants had a long-term reduction of wages among American poor citizens during the 1980s and 1990s by 4.8% .

Law Enforcement Costs

In 1999, law enforcement activities involving unauthorized immigrants in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas cost a combined total of more than $108 million. This cost did not include activities related to border enforcement. In San Diego County, the expense (over $50 million) was nine percent of the total county's budget for law enforcement that year.

Supporting Arguments

Contribution to the Economy

Professor of Law Francine Lipman writes that the belief that undocumented migrants are exploiting the US economy and that they cost more in services than they contribute to the economy is "undeniably false". Lipman asserts that "undocumented immigrants actually contribute more to public coffers in taxes than they cost in social services" and "contribute to the U.S. economy through their investments and consumption of goods and services; filling of millions of essential worker positions resulting in subsidiary job creation, increased productivity and lower costs of goods and services; and unrequited contributions to Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance programs." In 1954 Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered the Immigration and Naturalization Service to conduct an arrest and deportation campaign. The INS arrested and deported approximately 80,000 illegals, hundreds of thousands more opted to "self-deport". No noticeable damage was done to any sector of the American economy.

Crucial Need for Migrant Workers

Ernesto Zedillo, former President of Mexico and current Director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, asserts that illegal immigrants are only a drain on government services when they are incapable of paying taxes; and that this incapacity is the result of restrictive federal policies that require proof of citizenship. He further argues that the US economy has "crucial" need for migrant workers, and that the current debate must acknowledge this rather than just focus on enforcement.

Unrequited Social Security Tax

In 2003, then-President of Mexico Vicente Fox stated that remittances of Mexican nationals in the United States, both legal and illegal, totaled $12 billion, and were the largest source of foreign income for Mexico. [8]. In 2005, the remittances from Mexican nationals worldwide was $18.1 billion[9]. Undocumented workers are estimated to pay in about $7 billion per year into Social Security.

Cooperation and Mutual Benefit

Paul Rubin, Professor of Economics and Law at Emory University , has written for the Washington Post, "Economists have... long argued that the economics of immigration—immigrants coming here to exchange their labor for money that they then exchange for the products of other people's labor—is positive sum. Yet our evolutionary intuition is that, because foreign workers gain from trade and immigrant workers gain from joining the U.S. economy, native-born workers must lose. This zero-sum thinking leads us to see trade and immigration as conflict ("trade wars," "immigrant invaders") when trade and immigration actually produce cooperation and mutual benefit, the exact opposite of conflict.

Free market advocates claim that we are not in a free market due to government interference (e.g., taxes, subsidies, etc.), but that if we were, restrictions on free migration would also limit the free market.

Public Opinion

Most public opinion polls on how to deal with the illegal immigrants already in the country find that the majority of the American public consistently shows support for either a pathway to citizenship or allowing them to stay on as guest workers. One of the most important factors regarding public opinion about immigration is the level of unemployment; anti-immigrant sentiment is highest where unemployment is highest and vice-versa.

Racial tension

“We're being overrun,” says Ted Hayes of Choose Black America, which has led anti-illegal immigration marches in south-central Los Angeles, California. “The compañeros have taken all the housing. If you don't speak Spanish they turn you down for jobs. Our children are jumped upon in the schools. They are trying to drive us out.” He also touts illegal immigration as the biggest threat to blacks in America since slavery. Hayesâ Crispus Attucks Brigade and the American Black Citizens Opposed to Illegal Immigration Invasion have organized protests against illegal immigration.

Crime

A study published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas has found that while property-related crime rates have not been affected by increased immigration (both legal and illegal), in border counties there is a significant positive correlation between illegal immigration and violent crime.

One large scale multi-million dollar criminal operation connected to illegal immigration is identity theft. Another criminal operation connected to illegal immigration is drug-smuggling. According to proceedings from a 1997 meeting of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims, "Through other violations of our immigration laws, Mexican drug cartels are able to extend their command and control into the United States. Drug smuggling fosters, subsidizes, and is dependent upon continued illegal immigration and alien smuggling." A third criminal operation yet also associated with illegal immigration is gang violence. Operation Community Shield has detained nearly fourteen hundred illegal immigrant gang members. "The Salvadoran gang, known to law enforcement authorities as MS-13 because many members identify themselves with tattoos of the number 13, is thought to have established a major smuggling center in Matamoros, Mexico, just south of Brownsville, Texas, from where it has arranged to bring illegal aliens from countries other than Mexico into the United States.MS13 publicly declared that it targets the Minutemen, civilians who take it upon themselves to control the border, to "teach them a lesson", possibly due to their smuggling of various Central/South Americans (mostly other gang members, drugs, and weapons across the border. A confidential California Department of Justice study reported in 1995 that 60 percent of the twenty thousand member 18th Street Gang in California is illegal.. "Mexican alien smugglers plan to pay violent gang members and smuggle them into the United States to murder Border Patrol agents, according to a confidential Department of Homeland Security memo obtained by the Daily Bulletin."

Terrorism

Mohamed Atta al-Sayed and two of his co-conspirators had expired visas when they executed the September 11, 2001 attacks. All of the attackers had U.S. government issued documents and two of them were erroneously granted visa extensions after their deaths. The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States found that the government inadequately tracked those with expired tourist or student visas.

Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies, a think-tank that promotes immigration reduction, testified in a hearing before the House of Representatives that

"out of the 48 al-Qaeda operatives who committed crimes here between 1993 and 2001, 12 of them were illegal aliens when they committed their crimes, seven of them were visa overstayers, including two of the conspirators in the first World Trade Center attack, one of the figures from the New York subway bomb plot, and four of the 9/11 terrorists. In fact, even a couple other terrorists who were not illegal when they committed their crimes had been visa overstayers earlier and had either applied for asylum or finagled a fake marriage to launder their status."

Vice Chair Lee Hamilton and Commissioner Slade Gorton of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States has stated that of the nineteen hijackers of the September 11, 2001 attacks, "Two hijackers could have been denied admission at the port on entry based on violations of immigration rules governing terms of admission. Three hijackers violated the immigration laws after entry, one by failing to enroll in school as declared, and two by overstays of their terms of admission." Six months after the attack, their flight schools received posthumous visa approval letters from the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) for two of the hijackers, which made it clear that actual approval of the visas took place before the September 11 attacks.

Health

To reduce the risk of diseases in low-incidence areas, the main countermeasure has been the screening of immigrants on arrival. Prior to being awarded a green card, legal immigrants over the age of 15 must have a chest x-ray or skin test to check for tuberculosis. Illegal immigrants are not screened in this manner.

However, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)], tuberculosis (TB) cases among foreign-born individuals remain disproportionately high, at nearly nine times the rate of U.S.-born persons. Immigration from areas of high incidence is thought to have fueled the resurgence of tuberculosis (TB), chagas, hepatitis, and leprosy in areas of low incidence. In 2003, nearly 26 percent of foreign-born TB patients in the United States were from Mexico. Another third of the foreign-born cases were among those from the Philippines, Vietnam, India and China, the CDC report said.

Environmental

Illegal immigrants trying to get to the United States via the Mexican border with southern Arizona are suspected of having caused eight major wildfires this year, this report says. The fires destroyed 68,413 acres (276.86 km²) and cost taxpayers $5.1 million to fight.

Waves of illegal immigrants are taking a heavy toll on U.S. public lands along the Mexican border, federal officials say. Mike Coffeen, a biologist with the Fish and Wildlife Service in Tucson, Arizona, is quoted as saying, while surveying the area by airplane: "the level of impact is just shocking." "Environmental degradation has become among the migration trend's most visible consequences, a few years ago, there were 45 abandoned cars on the Buenos Aires refuge near Sasabe, Arizona and enough trash that a volunteer couple filled 723 large bags with 18,000 pounds of garbage over two months in 2002."

"It has been estimated that the average desert-walking immigrant leaves behind 8 pounds of trash during a journey that lasts one to three days if no major glitches occur. Assuming half a million people cross the border illegally into Arizona annually, that translates to 2,000 tons of trash that migrants dump each year." Fred Patton, chief ranger at Organ Pipe, is quoted as saying: "We've now got 300 miles of illegal roads these people have cut through the desert, and thousands of miles of illegal trails they've created. We collect over 30 vehicles a year, and we measure the trash they leave behind, everything from cans and bottles to clothes, by the ton. And they've fouled the few water sources to the point they are too filthy now even for the animals to drink."

Each year, an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 illegal immigrants try to make the 15 to 30-mile (48 km) hike through the wilderness to reach cities in the United States. "That works out to a city the size of Baton Rouge, La., living in the park without a sewage system, without garbage collection, without a grid of dedicated roads or sidewalks. They move where they want in four-wheel-drive cars, ATVs, motorcycles, bicycles and their own feet."

Apprehension & Deportation Expenses

Border control uses the latest technological advances to help capture these immigrants, sometimes detain/prosecute, and send back over the border. According to the US Department of Homeland Security and the Border Patrol Enforcement Integrated Database, apprehensions have increased from 955,310 in 2002 to 1,159,802 in the year of 2004. "But fewer than 4 percent of apprehended migrants were actually detained and prosecuted for illegal entry, partly because it costs $90 a day to keep them in detention facilities and bed space is very limited. For the remainder of the apprehended migrants, if they are willing to sign a form attesting that they are voluntarily repatriating themselves, they are simply bused to a gate on the border, where they re-enter Mexico." "During the summer of 2004, the U.S. government pressured the Mexican government into accepting 'deep repatriation' of as many as 300 apprehended migrants per day to six cities in central and southern Mexico. Each of these 151 chartered flights cost U.S. taxpayers $50,000."

Immigration enforcement

Please see main article, United States–Mexico barrier.

File:ElPaso-Juarez-EO.JPG

El Paso (top) and Ciudad Juárez (bottom) seen from earth orbit; the Rio Grande is the thin line separating the two cities through the middle of the photograph.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection is responsible for apprehending individuals attempting to enter the United States illegally. The United States Border Patrol is its mobile uniformed law enforcement arm, responsible for deterrence, detection and apprehension of immigrants who enter the United States without authorization from the government and outside the designated ports of entry.

Activity on the United States-Mexico border is concentrated around big border cities such as San Diego and El Paso, which have extensive border fencing and enhanced border patrols. Stricter enforcement of the border in cities has failed to significantly curb illegal immigration, instead pushing the flow into more remote regions and increasing the cost to taxpayers of each arrest from $300 in 1992 to $1700 in 2002. The cost to illegal immigrants has also increased: they now routinely hire coyotes, or smugglers, to help them get across.

In December 2005, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to build a separation barrier along parts of the border not already protected by a separation barriers. A later vote in the United States Senate on May 17, 2006, included a plan to blockade 860 miles (1,380 km) of the border with vehicle barriers and triple-layer fencing along with granting an "earned path to citizenship" to the 12 million illegal aliens in the U.S. and roughly doubling legal immigration (from their 1970s levels). In 2007 Congress approved a plan calling for more fencing along the Mexican border, with funds for approximately 700 miles (1,100 km) of new fencing. However, there is no assurance that if built, this new fence will reduce the flow of illegal immigrants from Mexico.

Police and military involvement

There have been extensive efforts on the part of local law enforcement to increase police presence at the border. However, federal judges have ruled that control of illegal immigration is the exclusive domain of the federal government and have prohibited local communities and states from attempting to enforce ordinances intended to control illegal immigration.

In 1995, the United States Congress considered an exemption from the Posse Comitatus Act, which generally prohibits direct participation of Department of Defense personnel in civilian law enforcement activities, such as search, seizure, and arrests. This exemption would have authorized the United States Secretary of Defense to detail members of the Armed Forces to enforce the immigration and customs laws in border areas. U.S. Army personnel were stationed along the U.S.-Mexico border to help stem the flow of illegal aliens and drug smugglers. These military units brought their specialized equipment such as FLIR infrared devices, and helicopters. In conjunction with the U.S. Border Patrol, they would deploy along the border and, for a brief time, there would be no traffic across that border which was actively watched by "coyotes" paid to assist border crossers. The smugglers and the alien traffickers ceased operations over the one hundred mile sections of the border sealed at a time.

In 1997, Marines shot and killed 18 year old U.S. citizen Esequiel Hernandez Jr while on a mission to interdict smuggling and illegal immigration in the remote Southwest. The soldiers observed the goat herder from concealment for 20 minutes maintaining radio contact with their unit. But at one point, this young man (who the Pentagon says previously had fired shots in the vicinity of Border Patrol agents) raised his rifle and fired shots in the direction of the concealed soldiers. After firing two shots, this young man was, in turn, shot and killed. In reference to the incident, military lawyer Craig T. Trebilock argues that "the fact that armed military troops were placed in a position with the mere possibility that they would have to use force to subdue civilian criminal activity reflects a significant policy shift by the executive branch away from the posse comitatus doctrine." The killing of Hernandez led to a congressional review and an end to a nine-year old policy of the military aiding the Border Patrol.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks the United States again considered placing soldiers along the U.S.-Mexico border as a security measure. In May 2006, President George W. Bush announced plans to use the National Guard to strengthen enforcement of the US-Mexico Border from illegal immigrants, emphasizing that Guard units "will not be involved in direct law enforcement activities." Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said in an interview with a Mexico City radio station, "If we see the National Guard starting to directly participate in detaining people ... we would immediately start filing lawsuits through our consulates," American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called on the President not to deploy military troops to deter aliens, and stated that a "deployment of National Guard troops violates the spirit of the Posse Comitatus Act". According to the State of the Union Address in January 2007, more than 6000 National Guard members have been sent to the US-Mexico border to supplement the Border Patrol, costing in excess of $750 million. The Cato Institute is among the critics who argue that increasing border security is counterproductive. The institute argues that increasing border security reduces the proportion of illegal immigrants caught at the border and increases the length of time illegal immigrants remain in the country. Cato claims that the only significant change on illegal immigrants has been in length of stay due to the cost of returning. The probability of returning within twelve months has gone from around 45% in 1980 to between 25 and 30% from 1998-2002. Also, the average trip duration has gone from 1.7 years to 3.5 years. According to the Cato Institute, the only important change in security has been one of cost. The Border Patrol's budget has gone from $151 million in 1986 to $1.6 billion in 2002. This has caused the cost of apprehending an illegal immigrant to go from around $100 per arrest before 1986 to around $1700 in 2002.

Public Reaction

Locally mandated immigration policy

State and local governments have responded by passing local laws and ordinances to control illegal immigration within their own jurisdictions. These laws are primarily aimed at (a) limiting an illegal immigrants' ability to obtain jobs, housing, or a legally acceptable form of identification. (b) To empower local law enforcement agencies to inquire into an immigrant's legal status. However, the 1986 law pre-empted most existing state immigration policies and forbids states from enacting tougher criminal or civil penalties for illegal immigration than those set by Congress. Further, the US Supreme Court in De Canas v. Bica, 424 U.S. 351 (1976) stated “[The] power to regulate immigration is unquestionably exclusively a federal power.” The supremacy clause (Article VI, Clause 2) of the United States Constitution makes laws passed by Congress “the supreme law of the land”, thus placing the constitutionality of locally passed laws and ordinances in question.

Several lawsuits have been filed challenging the constitutionality of locally imposed measures, on the grounds that it is not the place of local government to assume the responsibilities of the Federal government. Two of the most closely watched cases involve ordinances passed in Hazleton, Pennsylvania and Farmers Branch, Texas that include fining landlords that rent to illegal immigrants, and allowing local authorities to screen illegal immigrants in police custody. On July 26, 2007, a federal court struck down the Hazleton ordinance as unconstitutional. The ruling is regarded by many to set a legal precedent that can be used to strike down local immigration ordinances nationwide. Hazleton's mayor has promised to appeal the decision. The Farmer's Branch ordinance remains under temporary restraining order enjoining enforcement of the ordinance pending a final ruling.

Several US cities have taken the opposite approach and have instructed their own law enforcement personnel and other city employees not to notify or cooperate with the federal government when they become aware of illegal immigrants living within their jurisdiction. These cities are often referred to as “sanctuary cities” and include Washington D.C., New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and other mostly large urban cities. Most of these cities claim that the benefit illegal immigrants bring to their city outweigh the costs. Opponents say the measures violate federal law as the cities are in effect creating their own immigration policy, an area of law which only Congress has authority to alter.

Many cities, including Washington, D.C., New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Detroit, Jersey City, Minneapolis, Miami, Denver, Aurora, Colorado, Baltimore, Seattle, Portland, Oregon and Portland, Maine, have become "sanctuary cities", having adopted ordinances banning police from asking people about their immigration status.

Public reaction to current immigration issues

The May 2006 New York Times/CBS News Poll, shows that 53 percent of American responded that “illegal immigrants mostly take the jobs Americans don’t want”. In another 2006 poll, the NBC/Wall Street Journal held in April, 61 percent of the U.S. population concluded that they would like illegal immigrants to stay within the United States if they “could pass a security check and pay taxes”. Showing that the actual majority of the population would rather have Mexican immigrants in the country as long as they abide by the taxation laws, and provide service that American citizens do not provide. However, in a third opinion poll by Zogby International in 2005, voters were also asked, "Do you support or oppose the Bush administration's proposal to give millions of illegal aliens guest worker status and the opportunity to become citizens?" Only 35% gave their support, and 56 percent said no. The same poll noted a huge majority, 81%, believes local and state police should help federal authorities enforce laws against illegal immigration.

The Minuteman Project has been lobbying Congress for stronger enforcement of the border laws and is reported to be organizing private property owners along the U.S.-Mexican border for the purpose of building a fence to discourage illegal border crossings.Test3

The No More Deaths organization offers food, water, and medical aid to illegal aliens crossing the desert regions of the American Southwest in an effort to reduce the increasing number of deaths along the border.

According to a 2006 report by the Anti-Defamation League, white supremacists and other extremists are engaging in a growing number of assaults against legal and illegal immigrants and those perceived to be immigrants.

Legal issues

Deportation complications

Complications in deportation efforts ensue when parents are illegal immigrants but their children are birthright citizens. Such was the case of Mexican Elvira Arellano, who sought sanctuary at a Chicago-area church in an effort to impede immigration authorities from separating her and her eight year old, U.S.-born son whom some have called an Anchor baby. This is also the case in the instance of Sadia Umanzor, an illegal immigrant from Honduras and the central figure of a November 17, 2007, New York Times story. Umanzor was a fugitive from a 2006 deportation order. She was recently arrested, in anticipation of deportation. However, a judge postponed that deportation proceeding. The judge placed her in house arrest, citing her six-month old U.S.-born baby as the factor.

Recount of Illegal Immigration Judicial Findings

No.	Year	Event	Effect/Impact
1	1898	United States v. Wong Kim Ark	A child born in the United States, of parents of Chinese descent, who, at the time of his birth, are subjects of the Emperor of China, but have a permanent domicile and residence in the United States, and are there carrying on business, and are not employed in any diplomatic or official capacity under the Emperor of China, becomes at the time of his birth a citizen of the United States, by virtue of the first clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution,
2	1953	Kwong Hai Chew v. Colding Template:344 U.S. 590, 596	The Supreme Court found, "The Bill of Rights is a futile authority for the alien seeking admission for the first time to these shores. But once an alien lawfully enters and resides in this country he becomes invested with the rights guaranteed by the Constitution to all people within our borders".
3	1982	Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202 (1982)	The Supreme Court of the United States struck down a state statute denying funding for education to children who were illegal immigrants. It established that a state must show that substantial state interests are furthered before that state can deny a discrete group of children the free public education that it offers to other children within its borders. The court also stated that illegal immigrants are "within the jurisdiction" of the states in which they reside and, therefore, receive 14th amendment protections and stated, "We have never suggested that the class of persons who might avail themselves of the equal protection guarantee is less than coextensive with that entitled to due process. To the contrary, we have recognized [457 U.S. 202, 212] that both provisions were fashioned to protect an identical class of persons, and to reach every exercise of state authority."
4	1990	United States v. Verdugo-Urquidez	the court reiterated the finding of Kwong Hai Chew v. Colding, 344 U.S. 590, 596 (1953), "The Bill of Rights is a futile authority for the alien seeking admission for the first time to these shores. But once an alien lawfully enters and resides in this country he becomes invested with the rights guaranteed by the Constitution to all people within our borders". Also, clarified Plyer v. Doe, stating, ""those cases in which aliens have been determined to enjoy certain constitutional rights establish only that aliens receive such protections when they have come within the territory of, and have developed substantial connections with, this country. See, e. g., Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202, 212 ."
5	1999	Rodriguez v. United States, 169 F.3d 1342, (11th Cir. 1999)	held that statutes which discriminate within the class of aliens comport with the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment (and the equal protection principles it incorporates) so long as they satisfy rational basis scrutiny.

Matrícula Consular identification cards

The Matrícula Consular ("Consular Registration") is an identification card issued by the Government of Mexico through its consulate offices. The purpose of the card is to demonstrate that the bearer is a Mexican national living outside of Mexico. Similar consular identification cards are issued to citizens of Argentina, Colombia, El Salvador, and Honduras. This document is accepted at financial institutions in many states and, in conjunction with an IRS Taxpayer Identification Number, allows illegal immigrants to open checking and saving accounts.

See also

• Immigration to the United States
• Operation Wetback
• Immigration reduction
• Nativism (politics)
• Illegal alien
• Sanctuary city
• Minuteman Project
• 2006 United States immigration reform protests

Further reading

• Barkan, Elliott R. "Return of the Nativists? California Public Opinion and Immigration in the 1980s and 1990s." Social Science History 2003 27(2): 229-283. in Project Muse
• Brimelow, Peter; Alien Nation (1996)
• Cull, Nicholas J. and Carrasco, Davíd, ed. Alambrista and the US-Mexico Border: Film, Music, and Stories of Undocumented Immigrants U. of New Mexico Press, 2004. 225 pp.
• Flores, William V. "New Citizens, New Rights: Undocumented Immigrants and Latino Cultural Citizenship" Latin American Perspectives 2003 30(2): 87-100
• Hanson, Victor David Mexifornia: A State of Becoming (2003)
• Lisa Magaña, Straddling the Border: Immigration Policy and the INS (2003
• Mohl, Raymond A. "Latinization in the Heart of Dixie: Hispanics in Late-twentieth-century Alabama" Alabama Review 2002 55(4): 243-274. ISSN 0002-4341
• Ngai, Mae M. Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America (2004),
• Ngai, Mae M. "The Strange Career of the Illegal Alien: Immigration Restriction and Deportation Policy in the United States, 1921-1965" Law and History Review 2003 21(1): 69-107. ISSN 0738-2480 Fulltext in History Cooperative
• Thomas J. Espenshade; "Unauthorized Immigration to the United States" Annual Review of Sociology. Volume: 21. 1995. pp 195+.
• Kennedy, John F. A Nation of Immigrants. New York: Harper & Row, 1964.

External links

• Federation of American Scientists: Border Security: Fences Along the U.S. International Border (a report of the Congressional Research Service issued on January 13, 2005)
• University of California, San Diego: Center for Comparative Immigration Studies
• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: Immigration and Nationality Act, Title 8 Code of Federal Regulations
• Pew Hispanic Center: The State of American Public Opinion on Immigration in Spring 2006: A Review of Major Surveys
• A College Student's Research Paper in the Publics Opinion on Illegal Immigration in to the United States in Spring 2006