Criminalization Of Immigration Essay

The long-term effects of immigration policy, such as DACA, can only be speculated. Recent activity from the Trump administration has suggested the dismantling of DACA while proposing stricter immigration policy such as the merit-based immigration policy known as Reforming American Immigrants for Strong Employment (RAISE) Act (Gelatt, 2017). Therefore, continuously studying immigration policy is essential to understanding the potential impact on the United States. This capstone will examine social-disorganization theory and how it perpetuates the stigma associated with immigrants and criminal behavior, specifically as it relates to DACA and the future of immigration policy.

The Travel Ban marks a major turning point in the policies on immigration in the United States. Due to increased terrorist attacks and illegal immigrant numbers rising, it is believed that temporarily banning immigrants from particular countries is key to ensuring safety within the United States. Though many have expressed their concern towards the ban because of its similarity to previous discriminatory and unconstitutional acts. The ban has even been referred to as the “Muslim Ban”.

A Federal Judge temporarily barred Trump’s Executive Order concerning the travel ban. This has caused extreme controversy among American’s as topics such as immigration, refugees, vetting, and religion all take tolls on the perspectives of the media as well as the average American. Nevertheless, the travel ban has been critiqued as well as praised by different groups and the Federal’s Judge’s emergency order has sparked debate on the constitutionality of the order.

Immigration is one of the central themes of the founding of the United States and as such it is often the epicenter of controversy among both citizens and policymakers. Throughout the twentieth century, American citizens and policymakers have brought to the forefront the importance of immigration and the role immigrants play within society. This can be a cause of friction between immigrants and multi-generational citizens because immigrants are often viewed with a negative connotation. They are often blamed for stealing jobs from hardworking citizens, draining the healthcare system and adding to the homeless population. They are associated with crime, poverty and in general they are perceived as undesirable members of society (Spenkuch, 2014). The relationship between crime and immigrants is of particular importance because there is a common perception that immigrants cause crime and their neighborhoods are riddled with criminal activity. Also important to note is that the characteristics of immigrants tend to coincide with members of the native-born population that are disproportionally incarceration. In general, they are poorly educated, earn low wages and are young, males. This led to the perception that incoming immigrants continuously add to the lower class, criminal population. In order to clearly understand the relationship between the two concepts they must be examined both from a theoretical and empirical viewpoint

The journey of many immigrants is characterized by trauma prior to, during, and following migration. They may be escaping hunger, war, poverty, or torture in their native country. The decision to migrate to host country is not an easy one for most immigrants. People leave behind family members, and often risk their lives to cross borders in order to live a life of freedom and opportunity. Immigrants must endure intolerance and suspicion, while navigating the complexities of assimilating to a language and a culture foreign to their own. If the person enters the country without proper documents, they live in constant fear of being detained and deported. Undocumented immigrants may have to accept jobs far below their skill level, and endure blatant discrimination. If Mario is an immigrant, his volatile behavior may be a result of acculturative stress or immigration trauma

Sixty five years after it first became law, the act still remains a cornerstone of the United States foreign affairs. In the text, it states that “whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may… suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants.” This part of the law is what has caused much controversy today. President Trump argues his right to ban muslims using this section of the law. The law is now outdated and the people that living in the country agree the law is in desperate need of a new edition. The 2017 election is not the first time Americans have called out the law. In 1965, President Johnson signed an amendment to the law and was quoted saying “for over four decades, the immigration policy of the United States has been twisted and has been distorted by the harsh injustice of the national origins quota system.” Although he argued as much as he could, Johnson never saw a change in the amendment and although he signed a law eliminating the discriminatory imbalances, the door for people in need was still not wide open. The amendment still never specifically ruled the president unable to deny someone access as Mae Ngai, an immigration historian at Columbia University said, “it doesn’t matter what the reason is,” meaning that though the

Met with mass protest and public outrage, the original travel ban was an executive order issued on January 27,2017. The ban rolled out an elaborate scheme said to protect the American people and “Make America Great Again”. The ban set a cap of 50,000 refugees to be accepted into the USA during 2017. It also included a temporary ban on Syrian refugees as well as people arriving from seven countries with predominantly Muslim populations. After being found in violation Immigration & Nationality Act of 1965 due to its discriminatory nature, the order is now back and has been redrafted.

The subject of illegal immigration coupled with the concern of the growing number of illegal immigrants in the United States has been a long standing national debate. A single finite definition of the term “illegal immigrant” has proven difficult to specify. For the purposes of this paper, I will use the term “undocumented immigrant” defined as an individual who has “entered the United States illegally or violated the terms of their residency status” (Chan, Scott, Krishel, Bramwell, and Clark, 2006).

Immigration has been a hot button topic in the United States since as early as the 1800s. With the arrival of Europeans from nations such as Ireland or Poland, so also came many prejudices against these people. In the United States today a similar story unfolds down along the Southern border. People of Latino decent continue to cross the border into the US seeking a better life and the American dream. However not all of the individuals are joining the ranks of US citizens by legal means causing many social strains on the public image of immigration. Because of those that enter illegally, policymakers demonize all immigrants and enforce strict immigration and deportation laws. They cite immigration as the reason for crime rates and the dissolution of American values. This harsh rhetoric casts a negative image on all immigrants and is a bigger problem than immigration is.

President Donald Trump’s immigration policy, now an Executive order, has been the topic of controversy since the order was signed on January 27th, 2017 (BBC.com). An improved order was again signed on March 6, 2017 (BBC.com). However, a case in the Supreme Court of USA will determine the future of the ban, which runs between October 2nd and December 21st (BBC.com). The first executive order banned people from seven countries: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, and Libya from entering the United States for a period of 90 days. It also put a halt on refugee resettlement for 120 days and banned Syrian refugees permanently (Park). However, as per the revised executive order issued on March 6th, Iraq was removed from the list and the

Yee, V., Davis, K., & Patel, J. (2017, March 06). Here’s the Reality About Illegal Immigrants in the United States. Retrieved November 10, 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/03/06/us/politics/undocumented-illegal-immigrants.html

The third article is about Trumps travel ban and how the Justice Department says that the president has some powers to act unilaterally when it comes to immigration and national security. The Justice Department urges the courts to allow Trump’s immigration order to go back into effect. While the opposing side says that the Trump overstepped by banning people from specific countries and of the Muslim religion. They also stated that Trump has violated core principles of the Constitution and ignored laws passed by Congress. Trumps goal for the travel ban was to improve the background checks to make sure terrorists are not admitted accidently. The order was blocked by the U.S. District Judge James Robart, the government appealed asking to reinstate

Immigrants arrive here in America to establish a better quality of life. They come here to get a job, raise their families, and get an education. To express their need for stability is important. In “Border on Our Backs,” Rodriguez carries some sociological information of how Latinos feel judged. The author states, “Just who precisely needs to be pardoned? Those who are exploited and who’ve been here forever…or those who’ve been complicit in our dehumanization” (562)? He feels criminalization in the way the Latin immigrants are treated. Rodriguez talks about some racial profiling in

The United States of America has always been a refuge where poor and oppressed people from the far corners of the world can come to begin a new life. Much of the nation’s allure to prospective immigrants is in its promise of equal opportunity for all, regardless of race, creed, or color. But the pressures of rising unemployment rates, congested cities, a crippled healthcare system, and national debt skyrocketing out of control have caused America to defend her borders against the influx of immigrants that threaten her already ailing economy. Still, despite all the heightened security measures incorporated in recent decades, a steady stream of immigrants continue to enter the country illegally. The Washington Times reports that there are

The travel ban is an executive order which was put into place by President Donald Trump’s administration on January 27th, 2017. The order was put into place for our national security to “protect the nation from foreign terrorist entry into the United States.” This measure banned travel into the U.S. for 90 days from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. This obviously sparked an outcry from social media, which caused a divide among Americans. With a show of hands, how many of you think that the travel ban is actually a ban on Muslim refugees and that it is racist. Recent polls show that 57% of Americans favor the temporary ban while 33% are opposed to it, and 10% are still undecided. Racism, fascism, and Islamophobia; these words have all taunted supporters of President Trump and the travel ban. The one thing people don’t realize is that the travel ban isn’t banning Muslims from America. Who in the room can name the top 5 countries with the most Muslims. They are Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria. Not one of these countries are listed in the ban. This ban is only for only ninety days, and is aimed at countries who have sent a large contingency of terrorists to the U.S. The countries selected have active terrorist training camps, and Trump is not the individual who selected the countries on the list. These countries are unstable, with no reliable vetting procedures. We shouldn’t admit people until they can meet our security screening standards.