Running Head: How National Security Influences Immigration Policy 1

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Running Head: How National Security Influences Immigration Policy 1"

Camilla Flowers
5 years ago
Views:

1 Running Head: How National Security Influences Immigration Policy 1 How National Security Influences Immigration Policy Jonathan Snow Virginia Commonwealth University

2 Running Head: How National Security Influences Immigration Policy 2 Today in the United States immigration is a huge topic of discussion due to immigration laws being so complex. The United States takes in about 700,000 immigrants annually and has a total of 11,000,000 immigrants. It is an obvious factor that immigrants seek better opportunities in the United States, however some may have a mal intent to the nation's national security. The sources presented below will address how National Security should dictate immigration policy. The first peer-review article was, Immigration and National Security written by Jan C. and Ting (2006). Jan and Ting (2006) describe how the greatest threat to the United States are illegal immigrants, who cross the border. They claim the tide of illegal immigration must be stemmed in order to secure the U.S. from terrorism. As long as there is more of a benefit of illegally immigrating it will only continue. Similar to The Use and Misuse of National Security Rationale in Crafting U.S. Refugee and Immigration Policies. Donald Kerwin (2005), also believes immigration must be controlled. This article reviews post-september 11 U.S. policy developments based on their impact on migrant rights and their efficacy as counterterror measures. It argues for a more nuanced and rigorous sense of national security in crafting refugee and immigration policy Kerwin (2005). After the 9/11 attacks terrorism and immigration became a huge American debate and George Bush s first step was creating the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). DHS came into being on 1 Mar in what is recognized as the largest government restructuring in the United States since the Second World

3 Running Head: How National Security Influences Immigration Policy 3 War. DHS encompasses roughly 100 former federal departments, including the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the U.S. Customs Service, and the U.S. Coast Guard Kerwin (2005). There was also a big focus on temporary visitors after 9/11 and how they must abide by the terms of their visas. The Bush administration created a huge check in/check out tracking system called the U.S. Visitor and Immigration Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) for all non-immigrants. When fully implemented, this system will run fingerprints and photographs of all visitors through criminal and security databases, and will record their entry and departure from the country Kerwin (2005). This article also ties into the peer-reviewed article, Immigration, Citizenship, and National Security: The Silent Invasion, peer-reviewed by Tancredo, Thomas G (2007). Again in this article immigration policy is discussed after the 9/11 attacks. The U.S. Government started by re-examining thousands of visas and questioned foreigners from certain countries known to be involved with terrorist groups. A high priority was given to improving the screening of visa applicants and the security of our visa and passport documents Tancredo, Thomas G (2007). New technology is being developed to be able to track visa holders in the U.S. and alert authorities when a visa expires, much like the US-VISIT tracking system discussed in The Use and Misuse of National Security Rationale in Crafting U.S. Refugee and Immigration Policies. America is doing everything they can in order to protect us from countries known with

4 Running Head: How National Security Influences Immigration Policy 4 terrorist affiliations but, they have not done much to secure our northern and southern borders against illegal entry. Tancredo and Thomas G (2007) believe that the influx of illegal immigrants coming into the U.S. from our southern border should be more of a focus now. They believe new techniques should be implemented instead of the dated system we have. Local residents along the border with Mexico uniformly claim that two or three trespassers get past the Border Patrol for each one apprehended. If this is true, the number of illegal aliens entering the United States in 2003 was over 2 million Tancredo, Thomas G (2007). Although the United States is often called a nation of immigrants, Tancredo and Thomas G (2007) believe that this should not be a center of interest when talking about our national debate on immigration. It may be hard to not believe this though. In the article Latino Youth: Immigration, Education, and the Future by Noguera, P. (2006), readers are shown that latino immigrant children who arrive in the U.S. are here to stay. Many of them have U.S. citizenship and unlike their parents they feel like America is their home. Whether or not they are looked upon as citizens we must embrace them because this is really the only land they know. Noguera, P. (2006), states that Immigrant children often find themselves divided by two separate worlds and this causes growing pressures. These pressures adopted from not feeling accepted can cause these children to go down bad paths, resulting in drug use, incarceration, and much more. Resulting in more of local threat rather than a national one. When this happens more drastic policy changes are adopted. Such as what is shown in Donald Trump's new executive order text.

5 Running Head: How National Security Influences Immigration Policy 5 Full Executive Order Text: Trump s Action Limiting Refugees Into the U.S, by Stephen Crowley (2017). With Donald Trump being the President of the United States it s no surprise that he has started making drastic changes to our immigration system. A large part of his campaign focused on the immigration system he would impose so it s only necessary to looks at his most recently signed executive order titled, Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States. Trump biggest focus was on the visa-issuance process and how it plays a huge role in detecting people with terrorist ties. He made note of how visa-issuance was greatly changed after the 9/11 attacks like we were shown in The Use and Misuse of National Security Rationale in Crafting U.S. Refugee and Immigration Policies, and Immigration, Citizenship, and National Security: The Silent Invasion, but claims ultimately is flawed because there have still been attacks in America by foreign nationals. The United States must be vigilant during the visa-issuance process to ensure that those approved for admission do not intend to harm Americans and that they have no ties to terrorism (Crowley 2017). In each section of this document Trump state's newly imposed policies that have to take action in a given time frame. All of these sources suggest different ways in which national security affects immigration policy. Most of immigration policy was adopted after the 9/11 attacks and that was shown in the articles, Democracy and Security, Immigration, citizenship, and national security: the silent invasion, and The Use and Misuse of National Security Rationale in Crafting U.S. Refugee and Immigration Policies. Overall immigration policy making is still a complex evolving case with many factors affecting it today and there must be continuing efforts to advance our system by creating new and improved laws.

6 Running Head: How National Security Influences Immigration Policy 6 References Ting, Jan C. (2006) Immigration and National Security Orbis, 2006, Vol.50(1), pp Noguera, Pedro (2006) Latino Youth: Immigration, Education, and the Future Latino Studies, Autumn 2006, Vol.4(3), pp Tancredo, Tom (2007) Democracy and Security, 26 March 2007, Vol.3(1), p Immigration, citizenship, and national security: the silent invasion Kerwin, Donald (2005) The Use and Misuse of National Security Rationale in Crafting U.S. Refugee and Immigration Policies International Journal of Refugee Law, 2005, Vol.17(4), pp Stephen Crowley (2017) Full Executive Order Text: Trump's Action Limiting Refugees Into the U.S. (2017, January 27). Retrieved March 22, 2017, from =0

PRESIDENT TRUMP S EXECUTIVE ORDERS ON IMMIGRATION

PRESIDENT TRUMP S EXECUTIVE ORDERS ON IMMIGRATION Disclaimer: This advisory has been created by The Legal Aid Society, Immigration Law Unit. This advisory is not legal advice, and does not substitute for