Introduction
Historically the government of the United States is known to put measures that limit the number of immigrants who enter the country. This law forces some people, most with relatives in the country, to enter the country illegally. Some laws against illegal migrants are unconstitutional and subject the culprits to great physical and emotional trauma. Migration laws and policies have changed to reflect the social changes in society over time. For a long time, immigration laws and policies have been the work of the federal government. However, the US Supreme court recently passed legislation allowing states to enforce immigration policies by allowing them room to create their policies. One of the states that have gone overboard in this line to the point of setting unconstitutional laws is the state of Oklahoma. Since these laws affect people’s lives and livelihoods, the Oklahoma and United States immigration policy should focus on ensuring that positive social and economic change is a major priority when setting laws to govern and enforce illegal immigration.
Explanation of the Scenario
For a long time, laws governing immigration and immigration reform have caused much debate among scholars, legislators, and other key stakeholders. Despite being known and agreed that immigration laws are federal, recent state governments have passed comprehensive immigration reform bills, some of which are unconstitutional. In addition, some restrictions put to curb migration at the state and federal levels have caused much psychological trauma because they bring separation of family members. Both Oklahoma State and federal Supreme courts have done a good job removing these harmful regulations (Newton, 2018). However, Oklahoma has not been quick to remove the unconstitutional laws from its books even though they are no longer applicable. The immigration policies regarding illegal aliens in Oklahoma and the United States have been a key influencer in social change and are a key pollical, economic, social, and legal factor affecting the country.
Recently many states in the US have adopted a more aggressive policy to control the migration of foreigners into their states. The National Council of State Legislatures (NCSL) showed that the number of state legislation passed to curb or tackle migration-related issues was 319 in 2010 alone (Vargas, 2017). This number continued to go up in the following years, hitting a peak of 391 in 2015 but reduced in 2016 (Vargas, 2017). The main aim of setting these strict migration policies has been ensuring security, reducing drug use, and reducing unemployment within states. Immigrants with a history of crime have been for a long time now been refused access to the United States. The war on terror has made the government stricter, which has resulted in the separation of families and limited traveling opportunities.
When administrators at the state and federal levels are setting reforms to govern immigration, they should always ensure that they integrate them to serve all people well without huge negative consequences. The fact that states have been given the power to set legislations that enforce the immigration policy does not mean that they have to go overboard and make unconstitutional legislation like some passed in Oklahoma. For instance, there was a law passed in which the students who had passed GED but had not graduated high school were denied the chance to join college. This law was found unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court because the law already existed in federal laws. Another law found to be unconstitutional by the Oklahoma Supreme court was that stated any illegal foreigner who was found driving under the influence would be denied bail. The US supreme court found the rule of an employer not being allowed to fire a local employee while the company has an illegal immigrant employee to be unconstitutional. The requirement for any contractor to be certified to work in the United States was scrapped. Nonetheless, the US migration policies are far from reaching the goal of creating family unity among the immigrants, whether legal or illegal.
Historical Context
Immediately after gaining independence from Great Britain, the US began to formulate immigration rules. In 1790 the Naturalization Act prohibited all the people of color from gaining the right to naturalize and gave all whites of good character the freedom to be citizens if they had stayed in the country for more than two years (Joyner, 2020). It was not until 1870 that this freedom and right was passed to people descended from Africa living in the country. Towards the end of the 19th century, people with a criminal record, diseases, beggars, and other undesirable people started to be prohibited access.
Migration into the united stated from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador peaked in the last 50 years. The number of immigrants in the US from these countries in the 1970s was only 1 million, but today it stands at an astonishing 14 million (Loyd & Mountz, 2019). Most migrants come to the US because of the favorable economic conditions and links provided by families, friends, and relatives already in the US. Migrations into the US started before this and happened in three major phases. The free market policies before the great depression were the first of these phases in which people came from mostly Europe to practice business. The second of these migrations was referred to as the Bracero program, where people flooded the United States during the second world war and continued to migrate into the country illegally until 1965, when the immigration legislation was drafted. The third is the Mexican and Central American migration which has persisted until today.
Immigration laws in the United States have a long history that dates back to the 1800s. The first formal legislation dealing with immigration was the 1924 Act, limiting the number of people who came into the country using quotas. The law stated that only 2% of the total population of people in each country, as calculated in 1890, would be allowed into the country. This law did not include people who lived in the Western Hemisphere and Asian countries. This Act was modified into the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 and stated that only 1 percent of migrants would be allowed into the US, but residents of Western Hemisphere countries were still allowed in.
The famous 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act was passed by Congress in August 1965 and approved by the Senate in September. In the following October, the then president Lyndon B. Johnson (D) signed the Act into law. The most notable inclusion in the Act was the elimination of quotas and that there would be equality among all people who wished to migrate into the US. Nonetheless, this Act significantly reduced the number of permanent immigrants who entered the United States (Seo, 2017). In the Act, foreigners with immediate family relatives, including unmarried children, brothers, sisters, and spouses, were prioritized more. Under the Immigration and Naturalization act of 1965, individuals with particular skills such as talents, education, and work experience were given preferences when looking for visas.
Several immigration laws have been passed since then, one being the 1970 legislation that allowed immigrants from the war in Vietnam to flee into the country for food and relief. The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act allowed immigrants from Mexico and Central America who had shown favorable traits to be granted citizenship. Other immigration acts passed in 1996, 2002, and 2006 primarily focused on the war on terrorism (Thomas, 2018). In 2012 president Barack Obama signed another bill called the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which allowed young people who had immigrated into the country to be given work permits. This legislation is yet to be accepted well and has been challenged by over 20 states. Currently, the maximum number of immigrants allowed into the country yearly is 657,000, with no restriction placed on the person’s family members.
Insight of Scenario into the Modern Social Change
Since the mid-1960s, the United States has continued to accommodate many immigrants who are allowed o cross the border because they have a relative in the country. Many, particularly from the countries neighboring the US to the south, have illegally crossed. These illegal migrators pose challenges to varying degrees, even though some are not dangerous to the country. Compared to other countries, the United States’ migration is more family based than skills-based (Gubernskaya & Dreby, 2017). Over time, however, the number of migrants allowed has been restricted to a certain number, resulting in many people waiting either within the countries’ borders or on the borders. When the federal government has eased immigration policies, many undocumented people have managed to flood into the country. Whether these immigrants should be deported or let to live with their family members who live in the country often end without conclusive solutions. On the other hand, tough policies have resulted in the separation of family members. The governments that have adopted tough stands against the undocumented people in the country, such as deportation, have subjected such families to great psychological, emotional, and economic distress.
Immigration into the US is a social factor as well as an economic one. Recent studies show that immigration positively impacts the country’s economy (Gubernskaya & Dreby, 2017). It is a social factor since most people who come into the country are always linked with a family member, relative, or friend. Since the US government does not have a set system of taking care of immigrants and providing them with a source of income or employment, the immigrants always rely on their kin to provide the link. Because of the importance of family unity in these scenarios, it would be important for the governments to implement measures that will reduce the wait time and prevent unnecessary deportation of people, which sometimes makes children lose their parents.
When people are being admitted into the united stated based on family grounds, it is generally assumed that these people form part of a nuclear or extended family compromising of parents and children. However, most families that migrate into the countries are sometimes young families, those that are just starting. Thus, families that are not typical may be denied the rights that they are due. Regardless of the type of family, the number of visas available to accommodate new immigrants is always limited, with more countries discriminating more than others in this aspect. The laws cause social dynamics by forcing the separation of families. For instance, the United States Department of Security states that when parents are migrating, they are only allowed to carry children younger than 13 (Segal, 2018). The law means that siblings who do not migrate into the country must endure separation from their family members for a period that could extend up to twenty years.
The United States policy of constantly accepting immigrants has brought economic, social, and cultural change to the country. The law allows only migrants who are exceptionally talented into the country, and thus they have been able to bring great economic benefit along (Gubernskaya & Dreby, 2017). The immigration rule does not judge the place where a person comes from, and thus, people with new cultural and religious have come and brought a change to the country. The legal world is changing where the immigrants with the knowledge that they may be relatives to a United States citizen are treated with dignity. Other countries have adopted local federal and state laws as their immigration rules. The brutality the illegal migrants face, and the trauma of separation after discovery is an issue yet to be addressed.
Conclusion
Immigrants have been seen to bring positive economic impact to the country and thus should be treated with dignity and respect since most immigrants have relatives in the country. The government traumatizes its citizens by deporting illegal migrants and failing to clear them for citizenship. The laws should thus be set to ensure Americans’ economic prosperity, safety, and happiness while safeguarding the rights of those who are relative to illegal aliens. United States immigration policy should focus on ensuring positive social and economic change is a major priority when setting laws to govern and enforce illegal aliens in Oklahoma and the rest of the country. Laws that govern illegal aliens should not disobey basic human rights or go against the constitution.
References
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Joyner, D. B. (2020). If doubt arises: How the department of state’s interpretation of the immigration and naturalization Act invites discrimination against the children of gay and lesbian Americans. Campbell L. Rev., 42, 119.
Loyd, J., & Mountz, A. (2019). The Caribbean roots of US migration policy: How deterrence, detention, and deportation of Caribbean migrants and refugees in the ‘70s and ‘80s laid the groundwork for the militarization of the US-Mexico border today. NACLA Report on the Americas, 51(1), 78-84. Web.
Newton, L. (2018). Immigration politics by proxy: State agency in an era of national reluctance. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 44(12), 2086-2105. Web.
Seo, D. (2017). The Forgotten Immigrants: Effects of the 1950s Quota system on Korean immigration to the United States, 1950-1965. Web.
Segal, U. A. (2018). Education and migrants: A view from the United States of America. Web.
Thomas, C. (2018). Afghanistan: Background and US Policy. Congressional research service, 10.
Vargas, E. D., Sanchez, G. R., & Juárez, M. D. (2017). The impact of punitive immigrant laws on the health of latina/o populations. Politics & Policy, 45(3), 312–337. Web.