How Homosexuality Is Viewed Among Major Religious Groups

U.S. Immigration Policy After 911

The terrorist attacks on the United States that took place on September 11, 2001 have had a number of far-reaching effects, among which changes in immigration policy must be considered to be of significance. According to Malone (2003), one of the most dramatic changes is that the U.S. immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), which has served as the primary agency overseeing a variety of immigration issues, was virtually abolished as an autonomous federal agency and, as of February 2003, reconstituted under the new Department of Homeland Security as the Office of Citizenship and Immigration Service. Among the major policy changes is that local and state law enforcement agencies, along with their federal counterparts, are being required (and authorized) to use strict criteria in seeking out and detaining illegal immigrants (Pluvoise-Fenton, 2003).

Prior to 9/11, the normative framework overseeing U.S. immigration policy was the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) of 1952. Under the terms of the INA, legal immigration to the United States became relatively widely available and a substantial number of "new" Americans began to populate the country (Immigration and Nationality Act, 2003). Today, the Office of Citizenship, created by House Resolution 5005, the Homeland Security Act of 2002, has eliminated the INS and created a new mechanism for granting visas and citizenship and training/educating applicants for American citizenship (Welcome to the... 2003).

Under the Homeland Security Act, according to Malone (2002), three departments within this new cabinet-level bureaucracy have been created. One handles border protection, another enforces immigration laws in the nation's interior, and a third handles naturalization, residency permits, asylum claims. While a part of the agency's mission is to cut waiting times for permits and citizenship applications, another mission objective is to reduce the number of immigrants entering the United States illegally and/or the number of potential terrorist criminals who have managed to bypass INS screening and vetting processes (Prewitt, 2003).

Prewitt (2003) notes that the debate on immigration reform has virtually vanished from the national agenda. The U.S.A. PATRIOT Act, which broadly expands the powers of federal law enforcement agencies investigating cases involving foreign intelligence and international terrorism, is likely to have a significant impact upon many ethnic minorities living in the United States as students, guest workers, and potential citizens. Additionally, a crackdown on illegal immigrants is anticipated as Homeland Security begins to close the borders to such immigration (Pluviose-Fenton, 2003).

Currently, members of the House Committee on the Judiciary are scrutinizing H.R. 2671, the Clear Law Enforcement for Criminal Alien Removal Act of 2003 (The CLEAR Act). This bill, authored by Republican Charles Norwood of Georgia, would mandate that state and local law enforcement more aggressively enforce federal immigration laws. By granting the power to local and state police officers to enforce federal immigration laws, the CLEAR Act would expand the police powers of government and provide much needed on-the-scene assistance to beleaguered federal law enforcement agencies (Pluviose-Fenton, 2003).