Immigration Policy

Immigration Policy
Immigration has always been an important part of America’s heritage. Its towns and cities are full of different cultures and peoples from around the world, pointing to the many different types of people who came to America seeking opportunity and a new home over the centuries. The early Spanish and French missionaries came in the 16th century seeking converts to Christianity. The Puritans and English followed. The Germans and Italians and Irish and Polish all came to America in the wake of Industrialization. Over time, America was host to so many different populations and groups of people that it was referred to as the melting pot in 1909 (Higgins). However, America’s approach to immigration has changed over the years—especially in the wake of 9/11. Indeed, the world seems very different from out the shadow of the fallen Twin Towers. That horrific tragedy altered the American consciousness, led to new wars in the Middle East, heightened security in the homeland, and a new approach to the concept of immigration. The flood of refugees into Europe and the rise of nationalism in countries like Poland and England, Russia and China, shows that the idea of a national identity is resurging in response to the “open borders” policy of activists like George Soros (Hasson). In America, a surge of nationalism brought Donald Trump to the White House, as he pledged to be tough on immigration, build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, and make America great again by making it safer. This paper will show why immigration policy is getting tougher and why policy makers should be smart about how they go about addressing this issue.
The recent acquittal of the homeless illegal immigrant Jose Ines Garcia Zarate in the murder of Kate Steinle in San Francisco (Dobuzinskis) highlighted the already tense environment in which America today finds itself: on the one hand is the left-leaning half of America, which wants to give immigrants the opportunity to pursue the American Dream like so many before them. On the other hand is the right-leaning half of America, which views immigration as out of control, dangerous, and clearly a problem. The latter will point to Zarate’s acquittal (as President Trump did in a series of tweets following the decision). The former point to America’s past and to its history. The two perspectives are irreconcilable.
While it is easy to say that American needs tighter borders and better safety procedures in place when it comes to letting foreigners into the country (the 9/11 hijackers, for instance, lived and worked in the U.S. while they plotted their attack), the solution is not as simple as just “getting tough on immigration.” A lot of immigrants come to America genuinely seeking to make a better life for themselves: they have no intention of causing trouble or breaking the law. In fact, many of them go out of their way to engage in civic duties and show Americans that they want to be good citizens. As Jody Vallejo shows, Mexican immigrants for instance seek a pathway to citizenship are typically more “civically active” (22) than their white American counterparts just to demonstrate their care and concern for the community that they have entered into.
Admittedly, the problem is not one of legal immigration. Even President Trump has expressed the sentiment that it is illegal immigration that he wants to stop (alongside the influx of immigrants from countries that are hotbeds of terrorism). Thus, talking about the struggles of everyday immigrants who come to the country legally is a strawman argument that distracts from the actual issues of safety and legality. The toughness of the immigration policy that the Trump Administration seeks to implement is based on the loss of innocence felt by all Americans in the wake of 9/11. There is an urgent need felt by at least half the American voters who voted in 2016 to close America’s borders and protect the homeland. It may be nice and in keeping with the American tradition to keep letting more and more immigrants into the country—but the risks of doing so are now a lot higher than they were one hundred years ago. The geopolitical landscape has changed. America’s enemies are engaged in a guerrilla style war in which they can lurk beneath the radar, striking at random and in devastating ways. The only way to safeguard against such attacks is to utilize a better screen, only letting in immigrants who pass certain tests.
The immigration policy of the Trump Administration is not a plan to end all immigration: it is just a plan to be more selective. In fact, Administrations have always been this way and what the Trump Administration is proposing is really nothing new. Opponents of tough immigration policies argue that these policies will lead to discrimination and hate crimes, which in turn will perpetuate more acts of violence and terror. The solution, they say, is to be open and to love. Indeed, “love trumps hate” is one of their slogans. However, they are actually more out of touch with history than the current Administration. During WWI and WWII, German immigrants were viewed suspiciously by the American public since the U.S. was at war with Germany. Asian Americans were viewed similarly. A concentration camp was even established for Asian Americans on the West Coast during WWII because of a perceived threat of sabotage, as the U.S. was also at war with Japan. Pearl Harbor did not incline many Americans to view Asian Americans with much love. Safety was a top priority and while the actions of the U.S. government might not seem ethical in retrospect, the fact was that at the time, no one knew who to trust. In times of war, the first priority is to stabilize one’s front—to stop the bleeding, so to speak. This is the other side of America’s immigration history that some proponents fail to talk about. In other words, it has not always been a story of welcoming immigrants with open arms.
The fact of the matter is that America needs to be tough right now—as it faces threats around the world and at home. For that reason, it needs to be tough on immigration right now. That does not mean it cannot relax its regulations at a later date, once the critical threat of terrorism has been reduced. German immigrants were not viewed with hostility after WWII ended. Once the threat was over, in fact, German expatriates were welcomed—by the government no less—as the German scientists and artists were seen as being highly skilled. The same could easily be said about immigrants who may be forced to sit on the sidelines for now, while America deals with the threat of terrorism. Once that threat has ended, there is no doubt that those same immigrants who were required to sit on the sidelines will be allowed into the country: no doubt they too have skills and a passion to pursue the American Dream.
In conclusion, it may already be the case that that time is be approaching sooner rather than later, as the threat of ISIS in the Middle East is reduced through a coalition of forces, led by Russia, Syria, Iran and the U.S. All this talk about immigration may indeed be just for nothing. The sooner the threats are dealt with, the sooner America can get back to embracing the more positive and optimistic qualities and characteristics of its traditions. America’s immigration policy needs to be tough right now because the threats it faces are real and harsh. But once America takes care of those threats, it will surely restore its embrace of all the immigrants lawfully and virtuously seeking the American Dream.

Works Cited
Dobuzinskis, Alex. “Illegal Immigrant Acquitted of Murder in San Francisco, Trump
Slams Verdict.” Reuters, 30 Nov. 2017. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-california-crime-immigrant/illegal-immigrant-acquitted-of-murder-in-san-francisco-trump-slams-verdict-idUSKBN1DV3CR
Hasson, Peter. “Soros Transfers $8 Billion to His Open Society Foundations.” Daily
Caller, 17 Oct. 2017. http://dailycaller.com/2017/10/17/soros-transfers-18-billion-to-his-open-society-foundations/
Higgins, Julia. “The Rise and Fall of the American ‘Melting Pot’.” Wilson Quarterly, 5
Dec. 2015. https://wilsonquarterly.com/stories/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-american-melting-pot/
Vallejo, Jody. Barrios to Burbs. CA: Stanford University Press, 2012.