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...

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…