immigration policy

Two immigration policy moves and interventions that would be worth highlighting in this text are the Border Protection, Anti-terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 and the Trump Administration immigration policies. According to the Center for Immigration Studies (2017), the Border Protection, Anti-terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 “was limited to enforcement and was focused on both border and the interior.” In essence, the law was passed in response to the increasing threat of terror attacks – aided, in part, by weaknesses in internal enforcement (amongst other factors). In the current administration, we are experiencing a move towards what has been referred to as an immigration system founded on merit. As a matter of fact, according to Blanco and Kopan (2017), President Donald J. Trump favors an immigration policy that would permit only those with a certain skill set or capabilities likely to be of benefit the economy to gain entry into the United States of America. According to the authors, “generally speaking, merit-based systems favor highly-skilled immigrants with some level of higher education” (Blanco and Kopan, 2017). The current administration is also in favor of an immigration system that would help rein in the terror threat by restricting entry of persons from certain jurisdictions. Towards this end, the president has so far signed several executive orders, i.e. Executive Order 13769 and Executive Order 13769. One common theme between immigration policies of the past and those adopted in more recent times is the move towards the alignment of the country’s approach to regulating the transit of people within its borders to emerging realities.
While the Border Protection, Anti-terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 effectively helped limit illegal immigrants from Mexico (with fencing along the some U.S.-Mexico border points) and resulted in the arrest and deportation of hundreds of illegal immigrants, Trump’s immigration policies have largely affected immigrants from several nations deemed to be high risk on the terror front (specifically Muslim and Arab countries).
Most have not been in favor of the current immigration policies being fronted by the Trump administration. One such person is Williams. In her book, titled Liberty Versus Tyranny of Socialism: Controversial Essays, she points out that her “sentiments on immigration are inscribed at the foot of the Statute of Liberty… ‘Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wrenched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these’…” (Williams, 2013, p. 249). A move towards the admission of a select few, those with something to offer, locks out those escaping inhospitable conditions back home in search of greener pastures in the U.S. Others who have been critical of trump immigration policies include, but they are not limited to, actor Jim Carrey, the Migrant Rights and Justice program, and the American Civil Liberties Union's Immigrants' Rights.











References
Blanco, O. & Kopan, T. (2017). Trump's Merit-Based Immigration System: Who Would Get In? Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/03/news/economy/merit-based-immigration-trump/index.html
Center for Immigration Studies (2017). Historical Overview of Immigration Policy. Retrieved from https://cis.org/Historical-Overview-Immigration-Policy
Williams, W.E. (2013). Liberty versus the Tyranny of Socialism: Controversial Essays. California: Hoover Press