Although immigration issues were platforms for political campaigns in the past, most notable the reelection campaign of Pete Wilson, subsequent campaigns have failed when focusing on this issue. That changed however in the election campaign for Arnold Schwarzenegger. Since 9/11 our fears of terrorism have moved to the top of the list of concerns. Is it any wonder then that Schwarzenegger used issues dealing with illegal immigration as a foundation to his "Total Recall" campaign of 2003? One of the first pieces of information to come out of the Schwarzenegger camp was that he had voted yes on proposition 187. Many Democrats figured this would be something that would hurt Schwarzenegger, when in fact it did just the opposite. What the voters were able to see was that Gov. Schwarzenegger, as an immigrant himself, is able to see the difference between legal immigration and illegal entry, a very important distinction.
We are all familiar with the inscription at the base of the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free". Could it be that these are exactly the ones that we are trying to keep out? Foreigners are less welcome precisely because they are perceived as tired and poor and huddled when the public identifies poverty with laziness and sees the barrio as the cause of many problems. A recent cover story for Time, entitled ``Down on the Downtrodden,'' quotes an influential member of the new Congress as saying: ``The inscription at the base of the Statue of Liberty was written before welfare . . . . People [back then] came to this country to work.''(Buchanan). This statement may be telling us that either people are misunderstanding who is welcome or we are becoming less tolerant of who comes in. I think this statement tells the truth, however. It is obvious that the system is being taking advantage of. Or maybe it's just the sunshine and the beach that draws the immigration "crowds" to California.
Open Immigration Policies: Good or Bad? There is an ongoing debate in today's world about whether or not immigration is helpful or detrimental to a country. ... To see this you need not look farther than the agricultural industry in California, Florida, and Texas. ... Immigration policy be? I believe that the policy on immigration should be mirrored to the way that it was in the beginning of the 20th Century. ...
Illegal Aliens A Problem of Immigration Immigration is not the problem. ... The Federalists saw the influx of foreigners as evidence of a relationship between foreigners and disloyalty - as a result the Federalists argued for greater restrictions against foreigners and the critics of federalist policies. ... Immigration, encouraged with lenient immigration laws, flourished. ... The most recent published estimate by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) that appears in the 1998 Statistical Yearbook put the number of illegal aliens at five million (as of Oct. 1996), 2.7 million o...
Illegal Immigration and the Economy Illegal immigration has become one of the key political issues of the 1990s, especially in Border States such as California. ... In an estimate sure to resonate throughout California, researchers set this tax burden at a substantial $1,178 annually for each California household headed by a U.S. native--by far the highest such price tag in the nation. ... California, moreover, had gone far beyond what was required by federal law in granting benefits to illegal aliens, including in-state tuition in the Cal-State University system and free prenatal care The si...
Effective since 2015, California Assembly Bill 60, titled the Safe and Responsible Driver Act, gives an opportunity to apply for a driver's license to California residents, regardless of their immigration status. Anti-immigration groups have argued that AB 60 sends the wrong message, and that its leniency encourages more immigrants to enter California illegally. However, there is no evidence that illegal immigration in California has correlation with driver's license policy. In turn, undocumented immigration in California surged in the years after undocumented residents were banned f...
One of the most comprehensive factors that enhanced entry into the United States is the policies that were set after that Second World War. The 1965 Immigration Act of the United States occurs as one of the most comprehensive policies enacted after the World War II, which made it easy for immigrants to enter into the United States. Speaking of the 1965 Immigration Act, this connotes to a policy document that allowed populations displaced by the Second World War to enter into the United States and attain American citizenship (Minetor 64). ... The unification came with tax policies, which was ...
We will have to think and decide with great care what our policy should be toward immigration. At this point in history, American immigration policies are in a mess. ... Chinese are almost always admitted, for example, if they claim that China's birth-control policies have limited the number of children they can have. ... In California alone, they cost more than 18 billion dollars a year. ... California has 49.8 percent of the countries illegal aliens, therefore, California pays multiple costs for its leaky borders. ...
This, along with the growth of isolationist policies, this along with the growth of isolationist foreign policy, led to further immigration legislation. ... Therefore, we must carefully think and decide with great care what our policy should be toward immigration. At this point in history, American immigration policies are chaotic and ineffective in a mess. ... (Conover) Throughout history there has been debate over immigration and immigration policy. ... Half of California's 700,000 farm workers are estimated to be illegal aliens. ...
The newspapers were filled with headlines claiming the costs of illegal immigration far outpaced the tax revenues they generated. ... According to press releases from the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (formerly the Immigration and Naturalization Service) there are an estimated 2,209,000 undocumented immigrants living in California. ... The Federation for American Immigration Reform estimates that immigration will account for 96 percent of the increase in the school-age population over the next 50 years. This group also estimates that California taxpayers will pay a net annu...