Immigration Reform Essay

Why Immigration Reform is Needed

Immigration reform has almost always been a thorny issue in America. Though it is popularly believed that America was born of a nation of immigrants, the reality is that the original 13 colonies largely consisted of individuals from one specific part of Europe—England—and from the time of the War for Independence onward it was a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASPs) ethic that served as the fulcrum for American power and politics. It was this fulcrum that established the concept of “Manifest Destiny”—i.e., the idea that it was America’s (that is, the WASP’s) destiny in life to expand and take over the land as far as it could see (O’Sullivan). “Manifest Destiny” was used to justify taking land from Mexico and it was implicitly used to justify American expansionism overseas. In other words, WASPs wanted to expand their control and exert their influence and power. The arrival of immigrants from other parts of the world was never really something that sat comfortable with them. That is why they passed immigration and naturalization laws restricting the rights of Asians, Jews, and Catholics in the 19th century. The Exclusion Act restrict the rights of Chinese immigrants (Hafetz), the Irish were viewed as a political (and social) threat (McCaffrey), and Mexicans were almost always treated poorly—particularly via the Bracero Program (Calavita). Thus, in this context, talk today of immigration reform has to be understood as a long process of push and pull in which ethnic groups have fought back against the WASP establishment and attempted to ensure that immigrants be allowed to continue to come to the U.S. This paper will discuss the issue of immigration reform and show what the problem is and how to solve it.

The current issue with immigration today is that President Trump wants to build a border wall to stop illegal immigration. Many radical Democrats want more of an open borders policy where immigrants can come into the country, receive services (like free health care) and even vote, without ever having to go through a naturalization process or become citizens. And while the plaque on the Statue of Liberty reads: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”—the reality is that America has always placed a limit on the number of immigrants who are permitted in at any one time. When it was in U.S. corporate interests (i.e., WASP interests), immigrants were welcomed: this was the case when the Chinese were used to build the railroads in the 19th century (Hafetz) and when Mexican laborers were needed in the West during WWII and so were encouraged to emigrate under the Bracero…

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…is completed and to also measure the cases of drug dealing and violence committed by illegal immigrants over that same time period. The costs spent on immigrants, too, should be measured. Taking these measurements over a ten year time period will show whether the border wall in conjunction with the social services pairing project was successful or not. If the measurements show no real or substantial change in terms of crime, drug dealing and cost, it would mean the wall and the social worker program was not a successful solution. If however it is seen that more immigrants are coming into the country legally than illegally, that crime and drug dealing has been reduced, and that immigrants are being better supported to stand on their own without relying heavily on government subsidies and taxpayers, it could be said that the intervention is a success.

In conclusion, the best way to address the problem of immigration reform may be to give the Trump Administration what it wants but also to make sure that immigrants who do come in are given social worker support to ensure a fair chance at making it. This would be the most humane and effective way to address the issue, considering both the WASP ethic still in play and the need to be fair to all. It is a solution that could be achieved and measured to see if it is…