The Time Has Changed

The Time Has Changed

During the 1920’s the United States received a large amounts of immigrants which was known as the Progressive Era. Due to the large volume of immigrants, the nation has created two ports to satisfy the amount of individuals. These ports were known as Ellis Island, located in New York City which hosted mostly European immigrants. The second port was called Angel Island which was located in Los Angeles, which hosted primarily all the Asian immigrants that entered the United States.  During those times it was much easier for an individual to receive their citizenship. However, during these most recent years immigration has begun to be a new era.  A large vast of immigrants are beginning to arrive from Latin nations. With this in mind however, many Americans are beginning to feel that these immigrants are here to destroy the nation. Unlike, there grand-parents or great grand-parents have done couple decades before. With this reasoning there have been a lot of new immigration policies. Most of these policies have been in the cause of undocumented immigrants. Ultimately, many individuals “undocumented immigrants” who have been for years mistakenly labelled as “illegal aliens”. Unfortunately, in today’s immigration policies are much different than those placed in the 1920’s. Many immigrants are brought into detainment centers around the nation rather than the sweet ports of Ellis Island and Angel Island.

            To begin we must first realize why there are a vast majority of undocumented immigrants and what are they doing in the U.S. The large amounts of undocumented immigrants arriving into the United States were primarily used for manual labor. Especially, in the agriculture and meat industries. The most well know employer that uses undocumented employees was Smithfield meat processing. They employed Latino employees because, one they are cheaper than a citizen as well as, they are very experienced in the meat processing and handling.

            According, to Immigration and Social Policy in the United States “The new immigration law gave priority to family reunification and to admitting those with skills needed for the American economy.” However, after there was no more use for the undocumented employees and the Great Recession hitting the United States. The media began labelling the issue of the economy on the undocumented immigrants. Soon after, they began to control the issue by deporting any individual who has not yet received there citizenship.  

            No one has thought about how this can impact the family aspect. Now with the government being able to deport any individual they see as a “criminals”. There have been countless stories of how the government would deport a mother or father while the other had to stay here and support the children. Or worse, they would deport the parents of the children and then they would be raised in foster care.

            Another reason the government has begun to deport individuals is because they are beginning to find that these immigrants affecting the political spectrum. And they are considering them as a “nuisance” to the American people.  Which ultimately means that the minority groups are beginning to increase. According to the 2005 census the following has been recorded. Latino/Hispanics have surpassed the black population at 14.5% while blacks are at a 12.1%. 40% of Latinos, 67% of Asian Americans were foreign born compared to only 4 % of those identified as non-Hispanic white. Mexico alone has greater than 30% of the population located in the US. Which is more than the population of Canadians in Canada.

            With this information in mind we can determine that Latin Americans have a great impact on the United States. According, to the New York Times article stated “Hispanics, in particular, who were not long ago courted by the Republican Party as a swing voting bloc”.  Unfortunately, however with recent immigration laws. The federal government has begun to decipher the responsibility to the state and local levels rather than addressing and creating new laws.

A great example of a state law that has impacted most American and undocumented immigrants alike is the Arizona SB1070. The implications this law has in that it allows any authority to enter and invade any individual’s property and harass them on the street to provide information that they are an American citizen. Ultimately, this means that every individual must carry some sort of identification card. If the individual does not have the card present at the time than they would be sent into detainment until some how they can determine their citizenship. Jan Brewer, governor of Arizona and creator of the law stated “to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and our communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/us/politics/24immig.html#h[])

Historically, one might be able to determine that the Nazi’s placed similar requirements in place to determine if an individual is a Jew or not. Similarly, if the individual was not able to present any documentation indicating that they are not a Jew. They would be sent into detainment until someone was able to determine their religion.  

Immigration today is completely different from that of the Progressive Era. Most immigrants today are coming from Latin countries rather than Europe and Asia. Which ultimately makes the politicians a little scared. So, to fix there issue they believe that it is wise to give the responsibility of controlling immigration to the state and local levels. Which has been proven to be a huge mistake.