[LWVNM Action] Fwd: [immigration] History of Immigration

Sat Sep 17 09:08:23 MDT 2022

Please read the post below and the updated asylum explainer article  by
Rescue.org linkedin the References list at the end of Heather Cox
 Richardson’s current issue of Letters from an American.
Immigration reform is on the ballot.

Thanks, Meredith Machen, LWVNM Immigration Chair and LWVUS Immigration
Discussion Group co- moderator

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Beryl Flom <berylflom at gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Sep 17, 2022 at 7:28 AM
Subject: [immigration] History of Immigration
To: LWVUS Immigration Discussion Group <
lwvus-immigration-discussion-group at googlegroups.com>

This summary came from Heather Cox Richardson from Letters from an American:

Mexican immigration is nothing new; our western agribusinesses were built
on migrant labor of Mexicans, Japanese, and poor whites, among others, in
the late 19th century. From the time the current border was set in 1848
until the 1930s, people moved back and forth across it without
restrictions. But in 1965, Congress passed the Hart-Celler Act, putting a
cap on Latin American immigration for the first time. The cap was low: just
20,000, although 50,000 workers were coming annually.

After 1965, workers continued to come as they always had, and to be
employed, as always. But now their presence was illegal. In 1986, Congress
tried to fix the problem by offering amnesty to 2.3 million Mexicans who
were living in the U.S. and by cracking down on employers who hired
undocumented workers. But rather than ending the problem of undocumented
workers, the new law exacerbated it by beginning the process of
militarizing the border. Until then, migrants into the United States had
been offset by an equal number leaving at the end of the season. Once the
border became heavily guarded, Mexican migrants refused to take the chance
of leaving.

Then, in the 1990s, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) flooded
Mexico with U.S. corn and drove Mexican farmers to find work in the
American Southeast. This immigration boom had passed by 2007, when the
number of undocumented Mexicans living in the United States began to
decline as more Mexicans left the U.S. than came.

In 2013 a large majority of Americans, both Republicans and Democrats,
backed a bill to fix the disconnect caused by the 1965 law. In 2013, with a
bipartisan vote of 68–32, the Senate passed a bill giving a 13-year pathway
to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants, who would have to
meet security requirements. It required employers to verify that they were
hiring legal workers. It created a visa system for unskilled workers, and
it got rid of preference for family migration in favor of skill-based
migration. And it strengthened border security. It would have passed the
House, but House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) refused to bring it up for a
vote, aware that the issue of immigration would rally Republican voters.

But most of the immigrants coming over the southern border now are not
Mexican migrants.

Beginning around 2014, people began to flee “warlike levels of violence” in
El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, coming to the U.S. for asylum. This
is legal, although most come illegally, taking their chances with smugglers
who collect fees to protect migrants on the Mexican side of the border and
to get them into the U.S.

The Obama administration tried to deter migrants by expanding the detention
of families, and it made significant investments in Central America in an
attempt to stabilize the region by expanding economic development and
promoting security. The Trump administration emphasized deterrence. It cut
off support to Central American countries, worked with authoritarians to
try to stop regional gangs, drastically limited the number of refugees the
U.S. would admit, and—infamously—deliberately separated children from their
parents to deter would-be asylum seekers.

The number of migrants to the U.S. dropped throughout Trump’s years in
office. The Trump administration gutted immigration staff and facilities
and then cut off immigration during the pandemic under Title 42, a public
health order.

The Biden administration coincided with the easing of the pandemic and
catastrophic storms in Central America, leading migration to jump, but the
administration continued to turn migrants back under Title 42 and resumed
working with Central American countries to stem the violence that is
sparking people to flee. (In nine months, the Trump administration expelled
more than 400,000 people under Title 42; in Biden’s first 18 months, his
administration expelled 1.7 million people.)

The Biden administration sought to end Title 42 last May, but a lawsuit by
Republican states led a federal judge in Louisiana to keep the policy in
place. People arriving at the U.S. border have the right to apply for
asylum even under Title 42.

There are a lot of moving pieces in the immigration debate: migrants need
safety, the U.S. needs workers, our immigrant-processing systems are
understaffed, and our laws are outdated. They need real solutions, not
political stunts.

—

Notes:

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/01/texas-national-guard-border-operation-lone-star-abbott/
<https://substack.com/redirect/9dc9da6e-db43-4aed-8765-1d22791c8b40?r=2juss>

https://www.boston.gov/departments/immigrant-advancement/immigrant-demographics#:~:text=Boston%20is%20a%20welcoming%20City,has%20more%20than%20690%2C000%20residents
<https://substack.com/redirect/2440ce78-a783-4d30-a071-fd41bc58f398?r=2juss>
.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-09-15/marthas-vineyard-migrants-ron-desantis
<https://substack.com/redirect/eec04bce-a909-47df-b29c-35ecb1c0c100?r=2juss>

https://www.urban.org/stateofdcimmigrants
<https://substack.com/redirect/62919295-6eec-4756-bcd7-9f853fffa138?r=2juss>

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/16/desantis-geographic-conflict-2024-election/
<https://substack.com/redirect/3395272f-762f-47ac-b012-8c6c88d720c5?r=2juss>

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/TX/POP010210
<https://substack.com/redirect/61373b84-3e5e-4d96-8de2-5664db750a89?r=2juss>

https://www.politifact.com/article/2022/sep/06/surprising-number-americans-believe-these-false-cl/
<https://substack.com/redirect/7d7dfc43-80eb-4578-98d5-1b20bcf0c608?r=2juss>

https://www.axios.com/2022/09/15/desantis-marthas-vineyard-migrants-biden
<https://substack.com/redirect/6042927c-1c71-4b42-b19a-0efaffa56b25?r=2juss>

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/18/immigration-border-republicans/
<https://substack.com/redirect/9b35cff9-a2fb-4b28-82f3-cc1c0d84ae54?r=2juss>

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/12/us-unauthorized-immigrant-population-2017/
<https://substack.com/redirect/4cc07bcc-bd62-493c-8348-4f5c60ae1da1?r=2juss>

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/doesnt-add-up/sharetoken/lkQnyIQXsVFR
<https://substack.com/redirect/235ea10a-0bd9-4078-bb8a-4ed6701a68ce?r=2juss>

https://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/immigration-bill-2013-senate-passes-093530
<https://substack.com/redirect/e1a11156-052c-4262-89f2-df1a5e6883e3?r=2juss>

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2014/08/04/the-real-reason-why-the-house-wont-pass-comprehensive-immigration-reform/
<https://substack.com/redirect/c56e6ab6-2f40-402a-944c-e048ea8aaf71?r=2juss>

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/title-42-immigration-border-biden-covid-19-cdc/
<https://substack.com/redirect/33a6b88c-996a-40f3-ae4d-f23bb66f576e?r=2juss>

https://www.rescue.org/article/it-legal-cross-us-border-seek-asylum
<https://substack.com/redirect/303a8247-27ed-43e7-ae5c-73fff3de6f8f?r=2juss>

https://www.wcvb.com/article/venezuelan-migrants-flown-to-marthas-vineyard-being-offered-shelter-support-on-cape-cod/41244254#
<https://substack.com/redirect/0d504d51-d62b-4ee4-a82c-e057b446c718?r=2juss>

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Meredith Ross Machen
505-577-6337
Vote as if your life depended on it!
Meredith.machen at gmail.com
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