Immigration Reform

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 up my lamp beside the golden door.“ -Emma Lazarus

1820s 1 st mass immigration: 300,000 Why: –Post Napoleonic Wars –Landless –Employment/land in America, freedoms : 15 million immigrants

1840s “Old Immigrants”: white Anglo-Saxon, West/Northern Europe Irish: Catholic, work for low wage jobs in cities Germans Chinese immigrants begin arriving to West Coast (CA gold rush, transcontinental railroad) American Reaction: nativism (ex Know-Nothing Party), protest American heritage/national identity

1880s Immigration Flood “New Immigrants”: South/Eastern Europe (Germany, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Russia) Less skilled/intelligent…more of a social problem More xenophobia…Immigration Restriction League 1907 alone: 1 million immigrants, 50% S/E Europe

Immigration Laws 1875: exclude criminals Chinese Exclusion Act 1882: 10 year ban on Chinese immigrants 1907: exclude feeble minded, tuberculosis patients, immoral women –Dillingham Commision: learn English, acquire citizenship, abandon native customs 1917 literacy test

Immigration Laws 1921 Immigration Act (Emergency Quota Act): 3% of 1910 census 1924 Immigration Act: 2% from 1890 census –Discriminates against S/E Europeans 1945 War Brides Act

Immigration Laws 1952 McCarran Walter Immigration Act: confirms quotas, limits total immigration 1954 Operation Wetback: return of 1000s of illegal Mexican immigrants (over 1 mil) –Increased US border forces

Immigration Laws 1965 Immigration & Nationality Act (Hart- Celler Act): ends national origins quotas, preferences to families/skilled workers –LBJ, civil rights legislation –Opens up more immigration from Asia % Asian/Latin American, %

Immigration Laws 1980 Immigration Reform & Control Act (IRCA): penalties for employers hiring illegal immigrants, amnesty for illegal immigrants –1980 4,289,000 Mexican –1990 7,841,000 Mexican – ,000,000 Mexican 2001 Patriot Act:

Court Cases 1875 Chy Lung v Freemon: immigration control is an implicit federal power 1982 Plyler v Doe: TX tries to deny free public education to kids of undocumented alien Violated Equal Protection Clause of 14 th amendment

More Recently… 1994 California Prop 187: illiegal aliens ineligible for social services except in emergency situations, more documentation control –Preempted by federal law…dropped

Illegal Immigration: Cons : 1.6 million 1970s: 8.3 million 2005: around 12 million 50% in CA/TX/FL/NY economic/social stress –Use citizen tax dollars as they benefit from social services –Take American jobs –Dilute America

Illegal Immigration: Pros Economic benefit: cheap labor, without which goods (especially food) in America would be much more expensive –Ex 30-50% farm workers in CA= illegal immigrants (cheaper…less labor standards, lower wages) Add diversity of cultures, languages, religions… America was founded by immigrants

Sources english/2008/February/ ebyessedo html "immigration." American History. ABC-CLIO, Web. 2 Dec Kauffman, Jill. "Immigration Act of 1921." Issues & Controversies in American History. Facts On File News Services, 30 July Web. 2 Dec Kauffman, Jill. "Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965." Issues & Controversies in American History. Facts On File News Services, 15 Sept Web. 2 Dec Rymer, Justin. "Arizona's Tough New Immigration Law: Background." American History. ABC-CLIO, Web. 2 Dec "Highway sign cautions motorists." Image. Shutterstock. American History. ABC-CLIO, Web. 2 Dec "Dillingham Commission." American History. ABC-CLIO, Web. 2 Dec