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Legal immigrant's lives and future be regulated by USCIS

Introduction

Legal immigrants have been welcomed to the United States for centuries. At the same time a high rate of illegal immigration from Mexico has been tolerated for many years. After the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 however, the number and countries of origin for illegal immigrants coming to America from Mexico has raised concern for our national security and the safety of our citizens. The question being debated in Congress is how to gain better control of U.S. borders and stop the flow of illegal immigrants. There are basically two sides of the debate: those favoring closed borders and absolute control of all immigration as more important than the economy; and those favoring controlled access, but more open borders to allow foreign workers into the U.S. economy to provide for a perceived labor shortage.

Legal immigrant's lives and future be regulated by USCIS

For nearly two decades now, capital and the market for goods, services, and workers of many types have weaved an ever more intricate web of global economic and social interdependence. No aspect of this interdependence seems to be more visible to the publics of advanced industrial societies than the movement of people. And no part of that movement is proving pricklier to manage effectively, or more difficult for publics to come to terms with, than irregular (also known as unauthorized, undocumented, or illegal) migration.

Most international mobility — regardless of legal status, whether permanent, temporary, or circular, and whether for work or to join families — also preoccupies the less developed countries, albeit from different perspectives. For them, movement is an essential lifeline to both their citizens and their economies because of remittances, now probably approaching $150 billion per year.

While developed countries are concerned with their set of problems — threats to security, perceived lack of control, effects on labor markets — less developed countries have their own concerns about unauthorized migration. These include the seeming gross disregard for the human rights, labor rights, and other basic rights of their nationals who enter the illegal immigration stream, and the trafficking industry that has grown around such movements.

At the root of these sets of contradictory interests and reactions is the fact that this phenomenon's reach is nearly universal. When the UN Population Division releases its latest estimates of the stock of those currently living outside their country of birth for a minimum of one year (its definition of an immigrant) in late 2005 or two early 2006, that number will likely be between 190 and 200 million. This estimate would put the immigrant stock at about 3.3 percent of the world's population. Of that 190 to 200 million, about 30 percent are likely to be in the Americas, with Canada and the US probably accounting for about 42 million immigrants. Continental Europe's share will probably be a little more than 20 percent, though the uncertainty level is higher because European states do not always include unauthorized in their statistics. ...