History

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Institution of Affiliation

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Immigration laws in Texas and National Government

Immigration has been one of the touchstones of the US political debates for a long time (Bhachu). The reason behind is that the policymakers have the privilege to weigh the competing economic, humanitarian as well as the security concerns when addressing the issue of immigration. So far the Congress has been unable to reach to a concrete agreement on the immigration reforms for the past years. The Congress has effectively been moving some of the significant policy decisions into the executive as well as the judicial branches of the government and has continued to fuel debates in the halls of the states and those of the municipal governments.

Immigrants contribute to around 14% of the American population, which imply that more than forty-three million immigrants out of the total 323 million people as according to the data from the census bureau (Shertzer). The Congress has numerous pieces regarding the immigration policies and reforms over the past two decades, where some have been considered comprehensive and others piecemeal. The comprehensive changes address the issues regarding the demand for the high and low skilled labor, the legal status of the undocumented millions of immigrants to the US, interior as well as security enforcement.

The federal government is responsible for the regulation of immigration at the national level. The mandate is guaranteed under the rules that were established in the year 1952 through the passage of the immigration and nationality act. The immigration reform control act of the year 1986 was put up to control the illegal migration to which involved the denial of the welfare benefits to the undocumented immigrants and the strengthening the sanctions against the employers who get to higher them. The United States Congress has the privilege of control over all the issues related to immigration regulation, while the white house or the federal government is mandated with the enforcement of the immigration laws.

The federal government has jurisdiction over the immigration laws to which has consistently been upheld by United States Supreme Court (Pham). The Supreme Court has overruled the states attempt to single out the issue of immigrants. Also, the supremacy clause found in the United States constitution is interpreted to mean that the federal laws supersede the laws by the states, except for the certain matters to which the constitution left for the states. Despite the sovereignty of the national government over the immigration issues, the states have also passed legislation. To which tend to limit the undocumented immigrants the access to public benefits, directing the state and the local police to check over the legal residence status of the people arrested as well as other directives to which affect the immigrants. The issue of the lawmakers in the state level pressing for the immigration-related laws translates to the lack of enforcement by the federal government as well as the need to conserve the limited state resources. It’s not even over as most of the state cite and raise the issues regarding their states security.

Texas has had a long history of immigration having the majority of the immigrants coming from Mexico (Simoncelli). The immigrants account for about 17% of the state’s population and contribute the local economy heavily in the growing number of industries. The construction industry is one of the largest and fastest growing industries in the state of Texas attracts around 40% of its workers from the immigrants. The immigrants are an integral part of the state of Texas diverse and thriving communities in that they act as workers, business owners, taxpayers as well as neighbors to the state. The immigrants make an extensive contribution that tends to benefit all the members of the state.

Several laws in Texas control the immigration regulations in the state (Richardson, Wintz & Wallace). As part of the 287(g), the immigration and customs enforcement access program, Farmers Branch, the police in Carrollton as well as the Harris County are required to cooperate with the federal authorities in enforcing the federal immigration laws. All the arrested people are fingerprinted and run through a federal database to which aids in checking the criminal record and immigration status under the federal program known as secure communities. Majority of the cities across the country have vowed not to comply with the federal governments’ reward for the secure community’s enforcement program. Despite the immigration laws being exclusively handled by the national government, the states often pass the laws and create policies that tend to have an impact on the immigrants in their particular states such as the restriction on the public assistance. If an individual needs help or have an issue regarding immigration in Texas, therefore he or she might be expected to interact with an experienced immigration attorney.

The states face major challenges in the implementation of the immigration laws in their countries. Nearly all the states laws that affect immigration get to be challenged either via litigation by the civil liberties and the immigrant’s rights groups or by the overall controller of the immigration regulations; the federal government. There has been the issue of racial profiling given that the provisions which require the proof of citizenship or that of legal residence in addition to the directives by the law enforcement in checking the immigration status of the people to whom have been deemed suspicious (Geddes & Scholten). According to critics, the law that requires the production of the identity card for voting tends to violate the voting rights acts of the year 1965. The federal government has however continued to challenge the states claiming that the patches of the immigration laws enacted by each state will not at any specific time aid in fixing the country’s immigration system.

The immigration has both states as well as the national impact on the economies (Bhachu). An open migration would be a large economic boon for the immigrant population in the relatively less well of states. The open borders would be responsible for the doubling of the country’s gross domestic product in a series of a few decades, having the largest impact of poverty eradication. Also, the immigration has contributed to the mixed impact on the American economy as the influx of the immigrants could be potentially good for the nation, doubling the net wealth of the population in the state. However, despite the high contributions by the immigrants in the respective states as well as the whole nation in general, they receive the assistance from the government at higher rates compared to the natives who are of the origin of the state being born and bred in the country.

According to analysis, the benefits brought about by the immigrants into the respective states and the United States, in general, are of much significance, and therefore the recommended course of action according to my view would be enacting laws that facilitate the free migration of people in the states as well as the whole of America. The policies may include offering dual citizenship and reducing the harsh treatment that is carried to the immigrants. Having a cool and conducive environment to which encourage immigration into the country for investment would go to an extra mile in doubling the nation’s economy as well as reducing the levels of poverty among the American residents. More job opportunities, as well as the provision of active human labor and human resources, would boost the country’s GDP as well.

Work Cited

Bhachu, Parminder, ed. Immigration and entrepreneurship: culture, capital, and ethnic networks. Routledge, 2017.

Geddes, Andrew, and Peter Scholten. The politics of migration and immigration in Europe. Sage, 2016.

Pham, Huyen. “A Framework for Understanding Subfederal Enforcement of Immigration Laws.” U. St. Thomas LJ 13 (2016): 508.

Richardson, Rupert N., et al. Texas: The Lone Star State. Routledge, 2016.

Shertzer, Allison. “Immigrant group size and political mobilization: Evidence from European migration to the United States.” Journal of Public Economics 139 (2016): 1-12.

Simoncelli, Courtney, et al. “Mexican-Americans as a Minority Group in the USA.” (2016).