tidbit's blog

legal vs illegal

 abuse

When discussing immigration there are two arguments I see from people who are ok with illegal aliens being in our country.  This blog is going to be a little lengthy, for that I apologize, but I think some key points need to be made.  (Historians_13th! If I get my facts – dates wrong – let me know!!)

• Did your ancestors come to this country via Ellis Island? If so they were illegal too, so what does that make you.
• There is positively no legal way for anyone to become a legal residence in this country.

I’d like to address these two very misguided statements for what they are – unfounded and non-factual.

Lets start with the definition of illegal:  1) forbidden by law or statute.  2) contrary to or forbidden by official rules, regulations, etc.  

First it is crucial to define a time frame for when the waves of immigrants pushed their way to the US.  The largest influx was between 1815 and 1860, bringing almost 5 million.

Between 1880 and 1890, another wave of approximately 5.2 million more immigrants enter the country.

The start of World War I drastically reduced the migration of immigrants to the US.

This would have been 1914.

So the overwhelming majority of the huge influx of immigrants to the US was from approx  1815 to 1914.  99 years to see roughly 11 million immigrants.  But were they illegal? That is the key argument right?

The Alien Act of 1798 gave the POTUS authorization to order the removal of any alien that was regarded dangerous to the public peace or safety from the US.

In 1855 California legislature tried to tax any ships bringing immigrants “ineligible for citizenship”. However, this was overturned and deemed unconstitutional in 1857

In 1882 The Chinese Exclusion Act was born. This law prohibited Chinese laborers from immigrating to the US. (you really want to see some racial cruelty? Study California’s laws during this time against Chinese – makes slavery look mild to me)

In 1891 – The Federal Government assumed the task of inspecting, admitting, rejecting and processing all immigrants seeking admissions to the US.

In 1892, a new Federal US immigration station opened on Ellis Island

1903 current ACTS governing Immigration are re-addressed and provisions were made concerning land borders and called for rules covering entry to the US from the Mexican border.

The US Immigration Act of 1907 re-organized the states bordering Mexico, to stem the flow of immigrants into the US.

1917 to 1924 – A series of laws were enacted to further limit the number of new immigrants, by establishing the quota system and imposed passport requirements. All Asians except Japanese were banned.

1924 Act – Reduced the number of US immigration Visas and allocated them on the basis of national origin.

The Green Card is born! 1940 – The Alien Registration Act. Required all non-US Citizens within the US to register with the Gov’t and receive a Green Card

1952 Act: Officially established the US Immigration system as we know it today. Created a new quota system on a “per country” basis.  (what we now know as the Diversity Lottery) and also established the preference system that gave priority to family member and people with special skills (currently the 2 largest venues of gaining legal status).

1968 Act Eliminated US Immigration discrimination based on race, place of birth, sex and residence. Officially abolished the Asian restrictions.

1986 Act: Focus on curtailing illegal immigration to the US. Granted Amnesty to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants. Also introduced the employer sanctions program which fines employers for hiring illegal workers and toughened laws to prevent bogus marriage fraud.

SO! With all this information -  what do we have?

The primary influx of immigrants was from 1815 to 1914.  You were only turned away if you were Asian and later there was some regulation from Mexico.  There were no other laws during this time frame to PREVENT or KEEP OUT any immigrant coming to the US.

Making most of our ancestors NOT ILLEGAL (unless they were Chinese). Because – based on the definition of legal, there was NO LAW broken by our Ellis Island immigrants.

Since that time, there have been laws enacted that DO govern and limit immigration  for economic and diversity reasons.  Any immigrant entering this country without registering with the government of the United States – is breaking the law – not just one law – MULTIPLE laws – making them “Illegal”. For no other reason than ignoring existing laws that they have easy access too.

NEXT argument: There is positively no legal way for an immigrant to become legal in the US.

Well, aside from the FACT that this is completely absurd, you can read this document directly from The Department of Homeland Security.  I thought it was a very well laid out fact sheet with some very interesting information like:

In 2007 alone, there were 1 million persons granted legal residency within the US.  59% of those were already in the US and held temporary status.

There are 4 primary ways to gain legal status:

• Diversity Lottery – nationals of countries with low rates of legal immigration to the US
• Family-sponsored
• Employment –sponsored
• Refugee or Asylee

In 2005, there were 1.1 million immigrants granted legal status. In 2006 there were 1.2 million.

There are hundreds of places to obtain information on how to become a legal citizen.

There is a fantastic law firm here in Raleigh, established by an immigrant who fought to become legal. Now he and his family are giving back to the community. Bashyam Spiro & Edgerton  Though they by all means are not the only ones. But I happen to think that their website is 100% fantastic for someone wanting information.

 He has an awesome list of links that are very helpful to anyone wanting to do research or trying to become legal

So when someone makes the argument that there is “No legal way for an immigrant to become legal “  they are grossly misleading people and using it as a scare tactic to somehow justify someone illegally entering this country and taking advantage of the American tax payer.

Otherwise – what they are telling you by making this argument is that these 1 million people each year do not exist.   If you really believe that the government is lying and that these people don’t exist?  Perhaps you should go talk to the people in the organization “You Don’t Speak For Me”

Of which many of the members are immigrants who became legal and are also fed up with the behavior of illegal immigrants (Oh by the way – they are predominately Hispanic if that even matters)

For those of you who think that the immigration system is racist towards Hispanics?  Here is a nice little statistic.  If the 1 million immigrants given LEGAL status over the last 3 years? 23.7%  are from Mexico, 4.7% from China, 4.2% Philippines, 4% from India, 3% from Ireland, 2.7% from El Salvador, 2.7%  Cuba, 2.3% Dominican Republic, 2.3% Canada, 2.2% South Korea.  (The top 10 countries that made up the countries of origin for legal immigrants).

So… the US is not trying to keep the Hispanic population out! 

And I think I’ve proven fairly well that THERE IS A LEGAL WAY into this country.

But as a final note – I’d like to state that it should NEVER ever take anyone 8+ years to go through the process.  It is ridiculous and need to be overhauled.  But I do think 1 million a year is a vary fair and acceptable number to legalize and the number should be based on economic factors happening in the country. When times are rough, it should be reduced until the economics of the country stabilize somewhat.