- 2000: 1.8 million illegal immigrants apprehended
o INS estimated 7 million illegal immigrants living in the US
o Maquiladoras were decline due to the cheaper labor in other countries such as Asia
- 2000-2003: 48,000 Chinese immigrants arrived each year.
- 2001:
o Due to 9/11, security at the border intensified with an emphasis on preventing terrorists from entering the country
- 2003:
o Department of Homeland Security founded
§ INS, Customs and Department of Agriculture were reorganized into Customs and Border Protection; Immigration & Custom Enforcement (ICE); and Citizenship and Immigration Services
o President Bush proposed a guest-worker program
§ Congress strongly opposed the plan, concerned that the plan would lead to another amnesty
o Operation Endgame
§ ICE adopted this plan to prevent immigrants from evading deportation
§ Focused on detention and removal of aliens
§ Detained immigrants as soon as judges denied their cases and ordered the immigrants removed from the US
§ Released many of the immigrants and tracked them with an intensive supervision program that could include ankle bracelet monitors
- 2004:
o Congress passed the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act
§ authorized addition of 10,000 new border patrol agents, thus increasing from 11,000 to 21,000 by 2010
o Operation Frontline
§ An ICE initiative; little information is known to the general public.
§ Last from the months leading up to the 2004 presidential election to the 2005 presidential inauguration
§ ICE spokesperson, “focused on immigration violators that may have imposed an enhanced public safety or national security threat”
- 2005:
o Secure Border Initiative (SBI)
§ Department of Homeland Security’s comprehensive multi-year plan to secure America’s borders and decrease illegal migration
§ Additional personnel and technology to gain operational control of the border
§ Re-engineering the detention and removal system to ensure the quick removal of aliens
- 2006:
o Mexican President Felipe Calderon sent thousands of troops to the US-Mexico border to combat drug traffickers
o On October 26, President Bush signed the Secure Fence Act, authorizing the construction of about 700 miles of border fencing
o Operation Return to Sender
§ May 26, 2006-June 13, 2006
§ An ICE operation aimed at increasing worksite enforcement, intending to catch and deport criminal aliens and crack down on the criminal infrastructure that perpetuated illegal immigrants
§ Part of the Secure Border Initiative
§ Apprehended 2,179 illegal aliens
· About half had criminal records
§ Those facing crime charges were processed in Federal Criminal Courts
- 2008:
o Mexico’s Congress voted to decriminalize illegal immigration in its country
o Operation Streamline began in the US as an effort to prosecutor more illegal border crossings
o US Justice Department announced it would spend $7 million to send more than 60 more prosecutors to border districts to prosecute border crimes, such as human smuggling
- 2009:
o The number of illegal immigrants apprehended decreased to 556, 041
o Estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the US
o On December 15, Congressman Gutierrez of Illinois introduced Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act (CIR ASAP)
§ The first comprehensive reform bill with goals to rectify previous immigration policies.
§ Provisions include:
· The creation of a Southern Border Security Task Force within the Department of Homeland Security. The task force would be composed of federal, state, and local law enforcement officers.
· A repeal of the controversial 287(g) program, in which local law enforcement agencies take on the additional responsibility to enforce federal immigration law.
· The clarification that the authority to enforce the federal immigration law lies solely with the federal government.
· The restoration of judicial review of immigration proceedings (this authorization was removed in 1996.) The federal courts would then be authorized to review practices and decisions of the Department of Homeland Security.
· The creation of a program that provides conditional nonimmigrant status for undocumented immigrants, including their spouses and children, in the U.S. To obtain the visa, illegal immigrants would have to establish their presence, pay a fine, learn English, and learn US civics. This status would be valid for six years, after which the immigrants would then be eligible for a green card.
· The recapturing of unused employment-based visas and family sponsored visas. Future unused visa numbers would then be allowed to roll over to the next fiscal year.
· An increase in the number of employment-based green cards from 140,000 to 290,000 per year.
· The reclassification of the spouse and children of Legal Permanent Residents, thus treating them the same as the spouses and children of citizens. Accordingly, they are exempt from the annual immigration cap in an effort to keep families together.
· The authorization of immigration to reunite families upon a demonstration of hardship for applicant's U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident family members.
- 2010:
o On April 23, Arizona Governor Brewer signed Senate Bill 1070
§ Written by Senator Russell Pearce
o In May, President Obama deployed 1,200 National Guard troops to the border
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/mexico704/history/timeline.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Front_Line
http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/press_release_0926.shtm
http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/press_release_0926.shtm
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/us/26border.html?nl=us&emc=politicsemailema1
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/14/immigration-bill-promoted-for-2010/
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/us/politics/09immig.html
Immigration in U.S. History Edited by Carl Bankston & Danielle Hidalgo
No comments:
Post a Comment