The contemporary practices of immigration in the US are shifting. It is specifically related to the undocumented immigrants. The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA) (1996) was one of the important acts specifically for the undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers. It imposed time frame both for the undocumented and asylum seekers. The undocumented were denied entry to the US for 3 to 10 years, whereas asylum seekers fleeing persecution were required to apply within a year. The Legal Immigration Family Equity (LIFE) Act of( 2000) allowed the family members of the US citizen and LPRs to adjust the visa status in the US.
Another act that impacted immigration and integration of the aliens in the US is the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM Act) of 2001. It was introduced but failed many times in the Senate. However, in 2010 it was passed at the House of Representatives, but could not generate sufficient votes to end the debate. Meanwhile, the President Barack Obama ordered to stop deportation of the illegal immigrants who match the DREAM Act criteria. It was specifically targeted to the alien minors; therefore Nepalese are not the beneficiaries. Later, President Obama’s administration introduced two policies, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA). The policy was to address the issue of the illegal immigrants who had entered the US as a minor and the parents of the Americans.
In addition to these immigration measures, the US also offers visa to the foreign businessperson to invest in the US. According to the EB-5 program, if a foreigner demonstrates to invest certain amount of money in the US economy, s/he will be granted green card or legal permanent residency (LPR) in the United States. There are many other categories including visa to the spouses, children, parents and immediate relatives of the US citizens. It also includes refugees, asylum seekers, orphans adopted by the US citizens, among others. In the same way, undocumented immigrants from various countries are significantly in number. Pew Research Center provides a data as in the table below: Table 1: Immigrants in the United States of America
Date in year
|
Lawful Immigrants( In millions)
|
Unauthorized Immigrants( In
millions)
|
2000
|
24.1
|
8.6
|
2001
|
24.2
|
9.4
|
2002
|
25.1
|
9.7
|
2003
|
25.4
|
10.1
|
2004
|
25.7
|
10.7
|
2005
|
27.0
|
11.1
|
2006
|
27.7
|
11.6
|
2007
|
28.3
|
12.2
|
2008
|
28.9
|
11.7
|
2009
|
29.4
|
11.3
|
2010
|
29.7
|
11.4
|
2011
|
30.4
|
11.5
|
2012
|
31.3
|
11.2
|
2013
|
32.2
|
11.2
|
2014
|
32.5
|
11.1
|
Source: Pew Research Center. Available
at http://www.pewresearch.org/data-trend/society-and-demographics/immigrants/
With this background, immigration has attracted sufficient public attention not only in the society, but also in the politics in the US. President Donald Trump raised this issue during the election in 2016 promising to build wall along the US-Mexico border, if he is elected. Immigration reform has been his major agenda, and he signed a series of executive orders to address the issue of immigration, after holding the office in the White House.The President imposed travel ban to the nationals of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen at the beginning, but later another order allowed the Iraqis to enter the US. However, the President ordered stringent visa norms at the one hand, and strengthened the Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) to arrest and deport illegal immigrants and criminals from the US. Together with this, the President ordered the “Buy American, Hire American” policy that might impact the future immigrants as well as the undocumented immigrants in the United States. Though these all reformations in the immigration policy were meant to develop a more inclusive, diverse, advanced and qualified American society founded on the public charge standard; historian Bayton (2016) is of an opinion that this standard is no less discriminatory. Bush &Bolick (2013) support the counter current of the discourse and argue that the objective of the US immigration policy is to increase the size of population, able-bodied workforce, and economy and maintain the world dominance. Fetzer (2016) also concludes that free immigration boosts not only diversity but also economic wellbeing of the modern cities as that of Miami, Marseille, and Dublin. One of the scholars of the field argues are the contemporary laws of immigration are crafted under threat of terrorism (Fernam(2005)
The US is a country of immigrants. Their role in building the nation is significant; however, unregulated immigration might invite management complications. For that and many other reasons, immigration practices are shifting time to time to meet the social, economic and political demands.
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