The Statue of Liberty symbolizes the willingness of the United States to open its doors to immigrants. As the Statue was taking shape the U.S. was experiencing a long period of increased immigration. This trend and policies supporting it continued until immigration reached a peak in the decade between 1900 and 1910 during which almost 1 million immigrants per year entered the country.
However, the composition of immigrants began shifting after the American Civil War. Before the war, most immigrants were from Western Europe and the British Isles. During the 1870s immigrants from southern and eastern Europe became much more common. Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans were also coming to the U.S., particularly the West Coast.
The US admits about 660,000 legal immigrants per year, 140,000 immigrants in needed employment fields and the rest under per-country limits and diversity limits. Foreign-born people accounted for 8% of the US population in the 1999 census; in the decades prior to 1930, the figure was 13%.
About 5 million illegal aliens reside in the US, 55% of all illegal aliens come from Mexico. Other Latin American countries account for another 20%, 40% of all illegal aliens live in California, TX, NY, FL, and IL account for the next 40%.
The illegal alien population is growing by about 275,000 each year. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) runs the Border Patrol as well as interior enforcement. Pro-immigration advocates sometimes accuse anti-immigration advocates of racism, because of the large Hispanic component of current immigration. In that view, immigration restrictions are seen as limiting growth of the Hispanic population.
The biggest components of the immigration debate is how many legal immigrants to allow, and how to prevent illegal immigration. Liberals and libertarians generally oppose restricting immigration. Any reference to providing illegal immigrants with services beyond emergency medical treatment, or any reference to “clemency for illegal immigration” (Cothran, 2001), implies a strong pro-immigrant stance.....................
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