Megan+(Immigration)

Immigration is when people from other countries come into our country and work and live here. I agree the fact of they need jobs and homes and desrve to be free just like us but the simple fact is jobs are running out for all of us and i believe it would be better if less immigrants were coming and taking jobs away but at the same time it would be way better if there were more jobs because then we could have more people come across the boarder but since the economy is crumbling there are less jobs so we need less people. and i believe we should all have the same rights but at the same time I kind of believe it is not right for someone who is an immgrant to take a job away from somebody that has lived here thier whole life. and it has nothing to do with the color of your skin. i have many friends that are not my color and its not the fact of color its the fact of where you came from i mean people that lived here thier whole life don't you think they kind of desrve the job more than you. i kind of feel saying this is wrong im not racist i just believe in what i was taught to believe in and stand up for that even if im wrong.

1. Public opinion polls show that most Americans are in favor of strong punitive measures to prevent and/or reduce illegal immigration. However, business leaders, policy experts, and politicians—particularly in the Senate—have proposed amnesty programs and other measures that will not cut off what they call a necessary flow of labor into the United States.

2.Immigration was poised to be a major issue in the 2008 Presidential campaign. Republicans had stalled all Congressional attempts to resolve the issue of undocumented aliens through legislation with the expectation that the Presidential candidate would take advantage of the anti-immigrant attitudes of many voters.

3.The United States of America has had a long history of immigration, from the first Spanish and English settlers to arrive on the shores of the country to the waves of immigration from Europe in the 19th century to immigration in the present day. Throughout American history immigration has caused controversy. The history of immigration to the United States of America is, in some senses, the history of the United States itself and the journey from beyond the sea is an essential element of the American myth, appearing over and over again in everything from The Godfather to The Song of Myself to Neil Diamond's America to the animated feature An American Tail.

4.After the Civil War ended in the United States, states were faced with issues pertaining to immigration and thus, began introducing immigration policies. As a result, in 1875, the U.S. Supreme Court designated the regulation of immigration policies to the federal government and not individual states. The first big wave of immigration to the United States began in the 1880s, and the government reacted by creating the Immigration Service in 1891. When World War I began the number of immigrants coming to the United States dropped significantly, especially regarding immigrants from Europe. After the war ended, the number of immigrants started to increase again. To deal with the high number of immigrants entering the country, the U.S. Congress introduced new immigration policies.

5.In addition to immigration rates dropping during World War 1, immigration levels also dropped during the Great Depression. In fact, the country experienced a time period of zero growth from immigration, because no one desired to come to a country that was experiencing a prolonged period of harsh economic conditions and uncertainty. While immigration increased after World War II, the rates remained relatively low. This continued for 20 years. In 1952, all the previous immigration policies and laws introduced by Congress were combined into the Immigration and Nationality Act.

6.The number of illegal immigrants attempting to come into the United States has continuously increased. In addition, the number of legal immigrants admitted into the country has reached new highs. It is estimated that legal immigration in the 1990s surpassed the levels of the last previous peak of legal immigration from 1901 to 1910. During that time period nearly 9 million legal immigrants were allowed into the United States. From the period of 1968 to 1993, it is estimated that 16.7 million immigrants entered the country legally. Of these 16.7 million legal immigrants, nearly 85% were from developing countries.

7. Did you know more than 1.2 million legal and illegal immigrants combined now settle in the United States each year.

8.The number of immigrants living in the United States has more than tripled since 1970, from 9.6 million to 28.4 million. As a percentage of the U.S. population, immigrants have more than doubled, from 4.7 percent in 1970 to 10.4 percent in 2000.

9.By historical standards, the number of immigrants living in the United States is unprecedented. Even at the peak of the great wave of early 20th century immigration, the number of immigrants living in the United States was less than half what it is today (13.5 million in 1910).

10.Immigration has become the determinate factor in population growth. The 11.2 million immigrants who indicated they arrived between 1990 and 2000 plus the 6.4 million children born to immigrants in the United States during the 1990s are equal to almost 70 percent of U.S. population growth over the last 10 years

11.The percentage of immigrants without a high school diploma is 30 percent, more than three times the rate for natives. Also, of all persons without a high school education, one-third are now immigrants. Immigrants are also slightly more likely than natives to have a graduate or professional degree

12.In 2000, 37.4 percent of immigrants are naturalized citizens, and immigrants account for 5.5 percent of all eligible voters

13.The poverty rate for immigrants is 50 percent higher than that of natives, with immigrants and their U.S.-born children (under age 21) accounting for 22 percent of all persons living in poverty

14.The proportion of immigrant households using welfare programs is 30 to 50 percent higher than that of native households

15.One-third of immigrants do not have health insurance — two and one-half times the rate for natives. Immigrants who arrived after 1989 and their U.S.-born children account for 60 percent or 5.5 million of the increase in the size the uninsured population.

16.Immigration accounts for virtually all of the national increase in public school enrollment over the last two decades. In 2000, there were 8.6 million school-age children from immigrant families in the United States

17.Immigrants and natives exhibit remarkably similar rates of entrepreneurship, with about 1 in 9 of both groups being self-employed

18.All children born in the United States to immigrants are by definition natives, the sole reason for the dramatic increase in the immigrant population is new immigration. While some immigrants die and others return home, the issuance of 700,000 to 900,000 permanent residency visas annually and the settlement of several hundred thousand illegal aliens each year greatly exceeds deaths and out-migration.

19.In the March 2000 CPS, just under three million immigrants indicated they had entered the country between 1998 and March of 2000. An additional 2.2 million immigrants responded they had arrived in 1996 or 1997. These numbers indicate that at least 1.2 million immigrants, and perhaps 1.3 million, now arrive in United States each year.

20.While immigration has played an important role in American history, the level of immigration and the size of the immigrant population has varied considerably. Figure 1 shows the number of immigrants living in the United States over the course of the last 100 years. The 28.4 million immigrants residing in the United States in 2000 are the most ever recorded. Even during the great wave of immigration at the turn of the century, the immigrant population was less than half what it is today.

21.The foreign-born population’s growth rate since 1970 is higher than at any other time in history, far surpassing growth at the beginning of the 20th century. Between 1900 and 1910, the immigrant population grew by 31 percent, less than the 47 percent increase in the 1970s, the 40 percent increase in the 1980s, and the 43 percent growth of the 1990s.

22.immigrants now account for a much larger share of the increase in the total U.S. population. For most of last century, the growth in the immigrant population accounted for little or none of the increase in the size of the U.S. population. Even during the first decade of the last century, when immigration was an important part of population growth, the immigrant contribution to U.S. population growth was much less than it is today. The 3.2 million increase in the size of the immigrant population between 1900 and 1910 accounted for only 20 percent of the total increase in the U.S. population.

23.McCain rejects the approach taken by House Republicans during a vote in 2005 and favored by several of his rivals in the presidential race — namely, classifying the 12 million illegal immigrants already in this country as felons and seeking to deport them. This wouldn't be realistic, he says, noting not only the economic demands that have brought the foreign-born here in the first place but also the human cost such a widespread crackdown would entail.

24.As the issue of illegal immigrants reaches the boiling point, however, and as he gains in the polls, even McCain sounds not quite so compassionate as before. In response to political pressures, McCain now shares the point of view of hard-liners who say stronger border security must come before allowing additional work permits or the "path to citizenship" that were envisioned by his legislation.

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