Immigration Issues in a Post 9/11 Nation

For our last topic we will explore migration patterns of ethnic Mexicans outside of the Southwest. This blog post will give some context to the migration story in general

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Global immigration is the result of an internationalized economy. Yet, the reaction has been focused on reinforcement of the physical border. It has become a politics of exclusion.

Sociologist Nestor P. Rodriguez stated, “The crisis of the border is not that ‘illegal’ aliens are swarming across the US-Mexico border but that global capitalists growth is overwhelming nation-states as units of socio-economic development.”

US-Mexico Border- Image via www.rsvlts.com

Our immigration policy in the US has really been focused on the politics of exclusion. We have militarized our southern border. During the Reagan era border patrol spending increased 130 percent and our policies have largely focused on the continual growth of this border exclusion industry.

For example, with the 1986 IRCA (Immigration and Reform Control Act), amnesty was granted for undocumented migrants who had been in the US for a period longer than 5 years. It also enforced employer sanctions to those who employed undocumented persons, and increased border enforcement. However, a lesser-known fact is that IRCA linked INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) to the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency). This increased the overall budget towards border enforcement.

Border Patrol funding and staffing increased by 40% between 1986 and 1990. In the decades since passage of IRCA, the Border Patrol’s budget has grown more than 500% and personnel increased over 200%. Despite these increases, it is estimated that 10.3 million unauthorized immigrants now live in the United States, with annual inflows averaging well over half a million a year and perhaps as high as 600,000-700,000 per year.

Clinton and Immigration

Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the United States- Image via www.biography.com

During the 1990s and a democratic presidency under Bill Clinton did not change federal policies towards the undocumented. Clinton also wanted to follow a hard line on undocumented migration. In 1994 the beginning of a series of operations: Operation Gatekeeper and Operation Hold the Line for example were created to prevent illegal entry into the US. Clinton’s policy set a new standard for border militarization.

In 1996 came the passage of the IRA IRA (Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibiltiy Act). Deportations were now called removals and the act of removal could be associated with criminal behavior making it easier to deport even legal immigrants. But it left an abundance of “gray area.”

Image via www.enlawyers.com

For example in 2001, INS deported Rosario Hernandez, a 39 year-old construction worker who had migrated to the US as a teenager. He lived in Garland, Texas, he was married to a US citizen, and had two children born in the US. He was deported because of a third DUI (Driving Under the Influence) conviction. The first two occurred almost 20 years prior. The third incident under the IRA IRA amounted to an aggravated felony so he was deported. So what happens- Does his family leave with him? Do they stay in the US since they are citizens?

The Impact of 9/11

Image via www.world-visits.com

September 11, 2001 the US suffers attacks against the World Trade Center in New York City at the hands of Islamic extremists. This changes everything. At that moment we as a nation are living in a period of time where we are at war with terrorism. What does that mean?

The terms of this imagined war on an imagined enemy has opened up the possibility for racial nativist discourse, couched in terms of American nationalism, in dangerous ways. 9/11 has allowed for a reinterpretation of race relations. Look at the days/weeks/months following the event. Persons, US citizens of Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern and even Southeast Asian Indian persons were harassed, scrutinized, brutalized and racially profiled.

The conceptual domestic war on terrorism allowed us to bring racial profiling to the forefront. Immigration, therefore, became not just a nuisance, but it is realized as an issue of national security. The discourse about immigration became “secure” our borders from the threat of terrorism. Immigrant containment piggybacks on the war on terrorism.   From 2001 to 2005, the media, along with the increased racial profiling of Arab Americans, also created a discourse that focused in on the US-Mexico border as an unruly, chaotic, and out of control space.

After 9/11 we also see how the conversation around “illegalization” becomes profitable business. Detention centers have increased greatly. On average ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement, formerly known as INS) holds around 23,000 detainees a day in over 900 facilities. In 2003 60% of ICE detainees were held in either local prisons or private corporations such as the Corrections Corporation of America (started as a Texas corporation to house undocumented workers). The federal government pays these contracts $65 per detainee per day.

In 2005 we see the passage of HR4437-Border Patrol, Anti Terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act. This act called to spend 2.2 billion in the construction/reinforcement of border fences almost exclusively the southern border. It also makes undocumented migration a felony and criminalizes the act of associating with undocumented migrants a crime (in other words if you help someone who is undocumented you can also be prosecuted). This begins an unprecedented level of community policing not seen before.

But the question that our current immigration has continuously failed to answer: approximately 11 million undocumented persons are already here, so what do we do about it now?