Immigration Law, Essay Example

Section 1325 in Title 8 of the United States Code is an Immigration Law entitled Improper Entry by Alien, and it has four components that impact on violators in terms of fines and or imprisonments, according to Legal Information Institute (2012).

The first component states that aliens who enters or attempt to enter the United States at other time and place outside the designated points of entry prescribed by immigration officers, or if they evade the examination or inspection, or attempt to enter using willfully false or misleading representations or willfully concealed material facts for the first time, shall be liable to a fine and or a minimum of six months imprisonment, under section 18 of the law, according to Legal Information Institute (2012).

Additionally, repeated offences under the same law will lead to imprisonment not exceeding 2 years, the Legal Information Institute (2012) reports, while the second component dealing with improper alien entry, the focus is on the civil penalties incurred by violators. The law states that aliens entering the United States at places not designated by the Immigration authority shall be punishable by a fine between $50 and $250 for each entry, and for repeated offences, these fines are doubled, and will be different from other offenses that may have been committed by these aliens (Legal Information Institute, 2012).

Marriage and Immigration related Entrepreneurial Fraud represent the other two components of this specific Immigration Law relating to improper entry by aliens. In the case of the former, the law specifically state that any individual who knowingly enters into a marriage agreement in order to evade the provisions of the Immigration Law, will be subject to imprisonment for not more than 5 years and fined up to the $250,000, while violators of the Immigration-related Entrepreneurial Fraud law, are those aliens who establishes commercial enterprises with the intent of evade the provisions of the law, and they will on conviction be imprisoned for 5 years along with additional fines that the law stipulate, according to Legal Information Institute (2012).

According to Seminara (2012), there are nearly 12 million illegal aliens in the USA presently, and approximately 50 % of these are as a result of aliens arriving with legal temporary non-immigrant visa, while the Department of Homeland Security has estimated that between 27% and 57% of the illegal immigrant population in the country is made up of visa overstays.

Bennett (2010), reports that for the second time in a row, the US government has deported more illegal immigrants during the last fiscal year than before when the records of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement figures were examined, and on closer scrutiny, it was also realized that 50 % of those deported had criminal records. This somewhat justify the decisions of the department as well highlights its improving competence in this area.

While in terms of the US Mexico border, as it relates to section 1325 of title 8 of the US Immigration Law, in 2011 US authorities apprehended 8600 aliens trying to enter the country illegally, and although this seems significant, since 2007, a total of 153,000 of these persons have been attempting to evade border security technology as well as the guards at the facility, despite the increase expenditure by the government to reduce the cross border flows (McFadden 2012).

Supporters of the immigration law would argues that the present improvement is commendable, in that in the 1990’s aliens were crossing the border at a rate of 600,000, and this has been reduced by approximately 75 % to the present 153, 000 illegal aliens.

Generally speaking, according to a Pew Hispanic report in 2010, the number of illegal immigrants entering the US declined sharply, and this was due to the economic recession as well as the effect of tougher border enforcement measures impacting significantly on those trespassing across the border, according to Bahrampour (2010).

In the first part of the decade, according to Bahrampour (2010), 850, 000 people entered the country without authorization, but between 2007 and 2009, this number was reduced to 300,000, and the achievement contributed to an 8% drop in the national statistics on illegal immigration, with the total falling from a peak of 12 million persons in 2007 to 11.9 million by 2009.

Finally, justification for the US authorities to be focusing on the US-Mexico border to implement critical immigration policies and strategies to reduce the number of illegal immigrant in the country, seems right, based o the composition of the aliens in the national statistical breakdown by countries and regions. According to Bahrampour (2010), 60 % of these illegal immigrants were Mexicans, 20% from other parts of Latin America, 11% from Asia, 8% originated from Africa, Canada, Europe and other areas.

The fact that this specific immigration laws have very severe penalties attached to it, especially in terms of the time handed down for imprisonment, it have not be sufficient over the years to drastically reduce the negative impact this social disorder has been having on the social and economic life of the citizens of the USA, points to the need for other strategies to be brought to the table to help people to stop throwing away their lives in pursuit of what they perceived to be a better one in the United States.

References

Legal Information Institute, (2012). 8 USC 1325 – Improper Entry by Alien Cornell University Law School www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1325/ , 04/.15/12

Center for Immigration Studies, (2012). Illegal Immigration, www.cis.org/illegal, 04/13/12

Bennett, B. (2010). US Deported record number of illegal immigrants Tribune Washington Bureau www.articles.latimes.com/2010/oct/06/la-na-illegal-immigration-20101007 , 04/15/12

Bahrampour, T., (2010). A Number of illegal Immigrants in us drops report says Post Business Washington Post www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dgn/content/article/2010/09/01/AR201090169.html , 04/15/.12