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The ICE Immigration Policy, Research Paper Example

Pages: 7

Words: 2022

Research Paper

The ICE immigration policy is driven by the government policy at  a given point in time. At the moment the policy has taken different turn the government aims at stopping the deportation of some illegal immigrants in the United States. The recent policy will qualify any illegal immigrant who is married to a United States citizen or is related to a legal resident who has filed a petition on their stead to stop their deportation proceedings. This policy however disqualifies any illegal immigrant who has a criminal conviction in the United States. The policy has been seen as one that gives a free pass to individuals who have already committed a crime by being illegal. It is also seen as a demoralizing factor to the ICE agents who are trying to do their jobs by getting putting these people to book.

This is a bold move by the government especially in an age where the threat of terrorism is real. But it is important to note that this policy shifts the focus to illegal immigrants who have prior criminal convictions and who who pose a real threat to the country’s national security. The move by the government is welcome. Focusing on immigrants who pose no harm to national security in actual sense will just make the U.S more vulnerable to terrorism. However, the problem is still there and more las must come into place to ensure that the public’s best interest is observed.

Comparative analysis of the involvement of government engagement in the ICE policy.

Office of the president

The office of the president is the greatest promoter of the immigration policy. President Obama had promised reform in the country’s immigration laws and it is one of the things that got him elected into office. The office of the president has been vigilant about immigration reform but only through congressional approval. He has also expressed concern on the failure of the DREAM Act passing in the senate. The DREAM act is an acronym for Development, Relief, Education for Alien Minors Act which was introduced to the Senate for the first time in 2001 and was again more recently reintroduced in May of 2011. However, the office of the president is set on ensuring that immigrants who commit crimes are sent packing home. The president had promised to deport immigrants who engaged in violent crime, but it has been seen that even those who commit minor offenses such as traffic violation are being deported. This just shows how the president is set on ensuring that national security is upheld.

Executive Bureaucracy

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the main enforcing agency of the policy. In collaboration with local law enforcement and the FBI, they ensure that convicted illegal immigrants are criminals are brought to book. The Secure Communities program is an important aspect for the success o the ICE policy re immigration policy. The Secure Communities program is one that enables the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency a subsidiary of the DHS to capture illegal immigrants and deport them. The program ensures that finger prints of all individuals arrests by local law enforcement are run against federal immigration and criminal data bases. The ICE then acts on the hits got from local law enforcement and pounce on the illegal.

According to ICE data, at least 40,000 immigrants had obtained legal residency in the U.S compared to a staggering over 390,000 illegal immigrants who were deported in 2009. But from 2010, after the adoption of this policy, the IEC has deported over 150,000 convicted illegal immigrants. This is a record high.

House of representatives

Over the past five years, congress has increased the funding to the ICE by a staggering 67% most of which went into the Detention and Removal programs. To find out what these monies have accomplished over the years, the Transactional Access Record Clearinghouse was established. It has analyzed thousands of detainee records that have been held by the government from the year 2005 to the first quarter of 2010 to determine the actual policies that were followed between 2005 and 2009 and also to determine the changes that took place after J.T Morton took over in May of 2009. Another report will examine the role of the ICE in detaining in illegal immigrants and the ultimate goal of removing these individuals from the country. The house passed the DREAM Act that would have fast tracked the citizenship of illegal immigrants who entered the country as minors. The bill barely made the cut in house but all the same thy approved it and it was left to the senate.

Senate

The DREAM Act was sent to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugee and Border Security by congress in 2010 and again in May of 2011, it did not pass it. The act was meant to fast track the process of citizenship for illegal immigrants who entered the country as minors on condition that they offer military service to the country or undertake a degree course at a college five years prior to the enactment of the bill. Refusal by the senate to pass this bill show is lack of commitment to solve the issue of immigrants in the country. This would be unfair to children who have entered the country very young and grew knowing that the U.S is their home. The fact that they have to be educated to stay on gives them an opportunity to better themselves and at the same time ensure that they remain useful in the society.

More recently, the senate approved 600 million dollars to boost the efforts of the U.S law enforcement in curb the smuggling and other illegal activities taking place along the border. The proposal was approved unanimously by both sides of the house. Arizona senators McCain and Kyl have presented another plan before the senate that will see an increase in the number of custom inspectors and ensure that more funding to improve the information technology resources along the border.

Judiciary

The Supreme Court has been very instrumental in the immigration debate. Recently, it gave a big boost to those in Arizona who would want to immigration laws to be a bit more strict than what they are. The court upheld Arizona’s law “business death penalty” for business owners who would want to employ illegal immigrants. The 5-3 ruling has given confidence to states that would want to pursue the same course as that of Arizona. The law has also given supporters of strict laws on immigration in Arizona to pursue an even more controversial law that will give the police the mandate to stop those they think are in the country illegally and check for their immigration status. This law will go before the court soon.

A Federal District Court Judge Susan Bolton however did not agree to this law, and thereafter, five months later the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Federal judges ruling giving another blow to the proponents of stricter immigration laws. This was all after the Department of justice had filed a law suit to that led to Judge Bolton’s injunction over the controversial SB 1070. The laws suit originally stated that immigration law was in the jurisdiction of th federal government and not the state, the appellate court agreed with her decision. The judiciary, from the above mentioned rulings, is an important aspect of immigration law in the country.

Analysis of special interest groups and organizations influential in the policy debate.

Immigration issues have always been considered as one of the main issues in American politics. Lobbyists in and out of Washington D.C constantly try to influence immigration laws, either in favor of stricter or more lenient laws. 521 corporations, trade associations, labor organizations, government entities and nonprofit organization presented between one and 2 issues on immigration as per the House Office clerk and the Senate Office of public records. Of this, only 2 percent of all these are for tightening the existing laws on immigration and reduce the entry of foreign guest-worker and an overall entry of immigrants into the country. The Federation for American Immigration Reform is one of the few organizations that encourage stricter rules on immigration. All the other groups seem to have financial and political interests relaxing these laws.

Reports show that these groups spend more than 345 million dollars in lobbying activities. These monies are usually spent to obtain some benefit for these groups directly. With this I mind, we can’t help but question the integrity of the lobbying groups and how much of their effort will in the end benefit the immigrants who come into the country. Special interest groups influence a lot of the things that go on in Washington. Their deep pockets ensure that most of our policy makers get re-elected on and almost immediately, the interests of the American people can go out the window.

Consideration of impacts on the policy process from the following perspectives

Federal perspectives

The Federal government has the responsibility of enforcing immigration laws and making of these laws through Congress and the Senate. The federal institutions in the country such as the FBI, the ICE and the courts are charged with the responsibility of enforcing these laws. Senate and Congress make these laws, and decisions made by them depend on party allegiances, constituent views and personal interests. Federal officers just enforce the laws enshrined in the constitution, how they react on immigration is based purely on federal law.

State perspectives

The New York State Senate Committee on cities estimates the justice costs annually in the state is at 270 million dollars. The incarceration of criminals with alien decent was about 624 million dollars by 2002 in state prisons, Illinois spent 40 million dollars jailing alien criminals ad in Florida, 73 million dollars was used on incarcerating aliens. The point is, on the state level, the concern is one, and aliens in the country are more expensive than it should be. Therefore states would want the borders more controlled to reduce these costs. Most of the aliens released end up committing crimes again raising crime levels in the country and states.

Political Parties

The main political parties in the country are the Democratic party and the Republican party who’s policies differ on very many levels. The immigration policy is no different. The Republican view is that illegal immigrants must be deported. This is seen in the Bush administration that advocated for the detention and removal of illegal immigrants from the country. In the period between 2005 and 2009, Bush’s policies were still in place and so very many immigrants being deported and scores detained on suspicion of terrorism and other offenses. This period also saw a 67% increase in government to the DH S’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to a collective sum of 24 billion dollars.

The Democrats are on the other hand more lenient to the immigrants and advocate for the immigrants gaining resident status in the country. Their view is that those that have committed crimes in the country are the ones that are supposed to be deported and that illegals who are law abiding other than the fact that they are illegal immigrants are to be allowed residence if they are married to a U.S citizen or are related to one and that they vouch for them.

Media

The view of the media has always been seen to reflect the public opinion if not influencing it. They inform both the public and the law makers of what is going. They are fact driven and push for what is right or what is viewed as public opinion at a particular time on a particular issue. Even though some of the opinions are biased, many are the times when the information conveyed is accurate.

Works Cited

Fragomen, Austin .Immigration Legislation Handbook. New York, NY: Clark Boardman Callaghan, 2008.

Swain,Carol. Debating Immigration. London, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Print. Pg 28 – 30.

Isenburg, Bruno. Immigration Enforcement and Policies. New York, NY: Nova Publishers, 2007.Print. Pg 3-8, 67 – 69.

Allport, Alan,&Ferguson, John. Immigration Policy. New York, NY: Infobase Publishing, 2009. Print. Pg 26 -28.

Council on Foreign Relations. Independent Task Force on U.S. Immigration Policy,Bush, Jeb,McLarty, Thomas, &Alden, Edward. US Immigration Policy. New York, NY: Council on Foreign Relations, 2009.

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