How has immigration policies changed in the United States after Donald Trump became the President?       

           In the United States, there are about 40 million immigrants (Radford). The change of immigration policy first started in 1776 the last change in immigration policy was in 2018 (History.Com). The United States government always changes its policy regarding immigrants. After the 2016 election, the new president Donald Trump made some major changes in the immigration policy(Pierce, Selee). 

           In the 2016 election campaign, President Donald Trump made immigration the centerpiece of his campaign. According to the source by Pierce and Selee President Donald Trump banned nationals of eight Muslim countries from coming to the United States. Furthermore, he also canceled the refugee administrations and sent back refugees. Finally, he also canceled the DACA program which is the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals this program currently providing work authorization and temporary relief from deportation to approximately 690,000 unauthorized immigrants brought to the United States as children. This program was introduced by the ex-President Barack Obama. Barack Obama’s policy made so many immigrants dream come true he also saved them from losing their jobs and going back to their country. The changes in immigration policies affect immigrants negatively. There are people who immigrated to the United States for safety but because of the changes in the policy, they are required to go back to their country. According to the source President Trump’s Executive Orders, president executive orders on immigration angered millions of immigrants and Americans in the United States. The countries listed for suspension of visas are Muslim-majority, while other nations that have experienced terrorism have not been listed. This suggests that the executive order is targeting Muslim immigrants. 

           In her, article Haanstad describes the changes in immigration policies over time. It also contains historical summaries of the nation’s immigration legislation. She states: 

“The 1994 Republican” Contract with America” led to subsequent welfare reform legislation cutting off federal assistance to both legal and illegal immigrants for certain benefits, such as food stamps and Medicaid. The 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act enhanced the Border Patrol’s capacity to stop illegal immigrants and discretionary INS powers. Nonetheless, the author cautions against assuming these legislative actions will, in fact, limit immigration flows.” (Haanstad)

This shows that the population of immigrants will decline in the mid 21st century because the United States government is creating strict laws against immigrants. Also, the government spoke about eliminating certain benefits for immigrants. The government will not give Medicaid to the immigrants, as a result, they won’t have health insurance and they will have to pay for Medicaid from their pocket. Also, there are immigrants who are living illegally by hiding from the cops or any other association related to the local and federal government. So when they get sick, they will go to the doctors and of course, in doctor offices, they have to provide their identification and when they provide that the government get notified and put that person behind bars or deport them back to their country. Furthermore, in 1996 the United States put the agencies in the border, so people can’t come to the United States illegally. 

           The author Dawkins, who is a sociology professor at the University of Miami discusses the political view of immigration. The article was Elian who was required to go back to his country Cuba, because of the changes in the immigration policy. He entered the country when he was young because there were political issues going around in his country. The issue was the Communist was controlling Cuba for Miami. There were other people who also fled from Cuba to the United States through the Sea for their safety. However, after the issue was over the young people were required to go back but people don’t want to because they felt safer in the United States. But the government started to catch people and deport to their country of origin( Dawkins). The political relationship between the United States and the home country should not be the primary basis for deciding what is best for children. The case of Elian leads the United States in a debate on what to do for young children. There are people who feel there should be a policy named “Child Protection” because there are a lot of countries around the world and in most of the countries there are issues between the government and the people, as a result, there are wars and that harms children negatively. 

           The past few immigration policies included the deportation of certain types and groups of people. There are people who agree with the changes in immigration policies however there are many people who disagree with the immigration policies. They want changes for safety reasons, but they do not want any policy that separates families. For example, let’s say there is a war going on in the United States neighboring country Canada and this lady who is pregnant and her due date is near and she has to migrate to the United States for her and her baby’s safety and then when she comes to the United States and gives birth to the baby her baby becomes a United States Citizen and when the war ends back in her country she has to go back to living her newborn baby because that baby is a United States born baby. 

           Faux Jeff is the author of the Nation. In his article, he discusses rhetoric related to immigration that will likely be used as part of the 2020 U.S. presidential election campaign. He discusses that Donald Trump, the President of the United States wants to build a wall between Mexico and the United States because he feels that building that wall will stop illegal immigrants from coming to the United States (Faux). Trump is the Republican Political Party the Republicans don’t support immigrants as much as the Democratic does. In his terms, President Barack Obama did a lot of things for the immigrants. He gave medical insurance to immigrants with low income. In addition, he provided legal documents for illegal immigrants. 

           In her book, Patricia writes about immigrants but she mainly focuses on immigrants from Mexico. In her book, she discussed that Mexican Immigrants started to settle down in the United States. They are not going back to their countries. And according to the studies, Mexicans are the highest number of illegal immigrants. 4% of the United States population are illegal or undocumented (Patricia).  The immigration policies would not be changed as much as it did now if there were no illegal immigrants. The government had to change laws over time because of illegal immigrants. There are immigrants who came to the United States for a few months or years but once they start to like it they don’t want to leave the country and stay even after when their visas expire. There are also people who do the crime. They harm the Americans negatively. The United States of government wants the safety of its people. She also stated Mexican come to America for a better job opportunity back in their country they worked in a bad condition with a low wage. Between 1943 we 1964 there were 4.5 million temporary guest workers. But that time some settled permanently by hiding. Also, there was a social clash between the Americans and Mexicans. Americans feared that the Mexicans will take over the United States. 

           In the article in history, there was a lot of details about the immigration policies and how it has changed over the years. The first immigration policy was in January 1776 the first-ever policy it was named “ White People of ‘Good Character’ Granted Citizenship”. It was after Thomas Paine published the Pamphlet which argues the American Independence. Most of the colonies considered themselves Britons which are the people from great Britain however Thomas made the policy that all people living in the United States will be called Americans. Irish Immigrant Wave was between 1820 and 1860,  “5 million German immigrants also come to the U.S., many of them making their way to the Midwest to buy farms or settle in cities”(History). The Chinese Exclusion Act passes, which bans Chinese immigrants from entering the U.S. “Beginning in the 1850s, a steady flow of Chinese workers had immigrated to America. The Chinese worked in the gold mines, and garment factories built railroads and took agricultural jobs. Although Chinese immigrants make up only 0.002 percent of the United States population, white workers blame them for low wages” (History.com). During Ellis Island U.S. immigration about 1.3 million people entered the country illegally. New Restrictions at the start of WWI limits the number of immigrants allowed into the United States yearly through nationality quotas. Under the new quota system, “the United States issues immigration visas to 2 percent of the total number of people of each nationality in the United States at the 1890 census. Amnesty to Illegal Immigrants U.S. Senators propose the first Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which would provide a pathway to legal status for Dreamers, undocumented immigrants brought to the United States illegally by their parents as children”. This evidence shows that the United States immigration changed several times in the past few decades. The changes in the policy affected people of different ethnicity. 

           In his article, Radford states that every year more than one million immigrants arrive in the United States. And there are many types of Visas for them. Since 2010 a large amount of ethnicity was  Asian and Hispanic Immigrants. Asians are projected to become the largest immigrant group in the U.S. by 2055 (Radford). The majority of the immigrants live in New York and California. He also stated that immigrants have a low level of education and its hard for them to find a job in the United States. Some Americans see immigrants as a threat because they feel they are coming from a different country, as a result, their lifestyle will be totally different. Americans also fail to understand the reason why people immigrate there. The United States economy runs on immigrants. According to the United States census majority of the Americans were once immigrants and Donald Trump’s this new policy will discriminate them. 

           In addition, for my interview, I interviewed a family who immigrated to the United States in the 1980s I asked “ How did you feel when you first came to the United States?”  person X said, “ When I first came to the United States I wanted to go back to Bangladesh because I didn’t like it at all and people were racist but because of financial issues I could not and thank god I didn’t go back because today my kids are very successful.” In addition, they stated that the government regarding the immigration policy also changed it was as strict as it is now. I asked person Y “Do you agree with Donald Trump deporting people?” The person replied, “ I feel like if someone came to the United States they came for a reason they probably don’t feel safe in their country, as a result, they should get some type of permission to stay here.” I also asked how did the Donald Trump new immigration policies affect you?” person X replied, “It didn’t affect me personally but I feel like children from other countries should have the opportunity to come to the United States and experience the jobs.” From my interview, I found out that Americans and immigrants were not happy with the new Trump immigration policy. Thye feels Trump is being unfair to people. 

           In conclusion, the immigration policies in the United States have changed over the years it took a major turn after President Donald Trump came in power. The president made several changes to the policy. He also banned people from eight different Muslim countries from coming to the United States. There are people who deserve to stay in the United States while others don’t. The change of policies changed drastically compared to the 1800s. There will be more changes in the policies. For a future study, I would recommend the writer to have enough time and sources to write their essay. 

Works Cited 

Dawkins, Marvin P. “Rethinking U.S. Immigration Policy.” Black Issues in Higher Education, 27 Apr. 2000, p. 120. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A62297190/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=3f2adfc2. Accessed 7 Oct. 2019.

Faux, Jeff. “TRUMP’S 2020 IMMIGRATION TRAP.” Nation. 15 Apr. 2019, Vol. 308 Issue 10, p20-22. EBSCOHost, https://web-b-ebscohost-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=18&sid=5d84144e-eaea-490c-a7db-f68c35c68b70%40pdc-v-sessmgr02&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=135594913&db=a9h. Accessed 7 Oct.2019. 

Haanstad, Nancy N. “U.S. Immigration Policy in an Age of Rights.” The Social Science Journal, vol. 38, no. 3, 2001, p. 485. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A78901867/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=b4399374. Accessed 7 Oct. 2019. 

History.com. “U.S. Immigration Timeline.”History. Dec. 21.2018. A&E Television Networks. https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/immigration-united-states-timeline. Accessed Oct. 20, 2019. 

Macgregor, Patricia. “US IMMIGRATION POLICIES AND THEIR EFFECTS ON SPANISH-SPEAKING COMMUNITIES.” International Journal of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest, vol. 32, no. 2, 2013, p. 111+. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A535996031/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=4a343bd7. Accessed 7 Oct. 2019.

Pierce, Sarah, Selee Andrew. “Immigration under Trump: A Review of Policy Shifts in the Year Since the Election.” Migration Policy Institute.  Dec. 2017. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/immigration-under-trump-review-policy-shifts. Accessed 28 Oct. 2019. 

“President Trump’s Executive Orders on Immigration and Refugees”. Center for Migration Studies. 2017. https://cmsny.org/trumps-executive-orders-immigration-refugees/

Radford, Jynah. “Key Findings about U.S/ Immigration.” Pew Research Center, 17 June 2019.  www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/17/key-findings-about-u-s-immigrants/ 

“Why Does the U.S. Need Immigration Reform.” Open Society Foundation. May 2019. https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/explainers/why-does-us-need-immigration-reform. Accessed 22 Oct. 2019.