Immigration Enforcement
Immigration Enforcement
Arguably, enforcement of immigration regulations and laws has and remains to be an overwhelming task in the context of the United States. This culminates from various factors that have and continue to jeopardize immigration enforcement. One of the primary issues that jeopardize immigration enforcement is the skewed immigration enforcement on the U.S. borders rather than in the whole United States context. Precisely, immigration enforcement has often been focused on the borders at the expense of the interior contexts of the United States. This is evident by more resources in terms of hours and staff that are allotted to immigration enforcement at the U.S. borders. In facts, statistics indicates that budgetary allocations for border patrols between the year 1997 and 2003 doubled. During the said period, enforcement of other immigration laws within the interior contexts of the United States decreased.
Skewed enforcement of immigration at the borders accrues as an immigration enforcement issue based on the primary fact that illegal immigration cannot be solved by focusing on the borders only. A significant proportion of illegal aliens; close to 12 million reside in the United States. As such, immigration enforcement at the borders begs the question; what will we do with the 12 million illegal aliens who are residing in the interior contexts of the United States. The second immigration enforcement issue is alien smuggling and trafficking. Notably, alien smuggling and trafficking occurs in cases where a legal United States citizen knowingly conceals an illegal immigrant and facilitates the movement of the alien across various United States contexts. In addition, this practice is evident in cases where an American citizen encourages and facilitates the coming of an illegal immigrant to the United States while disregarding the illegal presence of such persons.
Alien smuggling and trafficking is an immigration enforcement issue because it jeopardizes efforts put in place to reduce the influx of illegal immigrants in the United States. The recent past has experienced a rise in cases where business entities have been found to have employed illegal immigrants, despite having knowledge that they are in the United States illegally. Many at times, such employers disregard the need to ensure that all employers fill Employment Eligibility Verification (Form I-9), which constitute as some of the most indispensable elements of immigration enforcement. Finally, the third immigration issue that poses an immense influence on immigration enforcement is immigration fraud. Notably, immigration fraud has and continues to jeopardize implementation of immigration reforms aimed at containing the progressive rise in illegal immigration. Evidently, there exists two forms of immigration fraud; immigration benefit fraud and immigration-related document fraud. Immigration benefit fraud emanates from wilful misrepresentation of material facts, even in the absence of lawful admissibility, which allows illegal immigrants to obtain immigration benefit (In Hessick et al., 2014). Conversely, immigration-related document fraud accrues from counterfeiting, sale and use of document used to proof identity such as alien registration documents, visas, birth certificates, and passports. These two forms of fraud have and continue to daunt immigration enforcement.
As previously mentioned herein, the status of illegal immigration in the United States poses as daunting task for the federal government. With more than 12 million illegal immigrants to deal with, the federal government may not be able to implement immigration enforcement. For this purpose, state and local law enforcement agencies can offer immense assistance in carrying out immigration enforcement. While it is true that state and local enforcement agencies often exercise federal power in immigration enforcement such as arresting illegal aliens, it is of the essence to note that these agencies also have the authority to craft and enforce their own immigration policies. The authority that allows state and local agencies to create and enforce their own immigration policies emanate from the fact that states are regarded as sovereign entities. States have the residual power that are not limited by the U.S. Constitution. In a nutshell, states have police powers, which means that they have sovereign right to create and implement policies that are aimed at protecting the live and welfare of its populations (In Hessick et al., 2014). For this purpose, state and local law enforcement arms have powers to create their own immigration policies, except for cases where the U.S. Constitution prohibit such actions.
Component of the U.S. Department Of Homeland Security Is Responsible For Immigration Enforcement
A close analysis of the various components of U.S. Department of Homeland Security shows that the component that is responsible for immigration enforcement is the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Notably, this component executes a wider array of tasks aligned with immigration enforcement. More importantly, ICE implements a wider array of federal laws that govern immigration, customs, trade, and border control (Pinkowski, 2008). All the tasks enshrined to the ICE are intended to promote public safety and homeland security.
Federal Government’s ability to adequately enforce immigration policy
The current status of illegal immigrants whereby close to 12 million of immigrants are out-of-status makes it difficult for the federal government to enforce immigration policy. Since the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security, which is under the realm of the federal government, little has bene attained in containing the influx of aliens. In fact, the previous years have experienced an annual increase of aliens whereby close to 500,000 aliens come to America every year (LeMay, 2004). This is a comprehensive justification that the federal government does not have the capability to enforce immigration policy.
Proposed Policy Changes that should be adopted by Homeland Security in order to enhance Enforcement of Immigration Policy
Despite the difficulties that have and continue to jeopardize efforts to implement immigration policy, there are certain changes that can leverage the ability of Homeland Security to implement immigration policy. Above all, Homeland Security needs to streamline its policy framework in order to ensure that state and local authorities are empowered to meet their responsibilities to enforce immigration reforms and policies (Pinkowski, 2008). Secondly, Homeland Security needs to adopt realistic, honest, and fair approach to immigration enforcement. Homeland Security can attain this by appreciating the fact that local and state authorities are equal partners in immigration enforcement. This will assure that state and local authorities engage in concerted efforts aimed at addressing immigration issues.
References
In Hessick, C. B., & In Chin, G. J. (2014). Strange Neighbours: The role of states in immigration policy.
LeMay, M. C. (2004). U.S. immigration: A reference handbook. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC- CLIO.
Pinkowski, J. (2008). Homeland Security Handbook. Boston: CRC Press.
