Illegal immigration to the United States

In Yick Wo v. Hopkins (1886), the court ruled that under the Fourteenth Amendment, all people, regardless of "race, of color, or of nationality" have the right to due process and equal protection under the law.

These regulations immediately created problems of interpretation – the contentious question of who was and was not "white" vexed even the officials charged with enforcing the law and led to significant criticism.

The Union of American Hebrew Congregations noted that under the standing interpretation that Turks, Syrians, Palestinians and Jews were not white, "even Jesus of Nazareth himself" would be excluded from citizenship.

The dean of the College of Public Policy of the University of Texas at San Antonio, Rogelio Saenz, states that lower birth rates and the growing economy in Mexico slowed emigration, creating more jobs for Mexicans.

Saenz also states that Mexican immigrants are no longer coming to find jobs but to flee from violence, noting that the majority of those escaping crime "are far more likely to be naturalized US citizens".

[69] According to a 2017 National Bureau of Economic Research paper, "The number of undocumented immigrants has declined in absolute terms, while the overall population of low-skilled, foreign-born workers has remained stable.

"[70] The Pew Hispanic Center determined that according to an analysis of Census Bureau data about 8 percent of children born in the United States in 2008—about 340,000—were offspring of illegal immigrants.

[74] In October 2018, a second caravan of the year left the city of San Pedro Sula the day after US vice-president, Mike Pence, urged the presidents of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala to persuade their citizens to stay home.

[76] The provisions of the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, which specifies safe repatriation of unaccompanied children (other than those trafficked for sex or forced labor) from countries which do not have a common border with the United States, such as the nations of Central America other than Mexico, made expeditious deportation of the large number of children from Central America who came to the United States in 2014 difficult and expensive, prompting a call by President Barack Obama for an emergency appropriation of $4 billion[77] and resulting in discussions by the Department of Justice and Congress of how to interpret or revise the law in order to expedite handling large numbers of children under the act.

[78] A 2016 study found that Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which allows illegal immigrants who migrated to the United States before their 16th birthday and prior to June 2007 to temporarily stay, did not significantly impact the number of apprehensions of unaccompanied minors from Central America.

[81] The widespread promulgation of false "permiso" rumors by human smugglers, as well as migrant perception of the Obama administration's immigration policies, also played a part in the increase.

[82][83] In April 2018, then-attorney general of the Trump administration Jeff Sessions announced a family separation policy regarding migrants crossing the US southern border without a visa.

[118] In general, illegal immigrants from Mexico and Central America come to the US as they flee from insecurity and violence in their own country (i.e. kidnappings, rape or forced recruitment in gangs),[119][120] or in search for better economic opportunities.

[152] At times illegal hiring has not been prosecuted aggressively: between 1999 and 2003, according to The Washington Post, "work-site enforcement operations were scaled back 95 percent by the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The Act would give lawful permanent residency under certain conditions which include: good moral character, enrollment in a secondary or post-secondary education program, and having lived in the United States at least 5 years.

[175] Although the DREAM Act has not been enacted by federal legislation, a number of its provisions were implemented by a memorandum issued by Janet Napolitano of the Department of Homeland Security during the Obama administration.

[189] In 1995, the United States Congress considered an exemption from the Posse Comitatus Act, which generally prohibits direct participation of US soldiers and airmen (and sailors and marines by policy of the Department of the Navy) in domestic law enforcement activities, such as search, seizure, and arrests.

[190] In 1997, marines shot and killed 18-year-old US citizen Esequiel Hernández Jr[191] while on a mission to interdict smuggling and illegal immigration near the border community of Redford, Texas.

[224][67] According to a 2007 literature review by the Congressional Budget Office, "Over the past two decades, most efforts to estimate the fiscal impact of immigration in the United States have concluded that, in aggregate and over the long term, tax revenues of all types generated by immigrants—both legal and unauthorized—exceed the cost of the services they use.

[273] A case study conducted on Aurora Elementary examined how school personnel quickly developed boundaries to ensure the safety of their students when ICE appeared in the community.

[279][280] Those crossing the border come unprepared, without food, water, proper clothing, or protection from the elements or dangerous animals; sometimes the immigrants are abandoned by those smuggling them.

Media reports that Hernández-Rojas started a physical altercation with patrol agents and later autopsy findings concluded that the suspect had trace amounts of methamphetamine in his blood levels which contributed to his death.

"[284] A 2017 Science study found that Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which allows unauthorized immigrants who migrated to the United States as minors to temporarily stay, led to improved mental health outcomes for the children of DACA-eligible mothers.

[289] A quasi-experimental study found that after the Postville raid in Iowa in 2008, newborns were 24% more likely to be underweight at birth compared to the year before, adjusting for maternal risk factors and country of origin.

[291][292] Many Latina women have been lured under false pretenses to illegally come to the United States and are instead forced to work as prostitutes catering to the immigrant population.

[301] In late December 2017, the US Civil Rights Commission called on Congress and the Department of Homeland Security to investigate abusive labor practices of these private prisons, including other reports saying detainees had been paid less than a dollar a day in the facilities "Voluntary Work Program.

[303] A number of films and at least one novel tell stories based on the infamous voyage of the Golden Venture, a ship carrying would-be illegal immigrants from China that ran aground in New York Harbor in 1993.

[304] How Democracy Works Now: Twelve Stories is a 12-part documentary film series that examines the American political system through the lens of immigration reform from 2001 to 2007, from filmmaking team Shari Robertson and Michael Camerini.

A directors' cut of The Senator's Bargain was featured in the 2010 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Lincoln Center, with the theatrical title Story 12: Last Best Chance.

The films document the attempt to pass comprehensive immigration reform during the years from 2001 to 2007, and present a behind-the-scenes story of the success (and failure) of many bills from that period with an effect on illegal immigration including: Marking Up The Dream, Story Six in the How Democracy Works Now series, focuses on the heated 2003 markup in The Senate Judiciary Committee, contrasting optimistic supporters who viewed The DREAM Act as a small bi-partisan bill that would help children, with opponents who saw the legislation as thinly veiled amnesty.