This is a Nation born of immigrants and routinely sustained by a regular flow of immigrants. There have been, over the years, attempts to regulate this flow for a myriad of reasons. The advent of the post-9/11 era has given more weight to knee jerk reactions to this question than we have normally seen throughout or history. Predictably so, as 9/11 signifies the first modern day attack on American soil.
What follows is not a point of view, rather a summary look at this history. In some way, we need to come to terms with the societal changes occurring all over the globe; not just the changes inside our own borders. Bob Dylan knew this a long time time ago, in a far off land; “….for the times they are a changing…’”.
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(to wit:)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Naturalization is the process of gaining United States citizenship. Becoming an American citizen is the ultimate goal for many immigrants, but very few people are aware that the requirements for naturalization have been over 200 years in the making.
Legislative History of Naturalization
Before applying for naturalization, most immigrants must have spent 5 years as a permanent resident in the United States. How did we come up with the "5-year rule"? The answer is found in the legislative history of immigration to the U.S. Naturalization requirements are set out in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), the basic body of immigration law. Before the INA was created in 1952, a variety of statutes governed immigration law. Let's take a look at the major changes to naturalization requirements.
· Before the Act of March 26, 1790, naturalization was under the control of the individual states. This first federal activity established a uniform rule for naturalization by setting the residence requirement at 2 years.
· The Act of January 29, 1795 repealed the 1790 act, and raised the residence requirement to 5 years. It also required, for the first time, a declaration of intention to seek citizenship at least 3 years before naturalization.
· Along came the Naturalization Act of June 18, 1798 - a time when political tensions were running high and there was an increased desire to guard the nation. The residence requirement for naturalization was raised from 5 years to 14 years.
· Four years later, Congress passed the Naturalization Act of April 14, 1802, which reduced the residence period for naturalization from 14 years back to 5 years.
· The Act of May 26, 1824 made it easier for the naturalization of certain aliens who had entered the U.S. as minors, by setting a 2-year instead of a 3-year interval between declaration of intention and admission to citizenship.
· The Act of May 11, 1922 was an extension of a 1921 Act, and included an amendment that changed the residency requirement in a Western Hemisphere country from 1 year to the current requirement of 5 years.
· Noncitizens who had served honorably in the U.S. armed forces during the Vietnam conflict or in other periods of military hostilities, were recognized in the Act of October 24, 1968. This act amended the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, providing an expedited naturalization process for these military members.
· The 2-year continuous U.S. residence requirement was done away with in the Act of October 5, 1978.
· A major overhaul of immigration law occurred with the Immigration Act of November 29, 1990. In it, state residency requirements were reduced to the current requirement of 3 months.
Naturalization Requirements Today
Today's general naturalization requirements state that you must have 5 years as a lawful permanent resident in the U.S. prior to filing, with no single absence from the U.S. of more than 1 year. In addition, you must have been physically present in the U.S. for at least 30 months out of the previous 5 years and resided within a state or district for at least 3 months.
It is important to note that there are exceptions to the 5-year rule for certain people. These include: spouses of U.S. citizens; employees of the U.S. Government (including the U.S. Armed Forces); American research institutes recognized by the Attorney General; recognized U.S. religious organizations; U.S. research institutions; an American firm engaged in the development of foreign trade and commerce of the U.S.; and certain public international organizations involving the U.S.
Source: immigration.about.com/.../usimmigrationhistory/The_History_of_ ...Cached - Similar
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History
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
American immigration history can be viewed in four epochs: the colonial period, the mid-nineteenth century, the turn of the twentieth, and post-1965. Each period brought distinct national groups, races, and ethnicities to the United States. During the seventeenth century, approximately 175,000 Englishmen migrated to Colonial America. Over half of all European immigrants to Colonial America during the 17th and 18th centuries arrived as indentured servants. The mid-nineteenth century saw mainly an influx from northern Europe; the early twentieth-century mainly from Southern and Eastern Europe; post-1965 mostly from Latin America and Asia.
Historians estimate that less than one million immigrants—perhaps as few as 400,000—crossed the Atlantic during the 17th and 18th centuries. The 1790 Act limited naturalization to "free white persons"; it was expanded to include blacks in the 1860s and Asians in the 1950s. In the early years of the United States, immigration was fewer than 8,000 people a year, including French refugees from the slave revolt in Haiti. After 1820, immigration gradually increased. From 1836 to 1914, over 30 million Europeans migrated to the United States. The death rate on these transatlantic voyages was high, during which one in seven travelers died. In 1875, the nation passed its first immigration law.
The peak year of European immigration was in 1907, when 1,285,349 persons entered the country. By 1910, 13.5 million immigrants were living in the United States. In 1921, the Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act, followed by the Immigration Act of 1924. The 1924 Act was aimed at further restricting the Southern and Eastern Europeans, especially Jews, Italians, and Slavs, who had begun to enter the country in large numbers beginning in the 1890s. Most of the European refugees fleeing the Nazis and World War II were barred from coming to the United States.
The welfare system was practically non-existent before the 1930s and the economic pressures on the poor were giving rise to child labor.
Immigration patterns of the 1930s were dominated by the Great Depression, which hit the U.S. hard and lasted over ten years there. In the final prosperous year, 1929, there were 279,678 immigrants recorded, but in 1933, only 23,068 came to the U.S. In the early 1930s, more people emigrated from the United States than immigrated to it. The U.S. government sponsored a Mexican Repatriation program which was intended to encourage people to voluntarily move to Mexico, but thousands were deported against their will. Altogether about 400,000 Mexicans were repatriated. In the post-war era, the Justice Department launched Operation Wetback, under which 1,075,168 Mexicans were deported in 1954. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the Hart-Cellar Act, abolished the system of national-origin quotas. By equalizing immigration policies, the act resulted in new immigration from non-European nations, which changed the ethnic make-up of the United States. While European immigrants accounted for nearly 60% of the total foreign population in 1970, they accounted for only 15% in 2000. Immigration doubled between 1965 and 1970, and again between 1970 and 1990. In 1990, George H. W. Bush signed the Immigration Act of 1990, which increased legal immigration to the United States by 40%. Appointed by Bill Clinton, the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform recommended reducing legal immigration from about 800,000 people per year to approximately 550,000. While an influx of new residents from different cultures presents some challenges, "the United States has always been energized by its immigrant populations," said President Bill Clinton in 1998. "America has constantly drawn strength and spirit from wave after wave of immigrants. They have proved to be the most restless, the most adventurous, the most innovative, the most industrious of people."
Nearly eight million immigrants came to the United States from 2000 to 2005, more than in any other five-year period in the nation's history. Almost half entered illegally. Since 1986, Congress has passed seven amnesties for illegal immigrants. In 1986, Ronald Reagan signed immigration reform that gave amnesty to 3 million illegal immigrants in the country. Hispanic immigrants were among the first victims of the late-2000s recession, but since the recession's end in June 2009, immigrants posted a net gain of 656,000 jobs. 1.1 million immigrants were granted legal residence in 2009.
Persons Obtaining Legal Permanent Resident Status Fiscal Years
| Year | | Year | | Year | |
| 1950 | 249,187 | 1987 | 601,516 | 2008 | 1,107,126 |
| 1967 | 361,972 | 1997 | 797,847 | 2009 | 1,130,818 |
| 1977 | 462,315 | 2007 | 1,052,415 | 2010 | 1,042,625 |
Source: US Department of Homeland Security, Persons Obtaining Legal Permanent Resident Status: Fiscal Years 1820 to 2010
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Immigration to the United States has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of the history of the United States. The economic, social, and political aspects of immigration have caused controversy regarding ethnicity, economic benefits, jobs for non-immigrants, settlement patterns, impact on upward social mobility, crime, and voting behavior. As of 2006, the United States accepts more legal immigrants as permanent residents than all other countries in the world combined. Since the removal of ethnic quotas in immigration in 1965, the number of first- generation immigrants living in the United States has quadrupled, from 9.6 million in 1970 to about 38 million in 2007. 1,046,539 persons were naturalized as U.S. citizens in 2008. The leading emigrating countries to the United States were Mexico, India, the Philippines, and China.
The cheap airline travel post-1960 facilitated travel to the United States, but migration remains difficult, expensive, and dangerous for those who cross the United States–Mexico border illegally. Family reunification accounts for approximately two-thirds of legal immigration to the US every year. The number of foreign nationals who became legal permanent residents (LPRs) of the U.S. in 2009 as a result of family reunification (66%) outpaced those who became LPRs on the basis of employment skills (13%) and humanitarian reasons (17%).
Recent debates on immigration have called for increasing enforcement of existing laws with regard to illegal immigration to the United States, building a barrier along some or all of the 2,000-mile (3,200 km) U.S.-Mexico border, or creating a new guest worker program. Through much of 2006, the country and Congress was immersed in a debate about these proposals. As of April 2010, few of these proposals had become law, though a partial border fence was approved and subsequently canceled.
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“and, the beat goes on......” ( Sonny & Cher)
The
solution might be multifaceted, and, as such, require folks from all corners
and persuasions of the Political, Social, and Economic spectra to actually
agree on something other than their own trite, insignificant agendas. A
practical proposal would take “a little of this, and a little of that” to
construct at least the framework of a comprehensive, long-term plan of action.
This may best be served by, first, looking at the short-term; three to five
years out. Follow this with a seamless transition to a long-term, permanent
Policy, Legislation, and/or an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Categories – Normal, modern-day flow of immigration; refugee
immigration; student visas; tourist visas; business visas; any more that make
sense; permanent vs. temporary; keep it simple; *based on the U.S.
Constitution, there is a division between Church and State, so Church will not
be a considered
Tracking – U.S. citizens who leave the Country and end up
in a war zone aiding, abetting, or fighting for the enemy will automatically
forfeit his/her U.S. citizenship and passport/visa –they will not be allowed to
re-enter the U.S., ever; for temporary entrants, a strict no nonsense
verification method (a three month, or one semester, re-registration
stipulation); any deviation from this will result in immediate expulsion and a
ban on re-entry; certain restrictions on Social Services will apply
Entry - airports and seaports designated and fully equipped to handle the processing of immigrants; as for the borders - the Nation must make a decision to stop
invading other Countries with armed forced; The northern and southern borders
can then be patrolled by the Army National Guard rotating on a State-by-State
basis; Naval Reserve will help enhance to Coast Guard; the Air Force Reserve
will secure the air space; this will guarantee that the Nation will have a “well maintained Militia” as eluded to in the
2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution; appropriate, modern surveillance techniques
and hardware will be used in all instances; ( a collateral spin-off might just
be a gross reduction in drug and human smuggling across all four borders)
Path to Citizenship – a one-size-fits-all program; must learn to be
proficient in English; residency rules will apply; birth in the U.S. does not
make one a citizen until parent(s) fully fulfill their obligation; certain
restrictions on Social Services between entry and citizenship
It
is probably unrealistic to think about a Constitutional Amendment. The current
state of the Federal Congress might preclude any meaningful legislation. That
leaves a State-by-State nationwide referendum as the most viable way of
achieving the goal. A simple 2/3rds majority should seal the deal. The referendum in each State will be identical; no changes allowed; and, definitely
no “ear-marks”, or addendums. There will be no list of “exemptions”, thus
closing out any attempt at creating “loopholes”. 
