Immigration policies in the United States:

Immigration policies in the United States:

At a time when Europeans are trying to agree on the establishment of laws concerning the control of legal immigration or the right to asylum, and the fight against illegal immigration, it is useful to look into the arrangements made in this regard by the United States.

Over the past decade, the United States has recorded the strongest wave of immigration in American history: the latest 2000 census figures reveal that of a total population of 281.4 million Americans, 31.1 million were born abroad or have parents born abroad, 11.3 million more than in 1990 - an increase of 57%. Added to this, countless people entered the United States through paralegal means. No country has yet faced such a rate of immigration. The country of immigrants par excellence, the United States has often used immigration as an economic and social tool to increase productivity or strengthen ethnic integration. After the upheaval associated with the September 11 attacks, supporters of immigration restrictions argued that the integration of immigrants from Latin America was costly for social services, but their arguments clashed with those of supporters of the openness, for which, on the contrary, the influx of cheap labor helped fuel the economic growth of the 1990s.
I. Immigration control: content of the main laws and reforms.

The history of immigration to the United States is made up of attempts to control legal and illegal immigration. Legislation passed by the new American Republic in 1790 was already beginning to regulate both. The first three immigration laws of 1790 deal with naturalization, with increasingly stringent requirements [Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution gives Congress the power “to establish a uniform rule of naturalization. »], While the first law to regulate the presence of aliens on American soil was the Aliens Act of 1798. Since then, many immigration laws have been passed. These laws reflect the historical context, the problems, hopes and fears of their time. Since 1891, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (or INS) has been tasked with implementing and enforcing these measures.

In particular, the Congress and the President of the United States set new immigration targets to partially curb illegal immigration from Mexico in the 1970s and 1980s.

The most important reforms are:

• The Refugee Act of 1980, “Refugee Act of March 17, 1980 (94 Statutes-at-Large 102)”: which regulates the admission of refugees to the United States and transforms the right of asylum into law. It is the first systematic procedure for the admission and resettlement of refugees based on special humanitarian concerns. The Refugee Act limits the worldwide quota to 270,000. Even though the Act eliminated refugees as a preference category, it still adjusted the permanent resident status of refugees who had been physically present on American soil for. at least one year, and that of asylum seekers one year after being offered asylum.

• The 1986 Amnesty and Immigration Reforms, “Immigration Reform and Control Act of November 6, 1986 (IRCA) (100 Statutes-at-Large 3359)”: is an attempt to control the influx of illegal immigrants by regularizing the most of those already living in the United States and reducing incentives and incentives to prospective immigrants trying to enter and / or stay in the United States illegally. In fact, this reform is a kind of middle ground between two opposing forces (the 'nativists' and the workers' unions on the one hand, and the many employers who resort to illegal immigrant workers) in the debate on illegal immigration.

Sanctions are created in the form of fines and / or prison terms against employers who knowingly hire illegal workers. Previously it was illegal to be an undocumented immigrant worker while at the same time it was not illegal to employ an undocumented immigrant worker.

• The Legal Immigration Reform of 1990, “Immigration Act of November 29, 1990 (104 Statutes-at-Large 4978)”: is a major overhaul of immigration law, introducing new categories and quotas for immigration to the United States. The law raised the annual immigration cap to 675,000, of which 480,000 will be “family sponsored” (ie based on relationship to a parent of US citizenship), 140,000 based on employment and 55,000 various immigrants.


The Immigration Act of 1990 also provides temporary status to