Immigration is not a new challenge to America. Since its independence, the country has been trying its level best to restrict immigration, especially illegal immigration. As such, it has formed many immigration laws that have been and continues to be constantly revised to manage the increasing flow of immigrant into the country. This paper review some of these policies as well as provides a review of an immigrants experience in coming to America.
National Origins Quota Act, 1929 - Admitting Jewish Refugee Children in 1939
The Congress enacted the 1929 National Origins Quota Act as a fixation of the 1924 Immigration Act. The 1924 Immigration Act established crucial a refined quota system that regulated the number of people coming to the United States on the basis of their nationality. The quotas prior to 1924 had set the immigration limit to 3% of all immigrant population in the United States in the 1910 census ( Greenwood & Ward, 2015) . However, the 1924 quota system reduced this limit to 2% of foreign-born population as well as pushed back the year upon which the quota calculations were based to 1890. In so doing, the act limited the number of available visas to immigrants to 350,000 per year ( Greenwood & Ward, 2015). Unlike the previous quota system whose calculation was based on the immigrant population in the united states, the 1924 quota system based its calculation on nationality. Moreover, the 1924 quota system also like other laws restricted the immigration of Asians into the United States. The Act particularly abolished the admission of the Japanese to the United States. Besides maintaining these clauses, the 1929 National Quota Act reduced the available visa further and fixed them to 150,000 per year ( Greenwood & Ward, 2015) .
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Following the 1930s Hitler’s regime vendetta, thousands of Jews desperately sought a safe haven in other countries including the United States. At the time, the united states was facing a tough economic climate resulting from the Great Depression and a rampant xenophobia which made admitting fleeing Jews to the United States a political impossibility. As such, Americans rejected by more than 80% a 1939 bill that sought to admit 20,000 Jewish children who were 14 years and below from the persecution of Nazi Germany ( Friedman, 2017 ). The pressure from the public opinion forced president Roosevelt to reject it ensuring that it never made it to a voting stage in the Congress.
These two readings have numerous connection. Firstly, both of them were bound a pre-existing quota system that limited the number of immigrants admissible to the United States. These quota system restrained the United States from admitting the Jews even though theirs was a humanitarian crises. Secondly, the two had a preexisting condition that could not allow the country to admit the refugees. On one side, the 1929 National Quota Act was informed by the events of the First World War as well as the increasing tension that would lead to the Second World War 10 years later ( Friedman, 2017) . On the other hand, the rejection of the Jews was informed by the poor economic condition of the country as well as the national hate of the Jews as Americans blamed them for their economic woes.
The Marial Boat People - Immigration Reform and Control Act, 1986
The Marial boats brought thousands of Cuban emigrants into the United States. On 20 th April 1980, the Castrol regime announced that any Cuban wishing to emigrate to America was free to board the Marial boats as Cuba had an ailing economy that was simmering internal conflict in the country ( Alfonso, 2016) . The pilling pressure prompted Castrol to open the port of Mariel to anyone wishing to leave to the United states and other countries so long as someone was waiting for them on the other side. His declaration saw Cuban immigrants already in the United States hire boats to rescue their relatives. As a result, 125,000 Cubans made their way into the United States in approximately 17000 boats resulting in the death of 27 immigrants ( Alfonso, 2016) .
The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act on the other hand amended, revised and reformed unauthorized immigrants’ status as stipulated in the Immigration and Nationality Act. The act permitted every unauthorized immigrant in the United states to apply as well as gain legal status as long as they met the mandated requirements. The applicants were required to prove that they had lived and not left the country since the 1 st of January 1982 ( Zuckerman, Waidmann, & Lawton, 2011) . They were also required to have no criminal record as well as either possess adequate knowledge of the United States history, English language, and government or be undertaking an Attorney General proven study course.
In both cases, the United States failed in its quest of stopping illegal immigration. In the case of the Mariel boat people, America ended up admitting 125000 Cubans increasing their population in the country. Similarly, the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act opened the doors for illegal immigration in the country which increased the number of illegal immigrants in the United States from 5 million in 1986 to the current 11.1 million ( Zuckerman, Waidmann, & Lawton, 2011 ).
Status of Immigration Reform in 2007 - Immigration Restriction League Outlines
The 2007 Immigration Reform sought to deal with the large number of the illegal immigrants in America. The bill called for increased border security efforts as well as the creation of a flexible temporary work program that can be tightened or expanded depending on the state of the American economy. Moreover, the bill sought to bring the immigrants out of the hiding by granting a path to citizenship to majority of those who would meet certain conditions. Nevertheless, the proponents of the bill sought little mobilization to support it. Influential groups such as AFL-CIO were against the proposed guest-worker programs that were meant to attract the support of GOP and Big Business. Similarly, the bill did not get the support of major pro-immigration groups in the united states among them the League of Latin American Citizens. Consequently, the bill never made it passed the congress as it was voted out when it only received 46 votes out of the 60 required votes (Tichenor, 2009).
Similarly, the Immigration Restriction League Outlines demanded a number of things to be included into the immigration policy. The bill called for the increase of the immigration restrictions by numerical limitation means, a demand that sought to attract individuals with kindred values from the North and Western Europe and the expense of those from Southern and Eastern Europe (Hayes, 2012). The bill also called for the increase of duty on alien passengers in order to maintain as well as support the inspection and deportation of illegal immigrants. It required the aliens to pay five dollars instead of the two dollars they paid to enter the United States. However, the bill exempted citizens from Cuba, Canada, Mexico, and the United States (Tichenor, 2009). The bill as well prohibited transportation companies to land undesirable aliens that included feeble-minded individuals, imbeciles, insane persons as well as epileptics into the country. Finally, the bill introduced deportation of public charges to promote the deportation of unauthorized immigrants who entered the country in violation of immigration laws. The bill stipulated that companies that facilitated such immigration would pay half the cost of deporting the immigrants.
The two readings have numerous similarities. Both of them sought to increase immigration. The 2007 would increase the number of immigrants into the country by granting them citizens and temporary work permits provided they meet the minimum conditions. Likewise, the Immigration Restriction League Outline would increase the number of immigrants by favouring those from North and Western Europe from 189,177 to 1,090,500 (Tichenor, 2009). The two readings also prohibited the facilitation of illegal immigration into the United States. The 2007 and seven made it illegal for employers to hire or protect any illegal immigrant while the Immigration Restriction League Outline prohibited transportation from facilitating illegal immigrants entry into the United States by requiring them to pay half of their deportation fee.
Sacco-Vanzetti case – Father Charles Coughlin
The Sacco-Vanzetti case is one of the famous cases involving immigrants in the United States to these day. On the 25 th of May 1920, two Italian immigrants, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti who were also anarchists, were arrested for violent robbery that led to the death of four people and the theft of $15,700 ( Joughin & Morgan, 2015 ). The two men were convicted of robbery and murder a few years later, despite the fact that the presented evidence was circumstantial. Neither Sacco nor Vanzetti had a criminal record, and the money was never recovered. Moreover, Sacco and Vanzetti were denied request to a new trial irrespective of their seven appeals and were sentenced to death in 1927 and were later executed via the electric chair. As anarchist, the Sacco and Vanzetti were fed up with the poor living of immigrants and the exploitation of immigrant workers by the Capitalist system of the United States. At the time, the government was cracking down on all anarchist whom they believed were planning to overthrow the government and starts over ( Joughin & Morgan, 2015) . In 1924, immigration quotas restricting the immigration of Italians as part of people from the Southern and Eastern Europe was passed into law. On the contrary to the government expectation, the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti martyred them and attracted worldwide protest and faulted the United States for injustice.
On the other hand, Father Charles Coughlin, an Irish immigrant who was a strong supporter of Franklin Roosevelt as well as his New Deal, become one of the greatest critics of American government. He vehemently blamed the president and his programs for the high unemployment rates and poverty in the United States during the 1930s. Moreover, Coughlin turned to the right to seek support of Mussolini and Hitler. With his new found support, Coughlin carried on with his vicious attacks on the government under the pretense of social justice.
The two reading share a radical dimension. In both cases, the principle participants are vicious critics of the government. Both the Sacco and Vanzetti blamed the government for the massive suffering of the immigrants as a result of exploitation by the American capitalist system. Likewise, Father Coughlin blamed the government for the high unemployment rates and the economic challenges that Americans were facing at the time. According to him, if there was anyone to blame for the ailing economy, it was president Roosevelt and his New Deal programs.
Coming to America Experience
John Yuan Lee is an immigrant from China. Lee came into the United States 10 years ago as a student but managed to secure a job in the country after he graduated. Since then, Lee has lived and married a fellow immigrant and together they have two kids. When he first came to America, Lee encounter a cultural shock as the American way of life was no where near to his homeland lifestyle. In America people were more solitary and operated in a capitalist economy. With time, however, Lee adopted to the lifestyle in America leading to his loss of identity through a gradual assimilation process. He started living every aspect of the American life and even consuming their cultural products such as entertainment and food among others. Today, Lee is completely Americanized, and he doubts whether he would enjoy life in China if he were to return. His experience mirror the experience of many other immigrants who find it challenging once they come to America but gradually adopt to the lifestyle as they years move on.
References
Alfonso. (2016, November 26). How Fidel Castro and the Mariel boatlift changed lives and changed Miami. Retrieved April 11, 2019, from https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/fidel-castro-en/article117206643.html
Friedman, S. S. (2017). No haven for the oppressed: United States policy toward Jewish refugees, 1938-1945 . Wayne State University Press.
Greenwood, M. J., & Ward, Z. (2015). Immigration quotas, World War I, and emigrant flows from the United States in the early 20th century. Explorations in Economic History , 55 , 76-96.
Hayes, P. J. (Ed.). (2012). The Making of Modern Immigration: An Encyclopedia of People and Ideas [2 volumes] . Abc-clio.
Joughin, L., & Morgan, E. M. (2015). The legacy of Sacco and Vanzetti . Princeton University Press.
Tichenor, D. J. (2009). Dividing lines: The politics of immigration control in America (Vol. 29). Princeton University Press.
Zuckerman, S., Waidmann, T. A., & Lawton, E. (2011). Undocumented immigrants left out of health reform, likely to continue to grow as share of the uninsured. Health Affairs , 30 (10), 1997-2004.
