Illegal immigration to the United States

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• U.S. citizens born outside the United States who are naturalized or citizens by adoption^[31]
• Foreign-born non-citizens with current status to reside and/or work in the U.S. (documented)^[32]
• Foreign-born non-citizens without current status to reside and/or work in the U.S. (illegal)
• Foreign-born non-citizens who are prohibited from entry (illegal and also inadmissible)^[33]

The latter two constitute illegal immigrants: as they have no legal documentation to entitle them to be in the U.S., they are also referred to as undocumented immigrants or undocumented Americans.^[34][35]

Non-citizen residents can be or become illegal in one of four ways: by unauthorized entry, by failure of the employer to pay worker documentation fees, by staying beyond the expiration date of a visa or other authorization, or by violating the terms of legal entry.^{[36][failed verification][37][failed verification]}

History

Rigorous immigration controls were first enacted with the

Since the late 19th century, various Supreme Court rulings established the Constitutional rights of illegal immigrants. 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.^[39] A similar ruling of Wong Wing v. U.S. (1896) stated that all persons within the territory of the United States are afforded equal protections under the Fifth Amendment and Sixth Amendment.^[40]

A 1904 court decision defined any alien as lacking Constitutional rights when not within the United States.^[a]

Legislation

The

The Immigration Act of 1924 established visa requirements and enacted quotas for immigrants from specific countries, especially with low quotas for Southern and Eastern Europeans,.^[45] It especially affected Italians and Jews.^[49] It also prohibited virtually all Asians from immigrating to America.^[50] By 1940, administrative and legislative action had loosened racial restrictions on naturalization of immigrants, including a ruling that Mexicans were considered white for immigration and naturalization purposes, and a law permitting the naturalization of "descendants of races indigenous to the Western Hemisphere."^[48] The quotas were eased in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952.

The decisive opening came in 1965, a year after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination based on race or national origin.^[51] The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 abolished the quota system. The 1965 Act also established several new limits to which immigrants would be admissible for permanent residence in the United States.^[52] A 1990 act increased the annual immigrant limit to 675,000 per year.

In 1996, Congress debated two immigration bills - one focused on limiting legal immigration, and another focused on illegal immigration.^[53] The legal immigration reform bills failed to pass, while the illegal immigration bill was passed in the form of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. President Bill Clinton signed the Act into law and it became effective on April 1, 1997. The key components of the Act included increasing the number of border agents, increasing penalties on those who assisted illegal immigrants into the United States, creating a 10-year re-entry ban on those who had been deported after living in the U.S. illegally for over one year, and expanding the list of crimes that any immigrant (regardless of legal status) could be deported for.

Border controls

As early as 1904, mounted border watchmen were employed by the U.S. Immigration Service to prevent illegal southern border crossings.^[54] Texas Rangers were also often employed along the Texas border with Mexico.^[55]

Increased border militarization in the United States had the unintended consequence of increasing illegal immigration to the United States, as temporary undocumented immigrants who entered the United States seasonally for work opted to stay permanently in the United States and bring their families once it became harder to move across the border regularly.^[56] The U.S. Border Patrol was also officially created in 1924, with its duties in 1925 broadened to include guarding the sea coast. Illegal entry into the United States became a particular problem during Prohibition, when bootleggers and smugglers would illegally enter the country to transport alcohol.^[54]

The debate over illegal immigration has continued amongst the fear of potential terrorist attacks in the wake of the

Profile and demographics

Main article:

Illegal immigrant population of the United States

This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (August 2017)

In 2012, an estimated 14 million people live in families in which the head of household or the spouse is in the United States without authorization.[60] Illegal immigrants arriving recently before 2012 tend to be better educated than those who have been in the country a decade or more. A quarter of all immigrants who have arrived in recently before 2012 have at least some college education. Nonetheless, illegal immigrants as a group tend to be less educated than other sections of the U.S. population: 49 percent have not completed high school, compared with 9 percent of native-born Americans and 25 percent of legal immigrants.^[60] Illegal immigrants work in many sectors of the U.S. economy. Illegal immigrants have lower incomes than both legal immigrants and native-born Americans, but earnings do increase somewhat the longer an individual is in the country.^[60]

Breakdown by state

As of 2014^[update],^[61] the following data table shows a spread of distribution of locations where illegal immigrants reside by state.

Population

From 2005 to 2009, the number of people entering the U.S. illegally every year declined from a yearly average of 850,000 in the early 2000s to 300,000 in 2009, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.^[62] The most recent estimates put the number of illegal immigrants at 11 million in 2015, representing 3.4% of the total U.S. population.^[4] The population of illegal immigrants peaked in 2007, when it was estimated at 12.2 million and 4% of the total U.S. population.^[4][5] As of 2014, illegal immigrant adults had lived in the U.S. for a median of 13.6 years, with approximately two-thirds having lived in the U.S. for at least a decade.^[4] Pew Research estimated in 2017 that there were over seven million illegal immigrants in the U.S. workforce.^[63]

Narrowing the discussion to only Mexican nationals, a 2015 study performed by demographers of the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of New Hampshire found that immigration from Mexico; both legal and illegal, peaked in 2003 and that from the period between 2003 and 2007 to the period of 2008 to 2012, immigration from Mexico decreased 57%. 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 U.S. citizens".^[64]

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. ... because major source countries for U.S. immigration are now seeing and will continue to see weak growth of the labor supply relative to the United States, future immigration rates of young, low-skilled workers appear unlikely to rebound, whether or not U.S. immigration policies tighten further."^[65]

Children

The

For several years, Pueblo Sin Fronteras, which means "People Without Borders" has organized an annual part-protest, part-mass migration march, from Honduras, through Mexico, to the United States border, where asylum in the United States is requested.^[68] In April 2018, the annual "Stations of the Cross Caravan" saw 1,000 Central Americans trying to reach the United States, prompting President Trump to deem it a threat to national security and announce plans to send the national guard to protect the U.S. border.^[69] In October 2018, a second caravan of the year left the city of San Pedro Sula the day after U.S. vice-president, Mike Pence, urged the presidents of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala to persuade their citizens to stay home.^[70]

2011–2016 surge in unaccompanied minors from Central America

Over the period 2011–2016, U.S. Border Patrol apprehended 178,825 unaccompanied minors from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.^[71] 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^[72] 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.^[73]

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.^[74] Rather, the study stated, "the 2008 Williams Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, along with violence in the originating countries and economic conditions in both the countries of origin and the United States, emerge as some of the key determinants of the recent surge in unaccompanied minors apprehended along the southwest U.S.-Mexico border."^[74] According to a 2015 report by the Government Accountability Office, the primary drivers of the surge "were crime and lack of economic opportunity at home. Other reasons included education concerns, desire to rejoin family and aggressive recruiting by smugglers."^[75] A 2017 Center for Global Development study stated that violence was the primary driver behind the surge in unaccompanied Central American minors to the United States: an additional 10 homicides in Central America made 6 unaccompanied children flee to the U.S.^[76] 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.^[77][78]

2018 family separation policy

In April 2018, then-attorney general of the

According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the countries of origin for the largest numbers of illegal immigrants are as follows (as of 2014):[61]

According to the Migration Policy Institute, Mexicans represented 53% of the illegal immigrant population.^[83] The next largest percentages were from Asia (16%), El Salvador (6%), and Guatemala (5%).

The Urban Institute also estimates "between 65,000 and 75,000 Canadians currently live illegally in the United States."^[84]

Trends

In 2017, illegal border crossing arrests hit a 46-year low, and were down 25% from the previous year.^[86] NPR stated that immigrants may be less likely to attempt to enter the U.S. illegally because of President Trump's stance on illegal immigration.^[87][88] The majority of illegal immigrants come from Mexico. Studies have shown that 40 million foreign born residents live in the U.S. 11.7 million of that population is illegal.^[89] During the 1950s, there were 45,000 documented immigrants from Central America. In the 1960s, this number more than doubled to 100,000. In the decade after, it increased to 134,000.^[90] In 2019, after being threatened with punitive tariffs, Mexico agreed to a deal with the U.S. to better stem the flow of migrants passing through the country to enter the U.S.^[91] In September 2019, Mexican foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard stated that immigration to the U.S. through Mexico has decreased significantly, and that this trend is "irreversible. ... It is something that we think will be permanent."^[92]

Illegal entry

There are an estimated half million illegal entries into the United States each year.

Those who leave the United States after overstaying their visa for more than 180 days but less than one year, leave and then attempt to apply for readmission will face a three-year ban which will not allow them to re-enter the U.S. for that period. Those who leave the United States after overstaying their visa for a period of one year or longer, leave and then attempt to apply for readmission will face a ten-year ban.[101]

Border Crossing Card violation

A smaller number of illegal immigrants entered the United States legally using the Border Crossing Card, a card that authorizes border crossings into the U.S. for a set amount of time. Border Crossing Card entry accounts for the vast majority of all registered non-immigrant entry into the United States—148 million out of 179 million total—but there is little hard data as to how much of the illegal immigrant population entered in this way. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates the number at around 250,000–500,000.^[37]

In the workforce

Illegal immigrants within the workforce are extremely vulnerable due to their status. Being illegal makes these individuals susceptible to exploitation by employers as they are more willing to work through bad conditions and low income jobs—consequently making themselves vulnerable to abuse.^[102] Most illegal migrants end up being hired by U.S. employers who exploit the low-wage market produced through immigration. Typical jobs include: janitorial services, clothing production, and household work.^[102]

Many illegal Latin American immigrants are inclined to the labor market because of the constraints they have with their job opportunities. This consequently forms an informal sector within the labor market. As a result, this attachment formulates an ethnic identity for this sector.^[102]

Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) in 1996. This prevented federal, state, and local public benefits from flowing to illegal immigrants. It also required federal and state agencies to disclose if someone was illegal. Additionally, PRWORA prohibited states from giving professional licenses to those illegal.^[103] Though PRWORA prevents public benefits from flowing to illegal immigrants, there are exceptions. Illegal immigrants are still entitled to medical assistance, immunizations, disaster relief, and k-12 education. Despite this, federal law still requires local and state governments to deny benefits to those illegal.^[103] The implementation of PRWORA demonstrated the shift towards personal responsibility over "public dependency."^[104] There were about eight million illegally present workers in the United States in 2010. These workers were 5% of America's workforce.^[103]

Causes

There are however numerous incentives which draw foreigners to the U.S. Most illegal immigrants who come to America come for better opportunities for employment, a greater degree of freedom, avoidance of political oppression, freedom from violence, famine, and family reunification.^{[105][106][76][107][108]}

International polls by the Gallup organization from 2013 to 2016 in 156 foreign countries found that about 147 million adults would, if they could, move to the U.S., making it the most-desired destination country for potential migrants worldwide, followed by Germany and Canada.^[109]

Causes by region

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. forced

Economic incentives

Economic reasons are one motivation for people to illegally immigrate to the United States.^[112][113] United States employers hire illegal immigrants at wages substantially higher than they could earn in their native countries.^[112] A study of illegal immigrants from Mexico in the 1978 harvest season in Oregon showed that they earned six times what they could have earned in Mexico, and even after deducting the costs of the seasonal migration and the additional expense of living in the United States, their net U.S. earnings were three times their Mexican alternative.^[113] In the 1960s and early 70s, Mexico's high fertility rate caused a large increase in population. While Mexican population growth has slowed, the large numbers of people born in the 1960s and 70s are now of working age looking for jobs.^[113]

According to Judith Gans of the University of Arizona, United States employers are pushed to hire illegal immigrants for three main reasons:^[112]

1. Global economic change. Global economic change is one cause for illegal immigration because information and transportation technologies now foster internationalized production, distribution and consumption, and labor. This has encouraged many countries to open their economies to outside investment, then increasing the number of low-skilled workers participating in global labor markets and making low-skilled labor markets all more competitive. This and the fact that developed countries have shifted from manufacturing to knowledge-based economies, have realigned economic activity around the world. Labor has become more international as individuals immigrate seeking work, despite governmental attempts to control this migration. Because the United States education system creates relatively few people who either lack a high school diploma or who hold PhDs, there is a shortage of workers needed to fulfill seasonal low-skilled jobs as well as certain high-skilled jobs. To fill these gaps, the United States immigration system attempts to compensate for these shortages by providing for temporary immigration by farm workers and seasonal low-skilled workers, and for permanent immigration by high-skilled workers.
2. A lack of legal immigration channels.
3. The ineffectiveness of current employer sanctions for illegal hiring. This allows immigrants who are in the country illegally to easily find jobs. There are three reasons for this ineffectiveness—the absence of reliable mechanisms for verifying employment eligibility, inadequate funding of interior immigration enforcement, and the absence of political will due to labor needs to the United States economy. For example, it is unlawful to knowingly hire an illegal immigrant, but according to Judith Gans, there are no reliable mechanisms in place for employers to verify that the immigrants' papers are authentic.

Another reason for the large numbers of illegal immigrants present in the United States is the termination of the

The United States immigration system provides channels for legal, permanent economic immigration, especially for high-skilled workers. For low-skilled workers, temporary or seasonal legal immigration is easier to acquire.[112] The United States immigration system rests on three pillars: family reunification, provision of scarce labor (as in agricultural and specific high-skilled worker sectors), and protecting American workers from competition with foreign workers.^[112] The current system sets an overall limit of 675,000 permanent immigrants each year; this limit does not apply to spouses, unmarried minor children or parents of U.S. citizens.^[116] Outside of this number for permanent immigrants, 480,000 visas are allotted for those under the family-preference rules and 140,000 are allocated for employment-related preferences.^[116] The current system and low number of visas available make it difficult for low-skilled workers to legally and permanently enter the country to work, so illegal entry becomes the way immigrants respond to the lure of jobs with higher wages than what they would be able to find in their current country.^[112]

Family reunification

According to demographer Jeffery Passel of the Pew Hispanic Center, the flow of Mexicans to the U.S. has produced a "network effect"—furthering immigration as Mexicans moved to join relatives already in the U.S.^[117]

Further incentives

Lower costs of transportation, communication and information has facilitated illegal immigration. Mexican nationals, in particular, have a very low financial cost of immigration and can easily cross the border. Even if it requires more than one attempt, they have a very low probability of being detected and then deported once they have entered the country.^[113]

Controversies

Mexican federal and state government assistance

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and some advocacy groups have criticized a program of the government of the state of

• In 2005, the government of Yucatán produced a handbook and DVD about the risks and implications of crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. The guide told immigrants where to find health care, how to get their kids into U.S. schools, and how to send money home. Officials in Yucatán said the guide is a necessity to save lives, but some American groups accused the government of encouraging illegal immigration.[119]
• In 2005, the Mexican government was criticized for distributing a comic book which offers tips to illegal emigrants to the United States.^[120] That comic book recommends to illegal immigrants, once they have safely crossed the border, "Don't call attention to yourself. ... Avoid loud parties. ... Don't become involved in fights." The Mexican government defends the guide as an attempt to save lives. "It's kind of like illegal immigration for dummies," said the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, Mark Krikorian. "Promoting safe illegal immigration is not the same as arguing against it". The comic book does state on its last page that the Mexican Government does not promote illegal crossing at all and only encourages visits to the U.S. with all required documentation.^[120]

U.S. Marines scandal

In 2020, 24 U.S. Marines were discharged after an investigation over their alleged involvement in drug crimes and a human smuggling operation along the U.S. – Mexico border.^[121] The investigation began when U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested two marines for transporting three illegal Mexican immigrants on July 3, 2019.^[122] A few weeks later 16 marines and a U.S. Navy sailor were arrested on base during a battalion formation on July 25, 2019.^[123][124] The last arrest occurred on December 2, 2019, when a marine was caught transporting two illegal Chinese immigrants near the border.^[125] The ring leader of the human smuggling operation was identify as Francisco Saul Rojas-Hernandez. Some of the marines in court said Francisco Saul Rojas-Hernandez would pay them $1,000 per person that they helped transport.^[126][127] 8 marines plead guilty, however some of the marines had their charges dropped after a judge said that the arrest of the 16 marines in front of a battalion formation was a violation of their rights. The U.S. Marine Corps still took administrative or judicial action against the 24 marines involved. According to 1st Lieutenant Cameron Edinburgh, one marine received a general discharge under honorable conditions, at least one marine received a dishonorable discharge, two received bad conduct discharges, and 19 received other than honorable discharges. The Navy sailor was also removed from service with a bad conduct discharge.^[128]

Legal issues

Aliens can be classified as unlawfully present for one of three reasons: entering without authorization or inspection, staying beyond the authorized period after legal entry, or violating the terms of legal entry.^[129]

Improper entry

Section 1325 in Title 8 of the United States Code, "Improper entry of alien", provides for a fine, imprisonment, or both for any non-citizen who:^[130]

1. enters or attempts to enter the United States at any time or place other than as designated by immigration agents, or
2. eludes examination or inspection by immigration agents, or
3. attempts to enter or obtains entry to the United States by a willfully false or misleading representation or the willful concealment of a material fact.

Section "1325(a) is a regulatory offense, and thus knowledge of alienage is not an element."^[2] The maximum prison term is 6 months for the first offense with a misdemeanor and 2 years for any subsequent offense with a felony. In addition to the above criminal fines and penalties, civil fines may also be imposed. Sections 1325(a) and 1326(a), however, do "not apply to an alien whom the Attorney General admits to the United States under section 1157 of this title."^[3]

Visa overstay

Unlike illegal entry (which is a criminal offense in the United States), it is not a criminal offense for an alien to enter the United States legally and then overstay his or her visa.

Since 2007, visa overstays have accounted for a larger share of the growth in the illegal immigrant population than illegal border crossings.[11] In 2019, a Center for Migration Studies of New York study found that for the seventh consecutive year, the number of visa overstays significantly surpassed the number of unauthorized border crossings; "from 2016-2017, people who overstayed their visas accounted for 62 percent of the newly undocumented, while 38 percent had crossed a border illegally."^[134] Some visa overstays occur unwittingly or inadvertently.^[135] In other cases, visa-holders enter the United States without the intention to do so, but ultimately decide to do so due to extenuating circumstances, such as dangers in their home countries.^[136]

Federal versus state role

The federal government has primary responsibility for immigration enforcement in the United States.^[137][138]

Assistance from state and local police for immigration enforcement has been controversial and legally complicated in various ways. In jurisdictions with majority support for strong immigration enforcement, state and local police often cooperate with federal officials. Some state governments have declared federal enforcement activities insufficient, and attempted to prevent illegal immigration through state law and police. In some jurisdictions where majorities feel federal immigration restrictions are unjust or enforcement actions too harsh, state and local police are prohibited from voluntary cooperation with immigration enforcement agencies. This may include information sharing or acting on

States have considerable power to make legal residency status a requirement for employment and state services including social safety net programs and higher education. The 1982 US Supreme Court decision Plyler v. Doe ruled that K-12 students cannot be denied an education on the basis of immigration status. Whether or not to issue driver's licenses for illegal immigrants became a high-profile political issue in the 21st century.

In April 2010, Arizona passed SB 1070, at the time the broadest and strictest anti-illegal immigration bill in the United States.^[139] and was challenged by the Department of Justice as encroaching on powers reserved by the United States Constitution to the Federal Government.^[139] In July 2010, a federal district court issued a preliminary injunction affecting the most controversial parts of the law, including the section that required police officers to check a person's immigration status after a person had been involved in another act or situation which resulted in police activity.^[140] The case came to the Supreme Court of the United States in Arizona v. United States (2012). The Court unanimously sustained the law's central and most controversial requirement, requiring state law enforcement officials "to determine the immigration status of anyone they stop or arrest if they have reason to suspect that the individual might be in the country illegally"—a clause called the "show me your papers" provision by opponents.^[141] The Court, however, indicated that future legal challenges to the provision could still be pursued based on, for example, allegations of racial profiling in the use of the clause.^[141] The Court also struck down as unconstitutional, by a 5–3 vote, provisions of the Arizona law making it a criminal offense for illegal immigrants to work or seek employment and permitting police to make warrantless arrests if they had probable cause to believe that the arrestee had done an act that would render him or her deportable under federal law"; and struck down as unconstitutional, by a 6–2 vote, a clause of the Arizona law that made it a state crime for immigrants to fail to register with the federal government.^[141]

In 2016, Arizona reached a settlement with a number of immigrants rights organizations, including the National Immigration Law Center, overturning the part of the law providing for police to demand papers from persons they suspected of being illegally present in the United States. The practice had led to racial profiling of Latinos and other minorities.^[142] The Los Angeles Times reported that the settlement "pulls the last set of teeth from what was once the nation's most fearsome immigration law."^[142]

States do have the

Illegal immigrants are generally not allowed to receive state or local public benefits, which includes professional licenses.^[145] However, in 2013 the California State Legislature passed laws allowing illegal immigrants to obtain professional licenses. On February 1, 2014. Sergio C. Garcia became the first illegal immigrant to be admitted to the State Bar of California since 2008, when applicants were first required to list citizenship status on bar applications.^[146]

E-Verify

Research shows that E-Verify harms the labor market outcomes of illegal immigrants and improves the labor market outcomes of Mexican legal immigrants and U.S.-born Hispanics, but has no impact on labor market outcomes for non-Hispanic Americans.[148] A 2016 study suggests that E-Verify reduces the number of illegal immigrants in states that have mandated use of E-Verify for all employers, and further notes that the program may deter illegal immigration to the United States in general.

Apprehension

Federal law enforcement agencies, specifically U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the United States Border Patrol (U.S.BP), and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), enforce the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (INA), and to some extent, the United States Armed Forces, state and local law enforcement agencies, and civilians and civilian groups guard the border.

At workplace

Before 2007, immigration authorities alerted employers of mismatches between reported employees' Social Security cards and the actual names of the card holders. In September 2007, a federal judge halted this practice of alerting employers of card mismatches.^[149]

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.^[150] Major employers of illegal immigrants have included:

• Wal-Mart: In 2005, Wal-Mart agreed to pay $11 million to settle a federal investigation that found hundreds of illegal immigrants were hired by Wal-Mart's cleaning contractors.^[151]
• Swift & Co.: In December 2006, in the largest such crackdown in American history, U.S. federal immigration authorities raided Swift & Co. meat-processing plants in six U.S. states, arresting about 1,300 illegal immigrant employees.^[152]
• Tyson Foods: This company was accused of actively importing illegal labor for its chicken packing plants; at trial, however, the jury acquitted the company after evidence was presented that Tyson went beyond mandated government requirements in demanding documentation for its employees.^[153]
• Gebbers Farms: In December 2009, U.S. immigration authorities forced this Brewster, Washington, farm known for its fruit orchards to fire more than 500 illegal workers, mostly immigrants from Mexico. Some were working with false social security cards and other false identification.^[154]

Detention

About 31,000 people who are not U.S. citizens are held in immigration detention on any given day,

Deportations of immigrants, which are also referred to as removals, may be issued when immigrants are found to be in violation of U.S. immigration laws. Deportations may be imposed on a person who is neither native-born nor a naturalized citizen of the United States.^[158] Deportation proceedings are also referred to as removal proceedings and are typically initiated by the Department of Homeland Security. The United States issues deportations for various reasons which include security, protection of resources, and protection of jobs.

Deportations from the United States increased by more than 60 percent from 2003 to 2008, with Mexicans accounting for nearly two-thirds of those deported.

By the end of 2012, as many people had been deported during the first four years of the Obama presidency as were deported during the eight-year presidency of George W. Bush;[162] the number of deportations under Obama totalled 2.5 million by the end of 2015.^[163]

The AEDPA and IIRIRA Acts of 1996

Two major pieces of legislation passed in 1996 had a significant effect on illegal immigration and deportations in the United States: the

One significant change that resulted from the new laws was the definition of the term aggravated felony. Being convicted of a crime that is categorized as an aggravated felony results in mandatory detention and deportation. The new definition of aggravated felony includes crimes such as shoplifting, which would be a misdemeanor in many states. The new laws have categorized a much wider range of crimes as aggravated felonies. The effect of this has been a large increase in permanent residents facing mandatory deportation from the United States without the opportunity to plea for relief. The 1996 deportation laws have received a lot of criticism for their curtailing of residents' rights.^[164]

The USA Patriot Act

The

Under the USA Patriot Act the Attorney General was granted the power to "certify" illegal immigrants that pose a threat to national security. Once an illegal immigrant is certified they must be taken into custody and face mandatory detention which will result in a criminal charge or release. The Patriot Act has been criticized for violating the Fifth Amendment right to due process. Under the Patriot Act, an illegal immigrant is not granted the opportunity for a hearing before given certification.^[166]

Complications of birthright citizen children and illegal immigrant parents

Complications in deportation efforts ensue when parents are illegal immigrants, but their children are

The DREAM Act (acronym for Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) was an American legislative proposal for a multi-phase process for illegal immigrants in the United States that would first grant conditional residency and upon meeting further qualifications, permanent residency. The bill was first introduced in the Senate on August 1, 2001, and has since been reintroduced several times but did not pass. It was intended to stop the deportation of people who had arrived as children and had grown up in the U.S. 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. Those in opposition of the DREAM Act believe that it encourages illegal immigration.^[169]

Although the DREAM Act has not been enacted by federal legislation, a number of its provisions were implemented by a memorandum issued by

There have been two major periods of mass deportations in U.S. history. In the Mexican Repatriation of the 1930s, through mass deportations and forced migration, an estimated 500,000 Mexicans and Mexican Americans were deported or coerced into emigrating, in what Mae Ngai, an immigration historian at the University of Chicago, has described as "a racial removal program".^[171] The majority of those removed were U.S. citizens.^[171] Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., cosponsor of a U.S. House Bill that calls for a commission to study the "deportation and coerced emigration" of U.S. citizens and legal residents, has expressed concerns that history could repeat itself, and that should illegal immigration be made into a felony, this could prompt a "massive deportation of U.S. citizens".^[171]

In

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act that gave amnesty to 3 million illegal immigrants in the country.^[174]

A direct effect of the deportation laws of 1996 and the Patriot Act has been a dramatic increase in deportations. Prior to these acts deportations had remained at about an average of 20,000 per year. Between 1990 and 1995 deportations had increased to about an average of 40,000 a year. From 1996 to 2005 the yearly average had increased to over 180,000. In the year 2005 the number of deportations reached 208,521 with less than half being deported under criminal grounds.^[175] According to a June 2013 report published by the Washington Office on Latin America, dangerous deportation practices are on the rise and pose a serious threat to the safety of the migrants being deported. These practices include repatriating migrants to border cities with high levels of drug-related violence and criminal activity, night deportations (approximately 1 in 5 migrants reports being deported between the hours of 10 pm and 5 am), and "lateral repatriations", or the practice of moving migrants from the region where they were detained to areas hundreds of miles away.^[176] These practices increase the risk of gangs and organized criminal groups preying upon the newly arrived migrants.

In 2013, deportation prioritization guidance used by Immigration and Customs enforcement, was extended to Customs and Border Protection, under the Obama Administration's prosecutorial discretion plan.^[177]

Under the

In 1995, the United States Congress considered an exemption from the Posse Comitatus Act, which generally prohibits direct participation of U.S. 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.^[184]

In 1997, marines shot and killed 18-year-old U.S. citizen

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called on the President not to deploy troops to deter illegal immigrants, and stated that a "deployment of National Guard troops violates the spirit of the Posse Comitatus Act".^[194] According to the State of the Union address in January 2007,^[195] more than 6,000 National Guard members had been sent to the border to supplement the Border Patrol,^[196] costing in excess of $750 million.^[197]

Sanctuary cities

Several U.S. cities have instructed their own law enforcement personnel and civilian employees not to notify the federal government when they become aware of illegal immigrants living within their jurisdiction.

There is no official definition of "sanctuary city".

According to a 2006 report by the Anti-Defamation League, white supremacists and other extremists were engaging in a growing number of assaults against legal and illegal immigrants and those perceived to be immigrants.^{[203][needs update]} including assault on migrants from Latin America.

Community-based involvement

The

In 2014, 'Dreamer Moms' began protesting, hoping that President Obama will grant them legal status. On November 12, 2014, there was a hunger strike near the White House undertaken by the group Dreamer Moms. On November 21, 2014, Obama provided 5 million illegal immigrants legal status because he said that mass deportation "would be both impossible and contrary to our character." However, this decision was challenged in court during the Trump administration and then overturned.[205]

Other organizations and initiatives offer support to populations of illegal immigrants within the United States, such as Kichwa Hatari, a radio station in New York City that translates information from Spanish into the Kichwa language for broadcast to Ecuadorian illegal immigrants.^[206]

Economic impact