Immigration to United States began in the 17th century, and ever since, the country has been the destination for millions of people as they search for a better life. According to recent Pew Research data, there are approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. Of these, 5.6 million are of Mexican descent, 1.8 million are from Central America, and 1.5 million are from Asia. The U.S. civilian workforce includes 8 million unauthorized immigrants.
Ever since the passage of the Asian Exclusion Act in 1875, the U.S. government has made several attempts to exclude undocumented immigrants and prevent their access to citizenship. This includes the strategy of creating more stringent immigration policies for specific groups in response to political pressures. U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the federal agency responsible for immigration enforcement that created in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, exemplifies this approach.
Since the 2016 presidential campaign, debates about the construction of a wall across the U.S.-Mexico border and the status of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program have been elevated to key issues in the current socio-political climate. Recent changes in policies have impacted several groups of undocumented immigrants. In January 2017, an executive order halted entry into the U.S. from primarily Muslim countries including Chad, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Iran, and Libya. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the order for five of the seven countries. In April 2018, an executive order affecting undocumented immigrants led to the forced separation of over 2,000 children at the border. The American Psychiatric Association released a press statement in May 2018 and adopted a formal position statement in December 2018 opposing separation of children from parents at the border because of the adverse mental health impacts of such policies.
(author introduction) #P4HEwebinarNovember2022