1. What is the immigration population in United States? Immigrants compose almost 14 percent of the U.S. population, or about 45 million people out of a total of nearly 332 million in 2020, according to the Census Bureau.
2. How do Americans feel about immigration? 75 percent of Americans surveyed considered immigration to be good for the United States. At the same time, however, the majority felt that illegal immigration was a significant threat to U.S. national security.
3. How has congress tried to address the issue? The last push for a major immigration overhaul came in 2013, following a decade in which Congress debated numerous immigration reforms, some considered comprehensive, others piecemeal.
4. What was the Obama administration’s approach? Obama took several executive actions to provide temporary legal protections for undocumented immigrants. In 2012, his administration began a program known as DACA, which offered renewable, two-year deportation deferrals and work permits to undocumented immigrants who had arrived in the United States as children and had no criminal records.
5. How has the pandemic altered immigration policy? The Trump administration further restricted immigration amid the COVID-19 pandemic by: curbing travel to the United States effectively halting asylum procedures, turning away most migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, and suspending the processing of many foreign worker visas and green cards.
6. What is the Biden administration’s approach? Biden campaigned on overturning almost all of Trump’s immigration policies. In its first few months, his administration took dozens of actions, but his efforts collided with a dramatic rise in migration to the southern U.S. border. Biden’s steps to undo Trump-era policies have included reducing immigration enforcement inside the United States, ending the travel bans, lifting the suspension of green card processing, and halting construction of the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
7. How are state and local authorities handling these issues? States vary widely in how they treat unauthorized immigrants. Some states, such as California, allow undocumented immigrants to apply for drivers’ licenses, receive in-state tuition at universities, and obtain other benefits. At the other end of the spectrum, states such as Arizona have passed laws permitting police to question people they suspect of being unauthorized about their immigration status.
8. What was the trump administration’s approach? Immigration was a signature issue for Trump and a perpetual source of controversy during his term. Blaming previous administrations for failing to secure the southern border, he advocated for sharply reducing both legal and illegal immigration. He took several steps, many through executive action, to reshape asylum, deportation, and border policy.
9. Under what branch of government is immigration policy set? Legislative Branch makes the laws, including the laws relating to immigration. Many of the federal agencies that facilitate US immigration are part of the Department of Homeland Security. Executive branch determines how the policies are going to be enforced.
10. how has xenophobia impacted immigration policies? From colonial times to today, the demonization of outsiders has existed alongside the idea of the U.S. as a nation built by immigrants. One way to overcome the alienation that xenophobia brings is to combat the negative stereotypes about immigrants and refugees, and help see them as fellow human beings just like us