Jayla Powell
Immigration Now & Then
Immigration now is very different from immigration in the 1800s. Immigrants in the
1800s came from Europe, a small percent from Asia, and an even smaller percentage from
Mexico and Cuba. Today it is the opposite. A large percentage of immigrants are from Mexico
and Cuba, then Asia, and a small amount from Europe. There are things I do and do not agree
with when it comes to immigration in the 1800s and now. Immigration does not have to be as
brutal as people make it seem.
Immigration from the 1800s to the 21st century ranged around 25 million immigrants.
Those immigrants could only get a green card if they passed the legal examination and take an
IQ test, which is different from now. There were several acts put in place to keep immigrants out
of the United States. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 stopped Chinese Immigration and made
it nearly impossible for the Chinese to become naturalized citizens. Immigrants that were
considered convicts, “lunatics” (a catch-all term for those mentally unstable), and most likely to
become “public charges.” An Act in 1891 expanded these categories to include polygamists and
those sick with contagious. Xenophobia and hysteria about political activism led to the Anarchist
Exclusion Act, which was just a way of denying immigrants citizenship due to their political
beliefs. In my opinion, there are many ways to handle situations, and I think those acts were not
the best way.
Today xenophobia and hysteria are more understandable. 9/11 made a tremendous impact
on everyone since the people who hijacked the planes were immigrants, and people fear that
something like that would happen again. Today there are around 89.4 million immigrants in the
United States even after that happened. In order to get a green card, immigrants must reveal
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intimate and personal details, and then it will go through the process of being approved, you
must also still pass the medical exams. The United States made it a little easier and a little more
lenient due to the “Affidavit of Support,” which is a signed document to accept financial
responsibility for a spouse who is seeking a green card. The government is currently trying to
make the US more “Merit-based.”’ Merit-based’ immigration means using individuals’ skills to
decide whether they should be allowed to immigrate.
There are essential details on how immigration in the 1800s is different from immigration
in the 20th century, but there are similarities also. For instance, President Donald Trump was not
the first immigrant to try to build a wall. President George W. Bush also tried to build a barrier,
and a governor in Georgia wanted to build a wall in the past also. Trump was just the one to
“break” the government or get it “shut-down.”
Immigrants in the 1800s and now come to America for the same reasons, which can
include running away from something or running towards the “American Dream.” Most times,
people were afraid to let immigrants in because they think they will cause problems with society.
The real truth is that the people in America are afraid of demographics and change. Americans
do not want to share welfare and health care benefits and resources. They also fear immigrants
will take their jobs, but there is little evidence that supports the theory that immigration being
harmful to US workers in the 1800’s and now. Immigration may result in lower wages and help
create demand and productivity, and overall boost Gross Domestic Product.
Today the majority of our immigrants come from Mexico and Cuba, so the president
wants a wall at the border of Mexico. In the 1800s, Europeans were the majority group of
immigrants, so the president wanted the barrier at Ellis Island. Ellis Island reached a peak in
1907, with 1,004,756 immigrants arriving. Government examiners asked a list of twenty-nine
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perspicacious questions, such as: Have you money, relatives, or a job in the United States? Are
you a polygamist? An anarchist? Then doctors picked and poked at them, looking for signs of
disease or attenuate handicaps. Usually, immigrants were only detained 3 or 4 hours, and then
free to leave. If they did not receive an engravement of approval, and many did not because they
were presumed criminals, strikebreakers, anarchists, or carriers of disease, they were sent back to
their place of origin at the expense of the shipping line.
Today the immigration courts have more than 800,000 pending cases. Each case takes an
average of 700 days to process, which is an average of 560,000,000 days to complete those cases
alone without adding new ones. “Because laws and court rulings aimed at protecting children
prohibit jailing young people for more than 20 days.” Some immigrants have a strong legal case
to stay under international refugee treaties and federal asylum laws, but most immigrants will not
have a formal asylum hearing until 2021. Government administration has done little to speed up
the immigration in courts. From legal work to advocacy to grassroots mobilization, these 7
immigration advocacy organizations highlighted below have fought, and continue to fight, to
ensure that immigrant rights are human rights.
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Works Cited
White, G. (2016, January 26). How Immigrants Fit Into America's Economy, Now and 100
Years Ago. Retrieved November 03, 2020, from
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/01/the-economics-of-immigration-
past-and-present/426693/
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