2009 Public Statements
Ways of Combating Illegal Immigration:
U.S. Strategies and Practical Options
Speech by Deputy Chief of Mission Deborah A. McCarthy
Hellenic Migration Policy Institute
Hilton Hotel
Athens, Greece
January 21, 2009
As prepared for delivery.
I thank the Hellenic Migration Policy Institute and its president Alexandros Zavos for the opportunity to discuss an issue I have spent a number of years working on -- specifically, border security -- while in positions in the United States government prior to coming to Greece.
Immigration is a subject which excites many opinions and many passions in the United States. We are a nation of immigrants, for the most part, and yet we struggle with how best to handle the millions of those additional immigrants who seek to come to our country for opportunity and, in some cases, refuge. Most Americans, I note, according to a Transatlantic Trends survey by the German Marshall Fund, see immigrants as hard workers who will create jobs as they set up new businesses.
At the outset of this presentation, I wish to make very clear that immigration and terrorism are very different challenges. The mechanisms used to handle immigration, and combat illegal immigration, can help prevent terrorist travel, but the latter risk requires its own set of additional mechanisms which I will not address today.
What I will be discussing is the following: First, who are our immigrants, specifically our illegal immigrants. Second, who is in charge of running our immigration policy. Third, what main laws do we have to control immigration. Fourth, what do we actually do to fight illegal immigration. Fifth and last I will discuss a bit the issue of reform of our immigration policy.
The key point to remember is that the United States continues to try to find the right balance between closure and openness, between enforcement of current laws and the search for mechanisms to resolve the status of the millions of illegals and foster an American identity among those who stay in our country.
WHO ARE OUR IMMIGRANTS?
According to the Center for Immigration Studies, based on 2007 figures, there were an estimated 37.9 million immigrants in the United States. This is about 12% of the U.S. population.
Of that number, a significant amount -- 10.3 million -- settled in the United States since 2000. That is about 1.5 million a year. Over half of these 10.3 million people are estimated to be illegal. Of all immigrants, about one third, or 11-13 million people, are illegal.
Immigrants account for over a third of the population growth of the United States. This is a much higher percentage of our growth even than during the huge waves of immigration at the turn of the 20th century. Even at those peak years of immigration, between 1900 and 1915, when millions came from Europe -- including an estimated half million people from Greece between 1891 and 1920 -- immigrants only accounted for 20 percent of the population growth. Now it is over a third, as I just mentioned.
Today, most immigrants to the U.S. are from Latin America: 55 percent of all immigrants, and 59 percent of recent arrivals. Mexico alone accounts for 31 percent of all U.S. immigrants. East and Southeast Asian countries account for another 18 percent.
Of the illegal alien population, the vast majority -- about three-quarters -- are from Latin America. An estimated 57 percent of illegal immigrants to the U.S. come from Mexico, another 11 percent from Central America, and 8 percent from South America. So, a total of 76 percent of illegal immigrants come from the same source as most of our legal immigration. Asians account for another 9 percent, while only 4 percent come from Europe and the Caribbean combined. One study released by the Department of Homeland Security in 2007 estimated that only 0.3 percent of illegal aliens came to the United States from Europe.
Immigrants are less educated than those born in the United States. Of the total number of adult immigrants in 2007, thirty-one percent have not completed high school, compared to 8 percent of the native born. This is even more striking among illegals. An estimated 57 percent of adult illegal immigrants (25 to 64 years of age) have not completed high school.
Yet the bulk of immigrants to the United States are employed, and at work. Ninety-two percent of illegal-alien households have at least one person working. However, due to lower education, many earn less. Immigrants overall have lower income and depend more on public assistance programs than those born in the United States.
Now that I have briefly reviewed who our immigrants are, I would like to turn to the second issue: Who is in charge of all this immigration?
WHO IS IN CHARGE OF U.S. IMMIGRATION?
At the federal level, the White House has and will continue to have a lead role in setting policy and priorities, as we saw in the 2007 attempt to pass comprehensive new legislation.
The White House works closely with Congress regarding both current and proposed legislation. This is particularly the case in the wake of new border security initiatives post September 11, 2001.
It is important to remember, in this respect, that immigration both legal and illegal is quite concentrated in certain states, making the role of their Congressional representatives quite significant.
At the federal level, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is responsible for border security, enforcement of immigration laws, guest worker programs, and the naturalization process. It handles the issuance of all kinds of documents, such as special cards for crossing our borders with Mexico and Canada and temporary work permits, as well as citizenship, refugee and asylum cases, plus newer programs to help businesses verify whether their employees are in legal status.
This massive agency was only created in 2003, enfolding within it agencies which had been in different parts of the government. It was a huge undertaking which continues today. DHS is not only charged with many immigration procedures, but with many other tasks as well. While including certain key agencies, such as the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), it also encompasses the Coast Guard, for example, which also play a role in applying immigration law.
However, DHS does not act alone. The Department of State, together with the Department of Homeland Security, administers our visa policy. Together, the aim is to secure our borders while opening our doors.
Some 3.5 million secure identity documents were issued in FY 2008. This includes 1.8 million “green cards,” or Permanent Resident Cards; 340,000 U.S. State Department Laser Visas (a form of border crossing card for Mexican citizens); and 1.4 million Employment Authorization Documents (or work permits).
USCIS also completed work on over 1.1 million naturalization applications, an increase of more than 422,000 from the previous year.
There is a completely different process for refugee admission, in which USCIS works with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugess and the International Organization for Migration. More than 100,000 refugees from 59 nations were interviewed by USCIS in FY2008, resulting in the admission of more than 60,000 people. This is a 25 percent increase over the previous year. The backlog of applications for asylum has been greatly reduced.
About 6.6 million inquiries from 96,000 participating employers were handled through e-Verify, an online system which helps U.S. businesses ensure that new workers are have the proper legal authorization to work.
But it is not just the federal government which has responsibility for immigration issues. The 50 states of the United States have a significant degree of autonomy, and they are also very much involved in immigration matters, along with local law enforcement.
Many border states where the bulk of the immigrants go have taken it upon themselves to tighten controls. For example, Arizona has now required employers to use the e-Verify system to check workers’ immigration status as a condition to getting state licenses and contracts.
Last but not least, there are multiple special interest groups which seek to influence immigration legislation and policies. They work with out Congress and at the local level. They raise funds and lobby. Some are quite powerful.
I have given you a rough outline of who our immigrants are and the multiple layers involved in the formulation and implementation of our immigration policies. I would like to very briefly comment on the evolving legal framework which governs U.S. immigration.
LAWS
U.S. immigration law and enforcement practices have a long and complex history, as attitudes have changed over the generations. With each new effort at immigration reform, much of the old system is repealed, but not necessarily all existing laws and regulations, leading to a current system that is a mix of old and new.
The last broad overhaul of U.S. immigration law and policy was in 1986. One element that featured prominently in that effort was an amnesty for certain illegal aliens who had entered the United States before 1982. This amnesty was accompanied by a toughening of requirements for workplace enforcement of immigration laws.
In 2005 and 2006, following two more decades of high levels of immigration, and a growing sense among many Americans and U.S. political leaders that our system was not working well, former President Bush made another push for comprehensive immigration reform. This included a path to legalization, guest worker provisions, and enhanced law enforcement and border security proposals.
While both houses of Congress passed their own separate immigration bills, these bills were quite different, and in the end it was impossible for the House of Representatives and the Senate to agree on a single bill.
The main obstacle was that many in Congress wanted to focus first on better enforcement before considering other aspects of immigration reform, including what they considered another amnesty for illegal immigrants already living in the United States.
Now that I have reviewed our main laws, I will turn to the fourth issues, how we actually seek to control entry into the United States.
U.S. PRACTICE: PART 1: AT OUR BORDERS
With the great majority of today’s immigrants -- legal and illegal -- entering the U.S. from the Western Hemisphere, many of our key practices to control immigration concern our land borders. In the post September 11 era of interest and focus on air travel, it is important to remember that for the United States, our focus, from an immigration point of view, is more on land crossings and ensuring an orderly control of that flow.
Before I talk about these practices, I need to point out that in the United States, our economies -- and those of our neighbors to the north and south -- are deeply intertwined. The amount of commerce crossing our land borders is immense and all along this frontier, there are large and small communities whose lives are intertwined.
I have traveled along our borders and in many of our key cities in the south, along the Mexican border, families are scattered on both sides. They cross to see each other every day, they cross every day to go to work, and local businesses on both sides depend on an open border.
The U.S. land border with Mexico is 3,169 km long. It is the most-crossed land border in the world, averaging 685,000 legal crossings a day, to say nothing of the illegal crossings. The U.S. land border with Canada is more than twice that long, at 8,891 km, and is the longest common land border in the world.
Along these land borders, at key identified major crossings, we have established massive infrastructure to screen entrants and ensure the flow of commerce. Along the southern border, for example, the infrastructure is geared to rapidly collect information from people in vehicles as well as on foot.
A key new element for our land borders is the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which will soon require all those traveling into the U.S. from Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean to have an approved document proving citizenship. Previously, on land borders, a broad range of documents could be used -- many easily forged.
We also, along the border to the south, have built a fence to prevent illegal crossings. The fence has been ordered to be extended by Congress. It currently runs an estimated 335-350 miles and is supposed to run a total of 1,070 km, or about one-third of the total length of this border. Due to land ownership issues and environmental considerations, many negotiations are called for to build it. It continues to be controversial, though mandated by law.
Between the major crossings, we use a range of technology, including cameras, sensors, unmanned aerial systems, and ground-based radar. Our Border Patrol agents monitor this equipment and deploy rapidly on patrol, especially at night.
I have accompanied these agents on night surveillance in more deserted portions. The terrain is uneven and crossings occur in small groups at night. Most Border Patrol agents are bilingual. They attempt to warn the crossers not to enter, and when they do and they are arrested, they are taken to detention centers. They are identified, in many cases prosecuted, then removed. In 2007, DHS apprehended nearly 961,000 foreign nationals. Nearly 89 percent were natives of Mexico.
A new key element in our enforcement mechanisms is the Secure Border Initiative, which is designed to catch and remove illegal aliens and address the problems of alien smuggling and trafficking in persons. Previously, many caught in the interior were told to appear before a judge and released. Now they are detained and within a short period, sent back to their country of origin. This has led to an increase in deportations, which were up about 20 percent in 2008.
Away from the land borders, at sea, the U.S. Coast Guard, much like the Coast Guard here in Greece, conducts patrols and coordinates with other federal agencies and foreign countries to interdict undocumented immigrants. The U.S. Coast Guard operates primarily in certain key selected areas of high volume crossing, to include the Mona Passage to Puerto Rico. A key element in their operations are the maritime agreements previously established with key countries, particularly in the Caribbean and Central America, but also with others. These agreements provide for the orderly notification to authorities when a boat is caught with illegals and, depending on the agreement, proper handling of the illegals.
Further, beyond our land and sea immediate ports of entry, our Embassies worldwide coordinate with host governments to address illegal migration, alien smuggling and trafficking in persons.
U.S. PRACTICE: PART 2: INSIDE THE UNITED STATES
Interior enforcement in the United States aims at what we called worksite operations -- that is, preventing the hiring of illegal workers. It includes mechanisms to help employers verify legal status, the application of fines to those who hire illegal immigrants, and the identification, arrest and removal of fugitives, criminals, and illegal alien gang members.
One key program is called E-verify, designed to allow businesses to verify whether their employees are in the United States legally. It is still not widespread, though I note that we are soon going to mandate that all entities which contract with the U.S. government at the federal level must conduct such certifications for their employees.
A second, lesser known program is the “287-G” effort authorized by Congress, which allows local police to enforce immigration laws.
RESULTS
A study conducted in May 2008 by the Center for Immigration Studies estimates that the illegal immigrant population of the United States may have dropped by about 11 percent from the previous summer. It suggests that the total illegal immigrant population went from 12.5 million in August 2007 to 11.2 million in May 2008.
Another study in October 2008 by the Pew Hispanic Center reported that illegal border crossings into the United States have decreased. Since January of last year, 2008, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel removed or returned more than 323,000 illegal aliens from the United States, roughly a 20 percent increase over the previous year. The U.S. Coast Guard interdicted more than 5,000 people attempting to illegally enter the United States last year.
These are but a few statistics and it remains to be seen whether enforcement, coupled with a decline in economic growth in the United States, will have a more permanent effect on reducing the flow of illegal immigrants. So let me turn now to my fifth and last issue, immigration reform.
IMMIGRATION REFORM
As just departed Secretary for Homeland Security Chertoff stated in testimony before the U.S. Congress this past July: “Enforcement alone is not enough to address our immigration challenges. As long as the opportunity for higher wages and a better life draws people across the border illegally, or encourages them to remain here illegally, we will continue to face a difficult battle.”
In 2007, then-Senator Barack Obama made these comments on the Senate floor: “The time to fix our broken immigration system is now. We need stronger enforcement on the border and in the workplace. But for reform to work, we also must respond to what pulls people to America. Where we can reunite families, we should. Where we can bring in more foreign-born workers with the skills our economy needs, we should.”
These statements illustrate the key point I made earlier: We seek to find the right balance between enforcement and establishing mechanisms to bring those who are illegally in our country into regular status while regulating the flow of immigrants to the United States.
What to do about immigration remains one of the most contentious political issues in the United States today. But polls show most Americans see the current system as needing improvement, even though they disagree about how to start changing it.
There is already what we call a “placeholder” for a new immigration reform bill in our new Congress. It remains to be seen, given all other the priorities before us, what momentum there is for tackling this massive issue at this time. But it must be addressed.
CONCLUSION
I have briefly reviewed who immigrants are: 12 percent of our population, and mostly from Latin America. I have also noted that there are multiple interested parties -- in government and outside it -- who play a role in the formulation and enactment of current U.S. laws and regulations. These consist of layers of laws passed over the years, without major corrections or connections to earlier laws. I have outlined briefly our enforcement methods at points of entry, within our borders, and overseas. Lastly, I briefly addressed the continued need to tackle comprehensive reform in our country.
With 1.5 million new entrants each year and a legal capacity to absorb only an estimated one half of those arriving on our shores, and an existing population of an estimated 11-13 million illegal immigrants living within our borders, it is clear that our current mechanisms need to be reviewed.
Yet, we are a nation of immigrants, and the United States will continue to be open to new arrivals. If we were not, and had not been, we would not have our new President, Barack Obama. His father, as you know, came as a student to the United States.
Thank you.