upon (Divine 77). World War II brought with it a new set of immigrants, and eventually the passing of the Displaced Persons Act of 1947. This allowed immigrants, displaced by the war to enter the country above quota limits (Divine 128). Since then our legislators have been faced with numerous proposals concerning immigration, too many in fact to mention. Those mentioned above are significant in the fact that they show a definite shift in America’s attitude toward immigration. Since the 1920’s immigration has not been seen as a natural process, but a process that could overwhelm a nation if left unchecked. Current Immigration Laws and Issues As of this time there are no less than fifty proposed bills in Congress that can affect immigration, which proves that this is an ongoing battle with little chance of ending. In recent years the immigration policy has found itself in a state of flux; going back and forth between pro and anti immigration. The Immigration Act of 1990 is one of the more current policies to regulate immigration. This policy sets a flexible annual limit on immigration at a rate of 700,000 immigrants per year until 1994 when the number will drop to 675,000. This number of course does not include refugees and those seeking asylum (“Immigration...”). If these numbers seem staggering one must take into account the estimated “300,000 to 400,000 illegal immigrants” added to the nations population each year (Suro 8). In the mid-90’s there was a shift in America’s immigration policy to “close the doors and end the current era of immigration” (Suro 8). In fact in President Clinton’s 1995 State of the Union Message he said: “It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it.” (“Immigration...”) This attitude led t...
