rantee their children access to public education and emergency medical care (Suro 35). This is just one example of the many contradictions in America’s immigration policies. These contradictions are what lead to the frustration many people feel toward a system that is no longer in control. Many citizens, especially the working poor, feel that illegal immigrants sometimes receive more benefits. The reality of illegal immigration is that it has been an increasingly difficult problem to solve. For three decades now our government has been trying to find ways to alleviate the number of illegal immigrants in the nation. One attempt was the Amnesty program in the mid-90’s for those who had been in the country since 1992 (Suro 40). Suro states that this covered only about 60% of the illegal population and drew much debate from California. Which is ironic seeing as how California is often at the forefront of the campaign against illegal immigration. Illegal immigration has become a familiar part of American society and will not likely see much improvement in the next millenium. The Future of Immigration INS has published a booklet called Strategic Plan: INS 200, Accepting the Challenge, which outlines their mission and objectives for the coming year. Most of these objectives are the same as they have always been: facilitate compliance with the law, create disincentives in the workplace, increase the security of INS documentation, and work with other agencies (U.S. Immigration...). This isn’t the first time the INS has had good objectives, but it isn’t likely that they will receive the necessary funding to implement these plans successfully. Our government has tried to curb the flow of illegal immigrants with such actions as the North American Free Trade Agreement [NAFTA], which is expected to reduce illegal migration from Mexico (U.S. Immigration... 5). The problem is the timing of such policies; NAFTA is expected to wor...
