Immigration to the United States

Immigration to the United States of America is the movement of non-residents to the United States, and has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of the American history even though the foreign born have never been more than 16% of the population since about 1675. The economic, social and political aspects of immigration have caused controversy regarding race, ethnicity, religion, economic benefits, job growth, settlement patterns, impact on upward social mobility, levels of criminality, nationalities, political loyalties, moral values, and work habits. As of 2006, the United States accepts more legal immigrants as permanent residents than the rest of the world combined. [7]
Given the distance of North America from Eurasia, most historical U.S. immigration was a risky venture, which inspired myths and dreams of prosperity and opportunity not found in the Old World. Since the advent of international jet travel in the 1960s, travel to the United States has been made easy by plane, but remains difficult, expensive and dangerous for some illegally crossing the Mexican border at unauthorized points.
Immigration boomed to a 57.4% increase in foreign born population from 1990 to 2000. The public started to focus on existing immigration law and immigration outside the law, especially the 7.5+ million illegal alien workers with 12+ million household members already inside the U.S. and another 700,000 to perhaps more than 850,000 predicted for each coming year. At issue was whether the immigration laws and enforcement system were working as the public wanted them to work. Illegal household members from Mexico alone were estimated at over 8 million. [8].
Proposals were put forward to criminalize illegal immigrants, to build a barrier along some or all of the 2,000-mile border between the U.S. and Mexico, and to create a new guest worker program. Throughout most of 2006, the country and Congress saw itself immersed in a debate about these proposals. As of March 2007, few of these proposals had become law, though a partial border fence was approved.