Immigration
Why is it Controversial?
There are an estimate of over 11 million illegal immigrants in America, mainly Hispanic
FAIR (a pressure group) estimates this costs the taxpayer $100 billion a year
By being tough on immigration, parties don't want to alienate the Latino vote. However, Trump still won a large proportion of the Latino vote.
Trump
Obama
Obama wanted to improve immigration
He supported the DREAM Act (Development, Relief & Education for Alien Minors), which would legalise most of the illegal immigrants in the country, but it failed to pass due to Congress
In 2012, he announced DACA, which gives a 2 year reprieve to immigrants who arrived in the US as children. This was a success for 740,000 individuals in the last year to help them integrate into society, find work and access education.
Despite this, his presidency saw a record high of deportations (over 2.7 million in 2009-2016) which many see as a failure on Obama's part
He changed enforcement laws so that rather than workplace raids, employers were penalised for taking on illegal immigrants.
There was initially a focus on dangerous immigrants with criminal backgrounds, but a memo in 2014 resulted in the deportation of immigrants with little to no criminal background
Many central Americans fled to America from Mexico to escape violence. Rather than treating this as a humanitarian issue, the Obama administration treated this as an enforcement issue. Many asylum families were deported, often without access to an attorney
His immigration plan has 3 principles: a wall must be built across the border, that current immigration rules must be fully enforced, and the interests of American citizens must be put first
He overturned DACA in 2017, meaning many more immigrants will be deported. This was widely protested by citizens, immigrants and business leaders
He's increased enforcement. Under Obama, immigrants would only be considered for deportation if they were convicted of serious crimes. However, now even if they have a clean criminal record, they are likely to be deported.
Many see Trump as a step back for immigrant rights, but his opinions are also supported by the white population as well as a large portion of the Latino population
Party Stances
Republican
Democrat
Amnesty should be given to illegal immigrants that are already here. They help stimulate the economy, make up a large part of America's diverse 'melting pot' and contribute a large amount to the workforce
The constitution protects individual rights- a tough crackdown can often be seen as racist (eg. racial profiling in Arizona) and can tear families apart
The centre-left including Obama think there should be a path for illegal immigrants that involves a fine, learning English, paying tax and getting a background check
"Amnesty? Never!"- illegal immigrants have broken the law and shouldn't be allowed to remain
If you allow illegal immigrants more will just come in
All the 2012 candidates were anti immigration, with Romney wanting to get rid of perks such as tuition fee breaks which tempt immigrants & Ron Paul wanting to end automatic citizenship for people born in the country
Immigration has now become a States Rights issue, controversial in the case of Arizona vs United States which many describe as racial profiling