American Immigration :: essays research papers

American Immigration Laws Bouncers at the Border ;Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" These are the words inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty, which has become the American icon for those who wish to make the United Stated thier home. How true do these words hold relative to US immigration polocies? The US is a Nation of Immigrants. Since this its beginnings, immigration has played a vital part in this countries development. People from all parts of the world, from different ethinic, political, religious, and cultrual backgrounds populate this mass of land east of the Pacific and west of the Atlantic. This compilation of people is often described with metaphors such as "melting pot" or "cultural mosaic." It is this diversity that is practically synonimous with United States of America nearly since its infancy. It is also this diversity that has creatied such controversy. Natural human fear of what is different has caused more established groups of people to question the place in society of those groups of people that are relatively new. This is a general statement that sums up, for the most part, the specific issues that are seen as controversial. Throughout history these issues have been fairly public. The main controversy lies in the passing of a pleth era of laws throughout the existence of the US regulating immigration and in the handling of illegal immigration. Modern immigration polocies have recieved less and less publicity as tolerance becomes more widespread, although each person is entitled to their own opinion about the issue.