Political Positions on Immigration

When most people think of cracking down on immigration, they think in terms of illegal immigration, of particular strain to the economies of states along the Mexican border, like Texas and California. However, Washington House Republicans are proposing to bar legal immigrants from 60 federal assistance programs. According to an article in CQ Researcher:

Critics of liberal immigration policies say the moves will save money and reduce the flow of illegal aliens into the country. But immigration advocacy groups say that illegal aliens are already ineligible for most welfare and education benefits and that working age, legal immigrants often get less government assistance than U.S. natives. (97)

California has been a hot spot of political foment over the immigration issue. In California, voters in November, 1994, overwhelmingly approved Proposition 187, a measure that bars undocumented aliens from public schools, health clinics, and social service agenc

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e two decisions is that California's Republican-sponsored Proposition 187 is counter to federal law, and the current litigation surrounding it attests to this fact. Reagan did all that he could to cut any funding of benefits to immigrants or states experiencing massive waves of immigration. An article in CQ Researcher states: "The refugee assistance funds, which totaled $600 million in 1980, were cut by more than half during the Reagan administration, and are still below the 1980 figure. And Congress did not actually appropriate any funds for incarcerating illegal aliens until 1994, when the Clinton administration won approval for $130 million for the program, including $33.5 million for California. Six other states with the heaviest concentration of illegal immigrants in prison--New York, Texas, Florida, Arizona, New Jersey, and Illinois--are to share about $9.5 million. Other states must apply for the funding. (102) The above lengthy citation illustrates two points relative to the Republican attitude toward immigration: (1) Republicans will rail against "the problem," but fail to supply needed monetary support to states with a heavy influx of immigrants, and (2) Republicans will hold back money in the belief that somehow
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Approximate Word count = 1555
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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