Refugees or Economic Immigrants?

Refugees or Economic Immigrants? Immigration from Latin America and the Politics of US Refugee Policy,"

Maria Cristina Garcia

 

          Every single day since President Trump has taken office, all you hear about is “THE WALL”. How this “wall” is going to protect our borders and keep out illegal immigrants from entering the United States. There are many reasons why people want to reside in the United States. There are also many ways to enter the United States, such as boats (Cubans) and arriving on a plane and overstaying a Visa. A person who flees their country while seeking political asylum in the US due to their country being communist is considered a refugee. An immigrant is someone who enters this country in order to have better economic opportunities.

 

Policies have definitely changed with immigration.  In the early days, it was not so difficult to come to the United States, whether your family member petitioned for you to come to the United States, you applied to become a resident, here on a tourist or work Visa, or you were seeking political asylum. Due to the criminals and “non-wanted” Cubans who came to the United States on the Mariel Boat, immigration policies had to be amended. While most Cubans came seeking asylum to the United States after Castro led the overthrow of the military dictatorship, some did come to the United States for economic reasons. Those people were not considered refugees. 

 

          Some Chileans also left toward the US to escape their authoritarian military government ran by Pinochet. Many did not fit the profile of a refugee because they did not leave a communist country. Although many Chileans’ human rights were being abused. The Central Americans fled due to civil wars. The Regan Administration felt that they fled due to economic reasons. They were not considered refugees because instead of heading to other countries which could have been more fitting for them to go to, they headed to the US. Therefore, they did not qualify for asylum. A country which was not mentioned is Venezuela. Venezuela is going through a political crisis as well.  Although there were not many who attempted to enter the US illegally, more were crossing the borders into Ecuador and Colombia as refugees.

 

The question is who should be granted asylum? Who should be allowed to enter legally into the United States? We have had criminals and terrorists enter and legally reside in this country. Is the US government doing its due diligence in screening the immigrants/refugees and fairly allowing entry into this country or are they racially profiling certain countries?