Security and Immigration Policy: An Analytical Framework for Reform

Abstract

What is the relationship between security and United States immigration policy? This question is important because the volume of international migration has been rising in recent decades and American leaders since the 9/11 attacks are increasingly called to produce policy to address its perceived security implications. This chapter assists officials with this task and answers the above question by discussing two common ways or traditions of structuring security and US immigration (the national security and human rights/security traditions) that often lead to distinct policy outcomes, presenting an analytical framework of national security and American immigration policy, and using this framework to identify meta-security themes underlying major US immigration policy decisions since the country's founding. The chapter concludes by examining post-9/11 Americanimmigration responses and discussing the policy implications of its findings for contemporary reform.