Immigration And Naturalization Service Research Articles

The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the Making of a Border-Crossing Culture on the US–Canada Border, 1891–1941

This essay focuses on the enforcement of US immigration laws at Canadian border ports of entry from 1891 to 1941 – more particularly, between Port Huron and Detroit on the west and Buffalo and Niagara Falls on the east. It first analyzes the reasons for the creation of ports of entry as a way to control the influx of aliens across the northern border. The study then focuses on the shaping of ports of entry as both physical and bureaucratic spaces dedicated to the control of all border crossers, including American and Canadian citizens, but also to the smooth flow of traffic. Finally, through an analysis of border crossers' letters of complaints to immigration authorities, the essay explores crossers' expectations of the border and reactions to increased controls. Ports of entry, as a manifestation of the power of the sovereign state, affected the behavior of border crossers. On the other hand, immigration officials understood that good customer service was a necessary condition for the public's compliance with their power at the border.

Who Is an American?

Cynthia Weber's documentary “I Am an American” is an audacious and creative intervention into the field of international relations (IR). It bypasses the usual conceptual boxes that the discipline imposes upon us since day one of graduate school: for example, only abstract arguments have force, only written articulations are acceptable, and only topics of “high politics” matter. With her documentary, Weber shows that we gain richer debates and insights if we extend these maxims: for example, abstract arguments and concrete emotions have force; indeed, one often informs the other; sometimes, visual images articulate what the written form cannot; and topics of “high politics” are not so “high” or “political” only when ordinary lives are marked forever, like losing a loved one to war or the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) (viz. Weber 2005). In form alone, Weber's project shakes the discipline from its tendency to remain removed from and complacent about the very subject that accounts for it: that is, relations international. But, this documentary bears more import than mere form; its content blazes a pioneering path as well. Weber's documentary conveys at least three layers of meaning. 4 The first offers a dissenting voice to a series of images produced by the American Ad Council to promote unity through patriotism in the United States shortly after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. These, she felt, gave an incomplete understanding of what it meant to be an American, especially for those designated as “unsafe citizens” (Weber 2008). The Ad Council's campaign, for example, did not include the poor, the illegal, the dissenting, the grieving, or the hateful in its multi-ethnic, multi-cultural pastiche of America. In omitting these Americans, Weber implies, the Ad Council risked propagating the very notion of an America that has no relation to the furies that unleashed 9/11. …

Chinese Chicago: Transnational Migration and Businesses, 1870s‐1930s

AbstractEmploying the theoretical framework of transnationalism, this study closely examines how the transnational kinship networks played out in various aspects of the Chinese businesses in Chicago, through reconstructing the transnational Chinese businesses during the period from the 1870s to the1930s. Utilizing primary sources in both English and Chinese, in particular the Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) Chicago Chinese Case Files (CCCF) and Chinese gazetteers, it also demonstrates how the Chinese community in Chicago served as a vital link of the transnational migration and business networks and a center of commerce and trade in the American Midwest during this period.

Current Trends in Mexican Migration

Current Trends in Mexican Migration Gloria Ciria Valdéz-Gardea In the summer of 2005, with the Immigration and Naturalization Service ’s (INS) Voluntary Repatriation Program in full swing,1 the U.S. Border Patrol operating in the Arizona desert detained 20,590 people, all of whom were deported to their places of origin. Of this total, 15,051 were men, 3,017 were women, and 2,522 were under the age of eighteen (Román 2005). According to Mexico’s National Migration Institute (INM), most of these deportees were from the states of Chiapas, Veracruz, Oaxaca, and Puebla. This information captures many of the current trends in Mexican migration, which, according to scholars, is characterized by the diversification of migration demographics and by a shift in flows towards the Sonora-Arizona border. Migrants, moreover, are now likely to co me from states that previously were fairly stable demographically, such as Veracruz, on Mexico’s Gulf coast. Finally, although the data remain somewhat unclear, women seem to represent a major component in the migratory phenomenon. Today’s Mexican migrant population is far more socially and culturally heterogeneous than in the past, and represents a greater diversity of circumstances leading up to the decision to move north. Such differences are strongly rooted in regional practices and bring changes in the cultural dynamics of host communities in both northwest Mexico and the United States. The current era of migration has its origins in rising levels of unemployment; 2 in the ongoing crisis in the agricultural sector—e.g., the abrupt downturn in Veracruz’s coffee and sugarcane sectors, and drought in several states, such as Zacatecas;3 as well as in generally increasing poverty levels. The dynamics of migration should, therefore, be assessed from a broader perspective, because we know that its effects now reach a much wider spectrum of society in the United States and Mexico. Demographic displacement does not affect only individuals; families, sending and receiving communities, and towns located along primary Gloria Ciria Valdéz-Gardea is professor and researcher at El Colegio de Sonora, Hermosillo. Journal of the Southwest 51, 4 (Winter 2009) : 563–583 564 ✜ Journal of the Southwest transit routes are all experiencing heavy impacts of migration, producing broad shifts in social organization (Santibañez 2004: 12). This dynamic is exacerbated by an utter lack of clarity in public policy, particularly when it comes to urban development and meeting the needs of a growing population in northwest Mexico’s cities and towns. On the one hand, we have large shortfalls in the provision of basic services for migrants in transit. On the other, migration combined with poor urban policy have produced sprawling informal sectors in communities that “nobody controls, nobody governs, and nobody orders” (Santibañez 2004: 5). Secrecy and illicit activity often characterize these receiving communities. In this paper I describe the contemporary characteristics of Mexican migration and examine some of its effects in terms of urban growth on the Mexico–U.S. border. Specifically, I illustrate the crucial role small communities such as Altar and Sasabe4—located in the mining, cattleranching , and agricultural region of northwest Sonora—play within current migratory dynamics. While clearly not an exhaustive survey of the topic, the paper does provide an overview necessary for contextualizing the migrant flows towards the northwest’s border towns and cities, which according to some authors, since the second decade of the 1990s have tended to retain far more migrants than in previous periods (Canales 1999; Mendoza 2004; Córdova 2005). Current Trends This section highlights four important features that, based on recent research, I think define Mexican migration in the current context: (1) the redirection of flows to nontraditional crossing points; (2) the emergence of new sending states; (3) the feminization of migrant flows; and (4) government inefficiency in safeguarding migrants’ rights. One of the main characteristics of what some people call ”modern” migration is the change in migratory flows whereby the largest cities have become generally less attractive to migrants, while medium- and small-sized cities have become preferred destinations (Enríquez 2002; Canales 1999). One reason for this that the INS has effectively sealed off traditional crossing points in San Diego...

Identity across Generations: A Turkish American Case Study

This article explores identity formation across generations among Turkish Americans. The study argues that important differences exist between first and second generation Turkish Americans in regard to the acceptance and assertion of their and Turkish identities and cultural practices. While first generation Turkish Americans are quite reluctant to assert their identities, second generation Turkish Americans openly express both their Turkish and identities, regardless of their religious orientation. Whereas the first generation is more isolated in America no matter the degree of their acculturation, second generation Turkish Americans are much more integrated, as linguistic proficiency and cultural adaptation are less significant barriers to their participation in larger society. This article also suggests that those second generation Turkish immigrants who feel discriminated against believe that it is their Islamic faith rather than their ethnicity that is the cause of their lack of acceptance by larger society. There has been an important growth in the number of immigrants coming to the United States since changes were made in immigration laws in 1965.1 Today, the United States has a larger population than that of Kuwait, Qatar, and Libya combined.2 Until the events of September 11, 2001, few had paid attention to Muslims in the United States, and their cultural, religious, political, and national differences often have been overlooked. However, Muslims in the United States are quite diverse in terms of their cultural practices, political views, and national identities.3 Therefore, any simple categorization such as Muslim American is not only incomplete but also very misleading. Even among members of a single ethnic group such as Turkish Americans, there are important generational, ideological, political, and class differences.4 This article is partially based on my research conducted in 2002 on Turkish Americans living in the New York City metropolitan area. I interviewed 38 members of the Turkish community. Twenty-four of the interviewees were men and 14 were women. Eight of those interviewed were second, and 30 were first generation Turkish Americans.5 My discussion of generational identity is largely based upon the experiences of Turkish immigrants who came to the United States after World War II. Turkish Immigrants in the United Stat es The US Census Bureau reports that 117,619 people identified themselves as Turkish Americans in 2000. However, this is far below some estimates of the number of Turkish Americans living in the US. For instance, Mehmet Ezen, the Turkish Consul to the US, gives a figure of 350,000-500,000. Also, according to the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), about 450,000 immigrants carrying Ottoman or Turkish passports have come to the United States since 1820. However, the vast majority of immigrants coming to the US towards the end of the Ottoman Empire were not ethnically Turkish. They included Armenians, Greeks, and other ethnic and religious groups who carried Ottoman passports. There are three identifiable waves of Turkish immigration to the United States. The first wave began in 1800, reached its peak in the early 1900s, and ended by the close of World War I.6 According to the INS, almost 300,000 immigrants carrying Ottoman passports came to the United States between 1820 and 1920.7 As indicated above, not all of these immigrants were ethnic Turks. Only 50,000 of those 300,000 immigrants were ethnic Turks.8 Halman notes that while some of the early Turkish immigrants returned to Turkey after World War I, those who stayed in the United States were assimilated into the larger culture. The second wave began in the early 1950s after a period of slow Turkish immigration to the United States since the end of World War I. However, Turkey's membership in NATO and the Truman Doctrine marked the beginning of a new partnership between Turkey and the United States. …

Dutch Revise Policy Blocking Iranian Students

NONPROLIFERATION The Dutch government this week backed away from an antiterrorism policy that had led one university to reject applications from Iranian students and triggered a loud protest among academics. But researchers complain that the revised policy will still make it hard for Iranian scholars and students to study in the Netherlands, and they fear that such policies could spread throughout Europe. The original policy was the government's attempt to implement a 2006 United Nations resolution that asks all nations to “prevent specialized teaching or training of Iranian nationals … [in] disciplines which would contribute to Iran's proliferation [of] sensitive nuclear activities and development of nuclear weapon delivery systems.” Last fall, the Dutch education and foreign affairs ministers told all universities to exercise “vigilance” in admitting Iranian students. In December, the University of Twente in Enschede announced that it would no longer accept Iranian students because the Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) had asked for a guarantee that Iranians on campus would not gain any sensitive knowledge. Officials at the Eindhoven University of Technology said they would consult Dutch intelligence officials while considering Iranian applicants for admission. Academics and students protested the new policy, calling it overly broad and discriminatory. Their objections were heard: This week, Twente officials said that INS has agreed to withdraw its demand for a guarantee and that the university would reopen its doors to Iranians. Robert Dekker, a foreign ministry spokesperson, says the government still intends to implement the U.N. resolution by barring Iranian students from admission to certain fields. (Students already enrolled face no such restrictions.) “The ministries and the universities are discussing which studies might fall under the resolution,” Dekker told Science . The exclusion could include degree programs that are not directly related to nuclear technology but involve sensitive topics, he says. Mehmet Aksit, a software engineering professor at Twente, wor ries that the revised policy could toughen an already restrictive visa policy toward Iranians. Although measures to stop nuclear proliferation are appropriate, Aksit says the Netherlands “should encourage intellectual exchanges with Iran.”

Closing the Gaps: The Need to Improve Identification and Services to Child Victims of Trafficking

Human trafficking for sexual exploitation and forced labor is believed to be one of the fastest growing areas of criminal activity. The vast majority of victims of severe forms of trafficking are women and children. The particular vulnerability of child victims, related to biophysiological, social, behavioral, and cognitive phases of the maturity process, distinguishes them from adult victims and underscores the necessity of special attention to their particular needs. In the United States, most trafficking victims, but particularly child victims, go unidentified and even fewer gain access to the services developed to help them break free from their traffickers and reintegrate into the wider society. This paper uses a case study approach to examine the inadequacies and service gaps in the system established in the United States to care for child victims of trafficking. The case study is discussed within a broader context of the evolution of the system of care available to child victims of trafficking, including the transfer of care of undocumented children in federal custody from the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).

Encounters with Jesus `El Matador' Chávez: In and Out of the Ring

This article considers sport as a locus for US Latino ethnoracial identity formations. To suggest a dialogue between everyday practices and academic discourses, it first examines professional boxing on a theoretical level as a network of spatio-bodily power dynamics; it then discusses the life story and legal case of world champion Jesus ‘El Matador’ Chavez. A Mexican national who grew up in the USA, Chavez was twice deported before winning his legal case against the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in November 2000. Through his story, the article problematizes identity formations within various spatial frameworks – such as the city, the prison, the ring and USA–Mexico national borders. It also considers how the boxing body is both linked to power relations and how, through its own agency, it contests those relations. Ultimately, Chavez’s case exemplifies the fluidity of identity formations, the incongruency of many identity signifiers, and how, simultaneously, identity formations have a necessary strategic and political function.

The Use and Misuse of ‘National Security’ Rationale in Crafting U.S. Refugee and Immigration Policies

Since the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, U.S. immigration and refugee policy has developed based on narrow and evolving theories of ‘national security’. Immigration reform legislation, federal regulations, and administrative policy changes have been justified in terms of the nation’s safety. On 1 March 2003, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was folded into the massive new U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), formally making immigration a homeland defense concern. Counterterror and immigration experts increasingly agree on what constitute effective and appropriate immigration policy reforms in light of the terrorist threat. Unfortunately, many of the post-September 11 policy changes do little to advance public safety and violate the rights of refugees and asylum seekers. These include reductions in refugee admissions, the criminal prosecution of asylum seekers, the blanket detention of Haitians, and a safe third-country asylum agreement between the United States and Canada. Other measures offend basic rights and may undermine counterterror efforts. These include ‘preventive’ arrests, closed deportation proceedings, and ‘call-in’ registration programs. This article reviews post-September 11 U.S. policy developments based on their impact on migrant rights and their efficacy as counterterror measures. It argues for a more nuanced and rigorous sense of ‘national security’ in crafting refugee and immigration policy.

Sovereignty Discourse and Contemporary Immigration Politics

Developing literature on late twentieth century U.S. immigration rhetoric has failed to attend adequately to the character of sovereignty claims in contemporary immigration politics. This essay demonstrates the centrality of sovereignty discourse by examining texts created by the state, specifically public affairs videos produced and distributed by a regional Media Services Office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) between 1992 and 2000. The author argues that border imagery featured in INS media functions metonymically as both a symbol and an index of U.S. sovereignty.

The World Settles in: Washington, DC, as an Immigrant Gateway

This study examines the ethnic geography of a new immigrant gateway, Washington, DC. According to Census 2000, more than 832,000 foreign-born individuals reside in the Washington metropolitan region. This research uses Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) data in an effort to map the residential decisions of immigrant newcomers by zip code from 1990 to 1998. Spatially, a very diverse, dispersed, and suburbanized pattern of newcomer settlement emerges, a pattern that contradicts many of the assumptions of the spatial assimilation model. Whereas the overall pattern is one of dispersion, an analysis of country-of-origin groups results in a settlement continuum ranging from concentrated (Vietnamese) to highly dispersed (Indians). Current research in Washington suggests that a pattern of heterolocalism (community without propinquity) may be a better model for understanding the role of immigrant settlement patterns and networks.

The American Immigration System: A Structural Change with a Different Emphasis

When the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was disbanded in 2003 many of its components were absorbed into the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS). One of these new entities, called US Citizenship and Immigration (USCIS), now has the formidable task of processing and keeping track of all the applicants for entry into the United States. Its goal is to serve the immigrant community effectively, efficiently, and fairly, while avoiding the problems and deserved criticisms of its predecessor organization. USCIS is expected to achieve this goal under the administrative authority of DHS that has goals that may not be compatible. The primary mission of DHS is to fight terrorism, and providing good service to clients may be incidental. In this reorganization many members of the immigrant community fear they are viewed as potential terrorists. That it also has responsibility for refugee applicants raises the issue of the blurring of immigration and asylum - the former is about control whereas the latter should be focused on protection. The possible effects of these organizational changes on immigrants, refugees, and the nation are reviewed in this paper.

Straddling the Border: Immigration Policy and the INS

Straddling the Border: Immigration Policy and the INS. By Lisa Magana. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003. 132p. 16.95 paper.In this book, Lisa Magana provides a concise and thoughtful analysis of the immigration policy process from inside the bureaucratic agency formerly responsible for its implementation, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Using a combination of interviews with high- and low-level INS representatives and immigration advocates, government policy evaluations, immigrant surveys, and intensive field study, Magana shows the disconnect that often exists between congressional immigration mandates and their actual implementation in INS district offices.

At America's Gates: Chinese Immigration during the Exclusion Era, 1882–1943. By Erika Lee. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003. 331 pp. Cloth, $55.00, ISBN 0-8078-2775-4. Paper, $19.95, ISBN 0-8078-5448-4.)

This is a first-rate historical study of the experiences of Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans during the exclusion era. Basing her work on a meticulous examination of more than six hundred cases from the immigration arrival files of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) from 1884 to 1940 (which became available to researchers only in the late 1980s and were theretofore untapped by historians), other historical archives, and oral history accounts, Erika Lee presents the most detailed and comprehensive descriptions and analyses of all the dimensions and complexities of Chinese exclusion in American history from the 1880s to the 1940s. Lee not only reconstructs the history of the excluded—the Chinese strategies for entering the United States and for survival under the most difficult conditions, their struggle to maintain personal dignity and family cohesion while being forced to live under false identity by the exclusion laws, the long-term impact of such a distorted pattern of life on the Chinese American community, and the Chinese protests against the harsh laws and their efforts to fight for justice and fairness—but also provides a rich narrative and careful analyses of those who enforced the exclusion laws (the immigration inspectors and interrogators as well as other law enforcement officials), how their zealous anti-Chinese attitude was shaped by the then prevailing social Darwinism, how such an attitude became part of the institutional culture at the INS, and how rigid procedures of personnel hiring were established to ensure the perpetuation of that “institutionalized suspicion of all Chinese” (p. 72).

Geography and segmented assimilation: examples from the New York Chinese

AbstractDrawing upon the segmented assimilation framework, and using the 1990 5% PUMS file, the paper compares the assimilation of selected Chinese immigrant cohorts, based upon age and period of entry. Including a spatial component within the framework, we examine whether differences in the organisation and assimilation of immigrant groups exist across space. For each cohort, contrasts are made with reference to location in the New York Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area (CMSA), with the analysis focusing upon differences in spatial assimilation with respect to acculturation, socioeconomic characteristics, internal migration, and immigrant characteristics relative to other immigrant and native‐born groups. The analysis is updated using Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) data files from the 1990s. Results suggest that space, and location in space, alter the assimilation trajectory of similarly defined groups. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

United States (U.S.) Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit: Cheema v. United States (U.S.) Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)

United States (U.S.) Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit: Cheema v. United States (U.S.) Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)

Agency Discretion and Public Ethics: The Case of the Immigration and Naturalization Service

This article examines the public manager’s ethical responsibility to implement laws, and the consequences for agencies and clients when managers fail to do so. Using the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) as an example, it shows how the failure to implement immigration statutes equitably, and to perform the basic duties expected of the agency, resulted in the inequitable treatment of immigrants, possibly including the deportation of innocents. The analysis argues that agencies have a responsibility to inform Congress of implementation problems and to request the resources needed to address these problems, and that it is in the self-interest of Congress to address implementation problems quickly. When administrators act prudently and in their own self-interest, they are able to fulfill an obligation both to their clients and to the principals they serve.

Medical care for interned enemy aliens: a role for the US Public Health Service in World War II.

During World War II, the US Public Health Service (USPHS) administered health care to 19 000 enemy aliens and Axis merchant seamen interned by the Justice Department through its branch, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). The Geneva Prisoners of War Convention of 1929, which the United States applied to civilian internees, provided guidelines for belligerent nations regarding humanitarian treatment of prisoners of war, including for their health. The INS forged an agreement with the USPHS to meet these guidelines for the German, Italian, and Japanese internees and, in some cases, their families. Chronic shortages and crowded camps continuously challenged USPHS administrators. Nevertheless, the USPHS offered universal access to care and provided treatment often exceeding care received by many American citizens.

Transnational Citizenries: Reflections from the Field in California

This essay explores new patterns of public life emerging with the growing assertion of rights by Mexican first-generation immigrants to the United States. It relies on a definition of citizenship as our relationship to public institutions. Among other consequences, this view directs our attention to the implications of 'transnational citizenries' for public institutions within the boundaries of the nation-state. The study examines a California town's response to an April 2001 raid by the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) which targeted a new population of indigenous immigrants from southern Mexico. The analysis emphasizes (1) the re-emerging significance of labor movements for citizenship development in the US; (2) the appearance of several new transnational or bi-national citizenries; and (3) a distinctive pattern of bifurcation and change in public organizations that are confronted by the increased complexity of citizenship in 'overlapping societies'.

New immigration requirements for students in U.S. who are not U.S. citizens

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has delayed the date by which universities and colleges who enroll non‐U.S. citizens holding non‐immigrant visas must decide whether or not they are going to participate in the INS' new Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). The new deadline is 15 February.The initial deadline was 30 January However, it has been delayed “to accommodate schools and visitors centers that are new users” of the Internet‐based SEVIS system, according to a statement released by the INS.