Republicans are demanding that immigrants who aren’t here legally should not be allowed to take the jobs of Americans, who would take those jobs if these immigrants weren’t here to take them “away from them”.

Here’s the problem with that “logic”.  Most of those jobs aren’t very appealing, particularly to Americans who are used to having a much softer life than immigrants who have always had to work hard to survive.  And the jobs don’t pay very much, even for back breaking work.

Many of the farmers down south who depend on cheap, immigrant labor to pick their crops are finding that the Bush and Republican Party laws and policies which are still in place today, are forcing many of the immigrants to leave, and their cheap work force is disappearing along with them.

Most Americans won’t do such back breaking work for such little pay.  American farmers are finding that they can’t find labor to replace this immigrant labor.  And as a result, their crops won’t be harvested.  Other businesses, which also depend on this cheap labor, are finding that they can’t find replacement workers, and they are also going out of business…AS A RESULT OF THEIR SUPPORTING REPUBLICAN POLICIES.

In 1875, the Supreme Court declared that regulation of immigration is a FEDERAL RESPONSIBILITY.  Based on that ruling, the recent anti-immigrant law passed in Arizona is Unconstitutional.

1905, people arrived in the U.S. with NO restrictions other than that you had some money (so that you would not be a burden on citizens, and were not infected with some disease).

At Ellis Island, those who were infected with some disease were either held in quarantine, until they were better, or they were shipped back.  But that was just ONE port of entry.  Other ports of entry did not enforce those same requirements of having money or being disease free.  In 1891 Congress passed an Immigration Act that banned those who suffered from “loathsome or contagious diseases”, not those who were simply ill with something like a cold or flu (which are contagious, but not seriously so).  The only people who were sick and detained as a result of their sickness had to be visibly and obviously sick, because the “medical assessment” only took about six seconds.  There were 29 questions asked of immigrants, including asking how much money they carried with them.  Some three thousand immigrants died on Ellis Island in the hospital set up to hold sick immigrants in quarantine.  (U.S. Marine Hospital Number 43, otherwise known as the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital – the largest marine hospital in the nation.) Those who were marked for detainment or deportation were marked with chalk on their clothing.  Some, who caught on to the reason that they were being marked with chalk, got past the system and gained entry to the United States by rubbing the chalk off, or by turning their clothing inside out.  “Idiots, lunatics and convicts” were also banned under the Immigration Act of 1882.

Fewer than 2% were turned away.

A commission charged with investigating naturalization practice and procedure reported in 1905 that there was little or no uniformity among the nation's more than 5,000 naturalization courts. Congress responded with the Basic Naturalization Act of 1906, which framed the rules for naturalization in effect today. The 1906 law also proscribed standard naturalization forms, encouraged state and local courts to relinquish their naturalization jurisdiction to Federal courts, and expanded the Bureau of Immigration into the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization.

No Visas or Passports or Green cards were needed at that time because there was NO REQUIREMENT FOR THEM.  All they had to do was to show up.

So people who claim today that “their ancestors followed the law when they immigrated” into the United States, are ignoring the fact that their ancestors didn’t have to deal with the same hurdles which are now in existence. 

They also ignore the fact that most immigrants are uneducated, and don’t have a lot of money.  Most don’t speak or read English, so they aren’t familiar with our laws and are dependent upon someone who does, or who claims they do.  So, while they may be breaking the law, they may not understand what those laws are or how they can comply with them, and even if they do, they may not have the money to do so legally.  (Getting a green card can take multiple applications over many years and cost several thousands of dollars for each application.  A friend of mine who went through the process went through 12 years of re-applying and spending thousands of dollars for each application before he was finally able to get his green card.)

Background Resources:

http://www.uscitizenship.info/ins-usimmigration-insoverview.html

INS - U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Service History