Free Essay Sample on US Immigration Policies

Management Analytical Essay

Policymaking is an important aspect of any leadership or government, and it refers to the process of creating laws or setting standards for business or government. An example of policymaking is when a president and his staff facilitate the drafting and the passing of a new bill. Before a policy is fully effectual, there are several preliminary steps that have to be put into consideration. These steps that define the process of policy making include the identification of a problem, coming up with agendas, formulation of policies, creating a budget, implementation of processes, and finally, the evaluation of all the work put into the realization of policy. A breakdown in any of the aforementioned steps may end up jeopardizing the quality of outcomes realized. In the United States of America, a number of challenges spur the need for policy changes in relation to immigration. That being identified as the problem made the government to come up with agendas such as the deportation of illegal immigrants, creating a budget to build a wall and implementation of the right processes to achieve policy goals and objectives. Lobby groups, focusing events, and policy entrepreneurs, and Americans at large feel strongly about the issue of immigration, and it is the “responsibility of the government to consider collective goals before making a decision” (Ham, Christopher & Hill, 1993, pg 55). Systemic indicators come in handy with respect to matters revolving around monitoring of policies. Policy monitoring is important to developers as it helps curb the menace of scope creep. With “strict adherence to matters of policy and the close observance of matters regarding immigration, the government will surely succeed in its endeavors on redefining immigration in this country”(Hill, 2013 pg. 35).This paper is going to give invaluable insights on the viability of such a policy and the matters arising respective of such a policy. Besides, the paper will give a projection of how affiliate stakeholders may perceive such a case.

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In the United States of America, the presence of Muslim immigrants has made some of the White American population very uncomfortable. Ever since 9/11, some Americans developed a negative attitude towards Muslim immigrants in the country and Islam at large. In addition to that, this negative attitude later spanned across all immigrant populations within the country such that White Americans perceived other races such as robbing them of their opportunities and jeopardizing their security. Electing a leader that felt strongly about the immigration policies of the United States is a surefire way of telling that most of the American population favors the deportation of all illegal immigrants. Two pertinent issues that are tied to the current need for amendments in the migration policies of the United States of America include drug dealing which is largely perceived as a Hispanic and African American affair and terrorism which is deemed to be very much related to the Muslim community within and without the United States. In fact, Muslim Americans are perceived to collude with terrorists overseas so at to carry out attacks in the American hinterland. With respect to the aforementioned notion comes the idea that Muslims within the United States contributed in the inside job that facilitated the attacks. With respect to matters of national security, the new president of the United States proposed and is looking to effect new policies that will eliminate the imminent threat of terrorism within the United States and the world at large. Top of the immigration agenda is a project to erect a wall at the border between the United States and Mexico. With the mentioning of such policies some Americans, even those supportive of deporting illegal immigrants, have protested the building of a wall as it would be very expensive. With a potential to definitely take a toll on the taxpayer, people are bound to accept the policies half-heartedly.

Ways in Which Immigration has come to the Policy Agenda

Policy instruments and tools are information, education, regulation, legislation, standards, guidelines, procedures, grants, programs, subsidies, taxes, expenditures or/and public ownership. All the above-mentioned policy tools have been utilized at some point and will still be utilized to effect the parent policy that has to do with illegal immigration. Education has been utilized to enlighten the members of the public within the United States of the need to secure the borders through the enforcement of the right policies. In addition to that, the United States government will use money from taxes to build a perimeter wall south of the United States to stop the illegal entry of Mexicans and other immigrants from the South into the United States of America. In essence, taxes will be used in effecting expenditure. It is also worth mentioning that procedures will be a necessary part of policy making but the country will not be receiving any grants whatsoever when it comes to matters revolving around the illegal immigration policy. In essence, policies pertaining to illegal immigration have been useful to the government in that they have helped outline rules, set responsibilities and roles, offer principles that guide action, reflect beliefs and values, and state an intention to do something. To explain the need for illegal immigration policy change, the leadership of the United States state that at the moment the basic needs of Americans are not being met. Besides, the current laws or policies are not effective and enforced to the letter. It also seems that “change is necessary because both the emerging and existing conditions pose a threat to the security of Americans”, and some of the proposed changes in laws and policies may actually do a lot of good when they come into effect the moment all the necessary amendments are done (Tierney and Clemens, 2011 pg. 83).

The measures which have been put in place to evaluate the efficacy of any of the policy tools/instruments which have been adopted to achieve stated outcomes

It is important for policymakers to know whether whatever it is they have been planning on immigration will eventually work or whether it will end up not working. It is for this reason that the current leadership has been looking to put measures in place to determine whether efficiency and effectiveness will be realized in the long run. The importance of plan and policy effectiveness monitoring is that it helps determine the call for further action, and possible alterations and enhancements in plans and policy statements, or in steps embraced to put them into implementation. For assurance of the immigration policy operational efficiency, the leadership of the United States has established the associations with monitoring the state of the environment and the monitoring of compliance, resource consents, and complaints. Secondly, there has been consideration of the plan’s external factors and contexts such as population growth and decline. “The government is well aware of the fact that monitoring is an ongoing and systematic process as opposed to a one-off task; this is a connotation that there will be a continuous process of reviewing plans and policies”(Wills, 2006 pg. 37). It is worth mentioning that there will be a need for the leadership is charged with the responsibility of knowing whether policy and plan methods are being put into implementation prior to checking that projected results are being realized. Thinking about monitoring at the preliminary stages of the immigration policy and plan development process is paramount. Waiting until a policy plan is fully operative may make important information to be missed. Overall, a significant amount of resources and money will be invested to develop the immigration policy in the United States thence come the essence of confirming that the investment in question has been worth the while. In as much as policy planning is useful in statutory matters, it can also be applied in business management.

Degree to Which U.S. Immigration Policy Illustrates the Complexity of Policy and Decision Making

The United States government commits substantial resources to enforcement against illegal immigration. So far, there have been a number of complexities surrounding the immigration policy and these revolve around the facts that illegal immigrants make up for a huge section of the low-skilled populace of the United States labor force; illegal immigration aligns to market conditions in ways that legal immigration cannot at the moment; “taken as a whole, the impact of illegal immigration on the economy of the United States is minute, and the enforcement not in favor of illegal immigration is costly; this is with respect to the possible gains from getting rid of illegal entry” (Hanson, 2009).Of all the above-mentioned challenges to the illegal immigration policy, the issue of costs emerges as the most pronounced, with some citizens, in as much as they are supportive of the government to oust out illegal immigrants, are concerned regarding what will be the source of the money used to erect a wall.

To fully realize the immigration policy will not be easy, there will be a need for the federal government of the United States to commit considerable resources to enforcement against illegal immigration. For instance, since most activity takes place at the borders, more so the US-Mexico border, “there will be a need for the government to employ more border patrol agents who will keep guard of all the entry points” (John, 2011 pg. 91). On a national level, the agents make about 723,000 arrests on an annual basis, and with an increase of more border patrol agents, it is more likely that the level of security. Apart from employing more border patrol officers, additional resources need to be devoted to the building and maintenance of physical barriers along the border and enhancing the technology and equipment that the border agents have at their disposition. Interior enforcement efforts will need to be included and will involve monitoring and auditing the roles of employees at United States border workstations who will work with local enforcement to source and send back home illegal immigrants that have carried out crimes.

On a yearly basis, the budget for the United States Customs amounts to approximately 15 billion. For the policies that will be put in place, illegal immigration will not be the only reason, because ever since the September 11 incident that occurred in 2001, there will be a need to look out for terrorists entering the United States and safeguard national security at large. In fact, terrorist attacks, national security, and concerns about terrorism have also increased the level of spending. As a thought experiment, all the same, it is fascinating to think about whether the issue of the US-Mexican border enforcement is worth the cost. In monetary terms, the validation for border enforcement is to ward off illegal immigrants out of the UIS, thus avoiding the negative net economic brunt that their being there involves. This negative brunt, as Americans have witnessed, seems to be small. In the event that the United States federal government was to heighten enforcement to the point where it got rid of unlawful immigration completely, by closing down latest inflows and convincing those in the states to go back home, then the policies set up by the current leadership will be considered successful.

There are a number of issues that affect the current immigration policy in the United States of America, and these include the facts that unofficial immigrants make up for a large section of the low-skilled population of the United States labor force; illegal immigration aligns to market conditions in ways that legal immigration cannot at the moment; the overall impact of illegal immigration on the economy of the United States is small, and the enforcement against illegal immigration is expensive (with respect to the potential gains from getting rid of illegal entry. What is baffling is how a number of American households will survive after the legal immigrants.

References

Elmore, Richard F. 1979-1980, 'Backward mapping: implementation research and policy decisions', Political Science Quarterly, vol. 94, no. 4, pp. 601-616.

Ham, Christopher and Hill, Michael J 1993, 'Rationality and decision-making', in Ham, Christopher & Hill, Michael J, The policy process in the modern capitalist state, 2nd edn, Harvester Wheatsheaf, New York, pp. 80-96.

Hanson, Gordon H. 2009. The Economics and Policy of Illegal Immigration in the United States. San Diego: Migration Policy Institute.

Hill, M. 2013. The Public Policy Process, 6th edn, Pearson Education, Harlow, Essex, UK

Chapter 10 ‘Policy formulation’ pp. 185-9 (section on choice of policy instrument)While reading these chapters consider what factors you think should guide the choice of policy instruments.Hill, M. 2013. The Public Policy Process, 6th ed., Pearson Education, Harlow, Essex, UK

Hood, Christopher 2006, 'The tools of government in the information age', in Moran, Michael, Rein, Martin &Goodin, Robert E (eds.), Oxford handbook of public policy, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 469-481.

Mayer, Igor S, van Daalen, C Els and Bots, Pieter W G 2004, 'Perspectives on policy analyses: a framework for understanding and design', International Journal of Technology, Policy and Management, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 169-191.

John, Peter. 2011. Making policy work, Routledge, London

Tierney, William G and Clemens, Randall F 2011, 'Qualitative research and public policy: the challenges of relevance and trustworthiness', in Smart, John C & Paulsen, Michael B (eds.), Higher education: handbook of theory and research, Volume 26, Springer, Dordrecht, Netherlands, pp. 57-83.

Wills, Ian 2006, 'Cost-benefit analysis of environmental changes', in Wills, Ian, Economics and the environment: a signalling and incentives approach, 2nd edn, Allen and Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, pp. 145-157.