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During the first week of his presidency, President Trump signed three executive orders that would serve as the basis for three of his administration’s most prominent deterrent immigration policies: the “Trump Travel Bans,” sanctuary jurisdictions, and the construction of a southern border wall. While this paper describes the intended goals of each executive order, it also details the complementary policies utilized by the administration to deter both legal and undocumented immigration. Though these federal policies target different immigrant groups, they all attempt to deter some form of immigration. It is the goal of this paper to analyze whether or not the immigration policies of the Trump administration are actually effective in deterring multiple forms of immigration. To do this, this paper asks two main questions.
Each section of this paper addresses two questions when analyzing the goals of each policy. First, are the deterrent immigration policies of the Trump administration effective in reducing threats to national security and/or undocumented immigration? Next, this paper questions whether or not the deterrent immigration policies of the Trump administration are mostly symbolic in nature.
Finally, this paper includes a future policies section which predicts future immigration policies President Trump may decide to undertake. This section bases these hypotheses on the three policies detailed within this paper and their results when compared to their intended goals. Finally, this section takes into account the symbolic nature of the deterrent immigration policies of the Trump administration.
This undergraduate honors thesis explores the process and motivating factors associated with immigrants from Mexico who are in the process of becoming U.S. citizens. This project is based on 20 interviews with Legal Permanent Residents (LPR) of Mexican origin who have had lawful permanent status for 20 years or more. While immigrants are eligible to apply for citizenship after five years of being LPRs, most, like my respondents, take longer. Why do LPRs experience a delay of 20 years or more in applying for citizenship? Findings from this study reveal that motivating factors associated with becoming a U.S. citizen are 1) a desire to be socially accepted and integrated by and into American society; 2) to overcome the fear of failing their citizenship interview; and 3) to change the growing anti-immigrant rhetoric by becoming citizens and increasing the presence of naturalized citizens in American society. Respondents also revealed that their bilingual-speaking children were the biggest motivators that helped with accessing information in regard to citizenship and voting.
