The Invisible Aliens

(Excerpted from The Washington Post, Tuesday, June 6, 2006 column by John Pomfret)

An Increasingly Deadly Trail
Tighter Border Has Illegal Immigrants Risking More Perilous Routes
COVERED WELLS, Ariz. -- It was early on a May morning, still dark, when Border Patrol agent Dan McClafferty first smelled death, its rich odor piercing the desert bouquet of sage, salt cedar and creosote. Following the beam of his flashlight, McClafferty looked under the thorny branches of a paloverde tree and found what he was looking for.

The body of the 3-year-old boy lay still, covered with a jacket and his arms crossed over his chest. His mother, found wandering along a desert highway hours earlier, had carried him there as she had tried to cross into the United States illegally.

The sad discovery was not unique. Since 1993, when the Clinton administration began a crackdown on border crossings in San Diego and El Paso, more than 3,500 people have died trying to cross into the United States through desert. And, as officials work to put more patrols and fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border, immigrant advocates fear there will be more deaths among the tens of thousands who attempt the trip.

Most of the deaths so far -- 959 since Oct. 1, 2001, according to local government statistics and the Mexican government -- have been in Arizona, where the landscape comprises mountains, ranches, Indian reservations, military proving grounds and endless miles of cactus-filled desert.

… But because federal agencies have tightened the border in urban areas, smugglers who move the men, women and children seeking to enter the United States illegally have funneled them onto increasingly perilous trails where temperatures are high, water is scarce and danger is abundant. …

A Toxic Mix

The 3-year-old’s mother’s name was Edith Rodreguez. She and her son crossed into the United States from Sasabe, Mexico, on May 11, said a spokesman for the Mexican consulate in Tucson. … the 25-year-old woman was traveling in a group of eight to 10 people, herded north by a smuggler, called a coyote.

To keep the group moving fast, the coyote handed out a Mexican over-the-counter drug called Sedalmerk, consulate spokesman Alejandro Ramos Cardoso said after Mexican officials interviewed Rodreguez. Sedalmerk is a combination of caffeine, Tylenol and the herbal supplement ephedra -- an amphetamine precursor that is banned in the United States.

Sedalmerk may be safe to use as a pick-me-up in a normal environment but it is a toxic mix when combined with a trek through the desert because it accelerates dehydration, McClafferty said. Two days into the journey, the boy’s energy was flagging and he was dehydrated. On May 13, Ramos Cardoso said, the coyote and the rest of the crossers abandoned Rodreguez and her son, leaving them to walk in the desert by themselves.

Rodreguez began carrying the child, moving north through a sliver of earth hemmed in by two mountain ranges on land belonging to the Tohono O’odham Indian reservation. Sometime that day, the boy lost consciousness, Ramos Cardoso said. But Rodreguez kept on walking, clutching him.

A Search for a Child
...

Some religious and charitable groups have placed water barrels in the desert and handed out maps in Mexico showing their locations, drawing the ire of those who seek tougher enforcement along the border. One of the groups, Humane Borders, received permission to keep water barrels on land belonging to the Bureau of Land Management, the Interior Department, the city of Tucson and Pima County. But the Tohono O’odham tribe has declined to give its permission.

It was on that land that Rodreguez found herself walking with her son. She carried him for more than a day, Ramos Cardoso said, before placing him under the paloverde tree and going to look for help.

Like many who cross the border illegally, Rodreguez had been in the United States before. ….

After placing her son under the tree, Rodreguez chanced upon Highway 86, which runs through the heart of Tohono O’odham. There, on the afternoon of May 15, Border Patrol agents picked her up. …

When McClafferty went searching for the boy, it was unclear whether he was alive. He said he was told that the mother was so distraught that Border Patrol agents understood only that her son was missing.

McClafferty and three other agents began bushwhacking through the desert scrub, looking for footprints, where Rodreguez had been found. There were thousands, making it impossible to track the boy that way.

Back at Nogales, Border Patrol agents photographed the bottom of Rodreguez’s shoes and faxed the image to McClafferty. Just as the sun was setting, he found matches in the dust. For the next seven hours he and the other agents tracked them by flashlight.

“We figured she was in bad shape,” McClafferty said. “She was walking around in circles. She went for help then went back to her son but couldn’t find him.”

In the end, McClafferty smelled the boy’s remains before he found them.

“She carried her kid in the desert for four or five hours and not one of them helped her,” McClafferty said of the others who walked in with Rodreguez. “I’ve seen a lot in six years, but this kid thing was one of those that I just couldn’t file away.”

More Deaths Expected

After being expelled from the United States, Rodreguez was allowed back on May 18 on a short-term humanitarian visa to identify her son’s body. An autopsy revealed that the probable cause of death was dehydration and exposure to the sun. The temperature had been above 100 degrees during their journey.

Eric Peters, deputy chief medical examiner for Pima County, placed the time of death between May 13 and May 14, meaning the boy had probably died in his mother’s arms.

....

The Tohono O’odham police considered charging Rodreguez with child endangerment, but the Pima County attorney’s office said it had no interest in prosecuting her. Rodreguez returned to Mexico on May 20 and her son’s body followed two days later.

Ramos Cardoso said he tried to persuade Rodreguez to speak to the media because the consulate hoped her story would encourage others not to follow her.

“She had been through a lot of suffering,” he said. “She told us she just wanted to go home.”

The Road of Dreams

Maria Flores looked at the back of the head of her smuggler through the small glass window in the partition – it was a small head and it was beginning to go bald. He had brought them a long way and she was beginning to lose track of time – as were the fourteen or so other individuals in the van. All of them had been originally picked up in Naco, Arizona where they had crossed into from Naco, Sonora in Mexico. The walk through the desert had been tough till they got to Route 90 – and she was relieved that the $1,500 payment was not money lost to a rip-off! She had heard horror stories of many who had been abandoned in those same locations – who were asked to walk by themselves for “only a few hours” when in reality, the trek was several days long.

She had packed her toothbrush, a plastic water jug, toilet paper, and a few other small supplies – but it would not have been able to sustain her for very long. How much water to carry was always a tricky decision – too little and you could die of thirst – too much and, at eight pounds a gallon, it could slow you down just enough to get caught.

They were nearing the end of what had felt like a never-ending journey. The two improvised steel benches along the sides of the van were crowded – those with children held them in laps. The ten hour ride had been rough – the heat was stifling and there was little light – they did not wish to be seen from outside for obvious reasons.

Dust and grime covered her – she felt its hold over her like that of a tight polythene bag – it almost suffocated her and she felt it will never let her go. Going to the bathroom was the worst part – the fellow passengers would simply look the other way as the one in need would avail of the bucket facility. But the stench was overpowering in the heat of the Arizona desert. The going was quite bumpy at times as the smuggler drove the van off the main roads – enforcement had gotten tough, especially since some recent drug busts, and there was even talk of the Minutemans – not taken seriously, though! They had been given clear instructions – if you are caught, make no attempt to escape – the agents may not use the guns that they carry – but chances of surviving the desert were not very high. The desert days are brutal and the nights not much better. In winter, you freeze – in summer the rattlesnakes would come to rest on the warm stones.

Maria Flores looked at the baby girl of the woman next to her – who would start crying as soon as off the nipple – more from the heat than from the hunger. The woman sang to her in a soft whisper-like voice – never too loud. Maria Flores thought back of her own little one-year old back in the farming hometown in Puebla, now being cared for by the grandmother. She wondered when she would be able to see her again.

Maria Flores was a striking woman of about twenty with expressive black eyes who kept her hair tied in a ponytail. She had never met the people whose house someone had suggested she could shelter herself in until she could slip into the large Hispanic population in the San Francisco area. She had no way to know that the “people” consisted of a single sixty-year old man who spoke fluent Spanish – practically her only language at the time. She also had no way of knowing that the coyote’s contact had been paid handsomely by the man and being able to talk Spanish was his only redeeming virtue. She had no way of knowing he would molest her the very night of her arrival and several times subsequently – until one night, in desperation, she would run out into the unknown of the dark and through the most unlikely stroke of luck, bump into a kind person who could not speak a word of Spanish and yet could take her to the local shelter for abused women for help.

Maria Flores had no way to see her future of backbreaking labor mopping the floors of so many Anglo ladies. She had no way to anticipate her days of virtual servitude yet to suffer – one after another – indignity piled on indignity – till there would be nights when she would be hurting all over and would pray to the Almighty to relieve her of her pain – when there won’t be nightmares of cops chasing her and catching her.

All of that was down the road and Maria Flores was blissfully unaware of it.

Maria Flores looked beyond the head of the smuggler and she looked at the road ahead of her.

The road was uneven, it was turning sharply – at times to the left but mostly to the right – Maria Flores had no way to see what lay beyond each turn – for all one knew, it could be la migra (immigration agents) or more likely it would be a continuation of the desolate path – like most of the road behind her, dusty and burning hot – a preview of the many days of her life that were to follow.

The road beyond the turn could not be seen by her – and perhaps it could be seen by nobody – except by those who have the unusual power to see everything!

But it was the only way to go!

It was her road.

#15 by kaurasach

[many, prob most, esp Hispanic illegal aliens have negative effect and are degrading the American standard of living....... ]

It is a myth, my darling! All business people know it - it is simple math - if you spend less on the bottomline, it is more likely that the end cost to consumers will be a bit less - which will IMPROVE the standard of living for the rest of us - at the expense of those who are at the bottom of that pyramid.

#13 by kaurasach

Those arguments about demographic changes are very, very hollow. Such changes take place all the time because of a variety of reasons. For example, in recent times, the population composition of Washington, DC - which went from white to mostly black and is slowly now reverting to a more balanced situation - is one example. There are countless others. There are many suburbs of New Jersey which have Indian and other immigrants in concentrated pockets. I am sure that Congressman Towns - that darling of Hamidm2 and mian Manto (except on the question of making an actual donation involving money - an area where many desis are ``kanjars`` - you may have heard the word (or perhaps even own some kind of copyright, too)) - even he probably has a few Pakistani-origin constituents. So what?! It does not prove a thing.

There is nothing anti-American about the present day ``illegals``!

By and large, these are law-abiding folks! Indians and Pakistanis have no business pretending this ``holier than thou`` attitude - if we had a joint border with the USA, probably half our populations would already be here - it is simply a question of economic opportunity - the situation between India Bangladesh is an illustration of the same fact.

The charges of potential terrorism are highly bogus. There is not a single instance of an ``illegal`` (of the type we are discussing here) trying to blow himself up in a subway.

There is not a single example of an ``illegal`` slipping in a bag of explosives on an Air India flight - then hiding inside the larger community - and staying hidden, probably being protected by that community, even after two decades!

Do you wish me to name the community, Kaura! No?

How Meetha of you!!

I may have said this before or elsewhere. Some of the last ones in are the quickest to slam the door shut behind them. It does not mean that they have a better understanding of the situation or are objective about it - probably the opposite is more true.

You are too smart (I hope) to fall for the canard that just getting into this country automatically translates into a better life or anything along those lines. One still must slog it out!

The present day ``illegals`` are simply repeating a cycle which has been done countless times over the past few centuries. The hostile reaction to them is also nothing new - as you can see from the chronology in my earlier interact. There is little doubt that the same will happen again. The present day Mexican immigrants are in a very similar boat where the Germans, Italians, Irish, East European, Chinese, Japanese and countless other immigrants have been before - yes, even Indians!

There is also little doubt who will ``win`` in the end - it is always the same people - in different manifestation in each cycle. They are called the Americans.

Because these ``illegals`` of today embody the true Americans of tomorrow - and they represent the spirit of what America is and has always been all about!

What’s mind boggling is that Mexico has a GDP per capita of $10,000, and is considered a middle income country (it’s double that of Venezuela, Philippines, and about 1/3 more than Turkey). How come there aren’t many illegal Turks in the US? The problem of illegal immigration can only be tackled by attacking it on both sides – supply and demand. US can only address it’s side, Mexico must take some responsibility as well. Building a wall is perhaps not the solution, but it will only make things worse. If wall is to be built, for it to be effective, it has to be built all around, and not just on the southern border.

please state one `humane` solution that will work.........it has never worked.....

IF `rozi roti` is their motive then i dont have any qualms about immigration; even illegal; almost always the immigration is illegal....in all history.........

many, prob most, esp Hispanic illegal aliens have negative effect and are degrading the American standard of living.......

anyways, these measures are cosmetic only.......they wont stop anyone to come and earn their `rozi roti`

Whoa...when did I say I supported illegal immigration? My only discomfort is with the reactionary, right-wing manner some people are reacting to this. This includes the nut-jobs building a fence/wall, the minutemen patrolling the border and people ready to shoot to kill illegal aliens.

Whatever else, we can agree that most (not all, of course, kaurasach) people coming over are poor, don`t think in terms of national boundaries when all they see is some rozi-roti across the border and their own government is failing them.

Illegal immigration as an issue and illegal immigrants as a people need to be dealt with humanely. Of course, some people would blame NAFTA and other trade agreements being in part, responsible for the problem.

I believe that this ongoing problem is being brought forward now to divert attention from all the other horrible, crappy things being done by the Bush White House both here and abroad. And this is an issue like gay marriage that can be used to whip people into a frenzy. People fall for it. To just look at illegal immigrants as the problem is to be blind to the US employers who lure them here, the others who turn a blind eye, those who employ them in sweatshops, etc.

Is illegal immigration a problem? Yes. But is the solution to further victimize a poor, voiceless minority? Or should there be more holistic and more humane solutions. Solutions that will keep them in their own country.

Jawahara,


I have observed different classes in a district that is 78% Hispanic.....and interact with adult Hispanics on daily basis.....have first hand knowledge......of their lives......and their status, incomes, etc....

The US is decaying because as one Mexican (legal) put it.......``this is the garbage of Mexico``...is being swept to the US.

Many of them are hard working and humans who naturally would want to come for better lives....their damage to the US is far more than the benefit.....

They tell me openly that they are reclaiming the lost lands of SW USA.....have no obligation to the USA. 100% of them (the ones I know) dont pay taxes at all or dont pay their fair share......they have ways of getting benefits......all the social services are being drained by them......they think it is their right......

I can go on and on about the cesspool they have created here......Spanish is now the most important factor in the hiring process. Incompeten and unlicensed teachers are hired - their only qualification Spanish.....their English is minimal.....some are coming from Mexico.....while American teachers are jobless.

Finally, what I want to state is that contrary to the propaganda that the illegals are a net positive on the country and the state economy in which they live and work, they are a net negative. How much does an illegal earn? $4, $5, $6 dollar an hour. Which comes to about $10-15 thousand per year assuming a work week of 50-55 hours. Assuming that both spouses work it comes to $30,000 per year.

Now most of them are paid under the table. So no taxes are paid by them or the matching FICA and other employment taxes by their employer. Then their kids go to the public school system and it costs at least $7K per child for the state to educate him/her. Assuming only two kids though if you see an average Mexican family you will see that there are more. Then in most states including California they qualify for food stamps, subsidized housing and other benefits even if they are illegals (based on their income). Then if they get pregnant or have other medical emergencies, many hospitals have to take them. Many of them drive illegally and without insurance and it is estimated that 25% of California`s drivers are uninsured (source DMV, AAA or any other Insurance statistics). It increases our premiums to get UI motorist coverage.

You add all this up and you will see that the average illegal is more of a burden on the system.

Now to the question about the law restricting immigration being fair or not. Yes, hopefully one day the political barriers in the world may not mean anything and people would be able to move from place to place freely. However, until that happens, US like any other country is within its right to set rules on immigraiton. Mexico treats the illegal aliens coming into its country from Central America in a much worse way. They are beaten, tortured and then deported back.

However, assuming we take your suggestions and lift all restrictions. Two questions come to mind:

1) Security issue - How are you going to monitor that the people who are coming into the country won`t try to harm you. It is no coincidence that the illegal immigration from Bangladesh into India is rampant and nowadays any terrorist act in India has some Bangladeshi link. Fortunately, for America the Mexicans are not such ungratefuls like Bangladeshis to bite the hand that fed them but you never know. Anti-US people from some other countries might sneak in thru Mexico.

2) Most importantly there is a limit to how much even a vast nation like the US can absorb. Many of the developing nations like Mexico, India, Pakistan, Africa are producing people like a factory assembly line. What if all of them decided to migrate to the US???

There are two ways of withdrawing money from a bank. One way is like I do; go to a teller, fill out a withdrawal slip with your account number, show her your passbook or ATM card and get money from your own account. The other way is to walk up to the teller, show her a gun and withdraw money from the bank`s account.

Jawahara, Sanjay and all those supporting illegal immigration. If you realise that there is a difference in the two ways of withdrawing money from the bank then I am sure you are intelligent enough to realize that there is a difference between LEGAL immigration and ILLEGAL immigration. Yes, many of them might be coming for a better living, yadda, yadda but at the end of the day there is something called a law that does not allow people to sneak in illegally into the country and they should be made to obey the law. Now don`t go around comparing it to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. If the law is discriminatory then let`s do away with it but until then make sure that people obey that law.

[quote]Unlike those of us who applied by legal channel (some would argue because we had the means to do so), these illegals live sometimes invisible lives. They work in sweat-shops, labor under the hot sun picking fruit and lettuce, mow our lawns, clean our houses and look after our children.[/quote]

First of all many if not most of the legal immigrants also had to endure a tough route. People on an H-1 had to endure low wages for 4-6 years because they were stuck to an employer and had to wait in apprehension until their EAD or Green Card came. Then if the person got married after getting the Green Card then his wife has to wait for 2-3 years in the home country before she gets her visa. Siblings sponsored by their US citizen siblings have to wait 12-15 years before getting their visa. Case is worse for large countries like India and China where the equal quota for each country gets filled much more quickly. My wife and I were married in the US. One of her brother wanted to visit the US to attend the marriage but was denied a tourist visa as he was a potential immigrant. Recently my wife`s cousin, a self-employed doctor and her husband, a self-employed factory owner, were denied a tourist visa.

Legalizing the illegals would be a slap in the face for those people who had to endure the pains and frustration of the system but still had faith in it, obeyed and complied with it. It`s like waiting in a large line somewhere and the illegals cutting across it. Jawahara, as to your comment about the means. Many families be it from Punjab, Shanghai, Karachi, Nairobi or any other part of the world, have paid through their nose to get legal immigration. Family jewels have been pawned.

[quote]“Look we did it the right way. We have a right to be here. Those other brown folks don’t.”[/quote]

Once upon a time when the immigrants came to this country they considered it their privelge and not their right. Be it the persecuted Jew from Eastern Europe, the railroad worker from Shanghai or the California worker from Bhatinda, they all learnt English. They were thankful for the new opportunity. Today, the Mexicans, Cubans and some of the Hispanics who have come to the country expect others to adjust to them. Spanish signs are propping up everywhere. So much tax dollars is wasted in printing government materials in Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog. Imagine if an uninvited guest forced into your house against your wishes and expected you to live according to his rules. The same audacity is being shown by the illegals. The average American has been very tolerant and patient with the immigrants and even illegals. But now his/her patience is running thin and I don`t blame them.

...to be continued.

#8 by kaurasach on May 31, 2006 8:58am PT

``Many illegal Mexicans live rather comfortable lives; driving Escalades; their kids and they milking public systems; living here as is they own the country; they are the worst racists who hate blacks, Asians, Indians, etc.``

kaurasach, I wonder how many of the estimated 11 million (how did they get the estimate, anyway?) drive Escalades, especially if they are milking the public system? I would venture to say that the vast majority of them are not. As for racism, Indians too are racist against blacks and Hispanics? To some degree we`re all racist and we can only do anything about it by acknowledging it first.

I do believe something should be done about illegal immigration but it does need to be done in a balanced, humane, non-racist, sensible way not in this knee-jerk, paranoid issue of the day kind of thing going on now.

#1

I hired a mahzbi sikh (scheduled caste) to show me around Patiala. He would punch every Poorbia rickshaw puller he could reach in a traffic jam ;-))

Many illegal Mexicans live rather comfortable lives; driving Escalades; their kids and they milking public systems; living here as is they own the country; they are the worst racists who hate blacks, Asians, Indians, etc.

This is front Page material. Please acknowledge & recognise it as such

Jawahara, nice essay, but the following is totally ill-representative of the plight of Mexicans, you said:

>>>As I contemplate this supposed flood of illegals, it strikes me that they are the ultimate Diasporic people, just as the Jews were. Persecuted, often poor, they truly see no borders. They just look at the other side and see food on the table for their family, money to secure their future and an open sky of opportunities. A line on a map means nothing to them. They are ready to be scattered for a little bit of opportunity. They are looking for their promised land and it just happens to be in another country.<<<

Jews were persecuted in the lands they lived (because they were economically powerful). Mexicans are not persecuted in their lands. They leave for economic welfare and not to escape persecution.

Secondly, the immigration debate has always been alive in the US, for as long as it has existed. There have been major influx of Europeans (eastern and western) based on legislation, then of nurses and meds, and then of Asians (to build railroad) and then H1 Visas, and family based visas, then so on and so on. Every sane person would like this issue discussed, be they are in favor or illegal immigration or not. There has to be some mechanism to make it more controlled. Look at the EU for example, that has turned immigration the “only” issue in most of western Europe.

#2 HAMZAAD

I think the titles like Muslims, Hindus, Indians, Pakistanis etc. belong to the rich and well to do. For poors, life is nothing but a body and a soul joined together by a stomach. Thousands and Thousands these tiltles cannot take away their hunger, sufferings and pains. I really dream of a world where there are no such bloody useless titles and the mankind is free from its sufferings and pains.

A chronology of Immigration to the U.S.
(culled mainly from Wikipedia)
1776: U.S. Independence declared.

1790: U.S. population is approximately 3.9 millions (English: 54%, African: 19%, Ulster-Scot-Irish: 7%, Germans:7%, Scots: 4%, Netherlands: 3%, others: 6%)

1789: French revolution (and Napoleanic wars of 1792-1814) severely limit immigration from Britain and Europe.

1790: The first naturalization law in the United States passes, restricting naturalization to ``free white persons`` who have resided in the country for two years and in their current state of residence for a year.

1795: Residence requirements increased to 5 years residence and 3 years after notice of intent to apply for citizenship.

1795: Residence requirements increased to 14 years residence and 5 years notice of intent.

1808: Congress bans the importation of slaves.

1815: The US foreign-born portion reaches its minimum (1.4%)

1820: First Federal records of immigration start getting kept.

1820-1830: Immigration builds up from 8,000 a year to 23,000 a year.

1840`s: The first significant Catholic immigration to US occurs.

1845-1849: Britain eases travel restrictions. Large scale immigration by Irish, Germans, British and French become feasible.

1845-1849: Potato famine drives many, fleeing their homeland to escape poverty and death. The British, attempting to divert some of this traffic to help settle Canada, offer bargain fares of 15 shillings, instead of the normal 5 pounds (100 shillings) for transit to Canada. Thousands of poor Irish take advantage of this offer, and head towards Canada on what come to be called the ``coffin ships`` because of their high death rates.

1848: Bad potato crops and failed revolutions strike Europe and drive people out; land, relatives, freedom, opportunity and jobs in America lure them in.

1848: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, concluding the Mexican War, extends U.S. citizenship to approximately 60,000 Mexican residents of the New Mexico Territory and the 4,000 living in California. An additional approximate 2,000 U.S. and foreign born California residents also become U.S. citizens.

1849: California Gold Rush spurs mass immigration from Mexico, China, Australia, Europe and the migration of citizens of the United States resulting in the state of California being admitted to the union on September 9, 1850.

1850: First US census takes place in which the place of birth is asked. The foreign-born portion of population is found to be 10%.

1865: The Fourteenth Amendment, originally passed to protect newly emancipated slaves, becomes also a tool to protect the children of almost all persons born in the U.S. by extending automatic citizenship.

1870: The law is broadened to allow African-Americans to be naturalized. Asian immigrants are excluded from naturalization but not from living in the United States. There are also significant restrictions on some Asians at the state level, for example in California where non-citizen Asians are not allowed to own land.

1882: Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act which specifically limits further Chinese immigration. Nearly all such immigrants were men on work contracts. The ban is supposed to be temporary but is extended repeatedly and made permanent in 1904. The ban is not repealed until 1943.

1882: A law is enacted to ban entry of ``lunatics`` and infectious disease carriers.

1880-1924: Over 2 million Eastern Europeans, mainly Catholics, immigrate. People of Polish ancestry are the largest Eastern European ancestry group in the United States.

1880-1924: Approximately 2 million Jewish people immigrate, seeking better opportunity and fleeing the pogroms of Eastern Europe.

1881-1885: A million Germans leave Germany and settle mostly in the US Midwest.

1901-1910: Japan negotiates a so-called Gentlemen`s Agreement, a protocol where Japan agrees to stop issuing passports to her citizens who wanted to emigrate to the U.S. But it continues to give passports to the Territory of Hawaii where many Japanese reside. Once in Hawaii, it is easy for the Japanese to continue on to Japanese settlements on the west coast if they so desire.

1901-1910: Because the Japanese immigrant flow is 80% male, the demand for female Japanese immigrants arises. This need is met in part by what are called ``postcard wifes`` who immigrated to new husbands who had chosen them on the basis of their pictures. (Similar marriages also occur throughout the female starved West.)

1901: After President William McKinley is assassinated by a Polish anarchist, Congress enacts the Anarchist Exclusion Act to exclude known anarchist agitators.

1910-1920: Over 2 million Italians immigrate to the US. Many return to Italy, after working an average of 5 years.

1910-1920: About 1.5 million Swedes and Norwegians immigrate to the United States, due to opportunity in America and poverty and religious oppression in united Sweden-Norway. This accounts for around 20% of the total population of the kingdom at that time. They settle mainly in the Midwest.

1911-1929: The Mexican Revolution drives at least a million refugees temporarily into the U.S. Most return in the 1920s or 1930s.

1917: A literacy requirement is added in Immigration Act.

1920`s: A more complex quota plan replaces the ``emergency`` system under the Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reid Act). Immigration restrictions laws try to achieve four goals: reduce drastically the number of unskilled immigrants; favor uniting of families by giving preferences to relatives; keeping the ethnic distribution stable by allocating quotas according to how many from each national origin were living in the U.S.; allow unrestricted immigration from Mexico and Latin America. The reference census is changed to that of 1890, which greatly reduces the number of Southern and Eastern European immigrants.

1920: United States has large populations of many European nationalities, but had very small populations of others.

1921: Congress passes the Emergency Quota Act establishing national quotas on immigration. The quotas are based on the number of foreign-born residents of each nationality who were living in the United States as of the 1910 census.

1929-1939: The Great Depression hits and continues for ten years. Immigration patterns of the 1930s are dominated by it. Many people leave the U.S. then return in the 1930s.

1933-1945: Jews fleeing Nazi Germany are often denied access to the United States, highlighted by the event of the S.S. St. Louis.

1934: The Tydings-McDuffie Act, which provides for independence for the Philippines on July 4, 1946, strips Filipinos of their status as U.S. nationals and severely restricts Filipino immigration.

1938: Hitler starts rounding up Jewish populations - in prelude to what would become the Holocaust. No governments show a willingness to accept the Jewish refugees, including the US, due in part to anti-Semitism, isolationism, the Depression, and xenophobia. The immigration policy of the Roosevelt Administration make it very difficult for refugees to obtain entry visas.

1945: The War Brides Act allows foreign-born wives of U.S. citizens who had served in the U.S. armed forces to immigrate to the United States.

1946: The War Brides Act is extended to include fiances of American soldiers.

1946: The Luce-Cellar Act extends the right to become naturalized citizens to newly freed Filipinos and Asian Indians.

1946: At the end of World War II refugees from war torn Europe and United Kingdom start immigrating to the U.S.

1948: The Displaced Persons (DP) Act of 1948 allows displaced people of World War II to start immigrating. Some 200,000 Europeans and 17,000 orphans displaced by World War II are allowed to immigrate to the United States outside of immigration quotas.

1950: The Korean war starts. The Internal Security Act bars admission to any foreigner who is a Communist or who might engage in activities ``which would be prejudicial to the public interest, or would endanger the welfare or safety of the United States.`` War ravages Korea but there is little immigration because of the existing type of quota system.

1952: The McCarran Walter Immigration Act affirms the national-origins quota system of 1924 and limits total annual immigration to one-sixth of one percent of the population of the continental United States in 1920, or 175,455. The act exempts spouses and children of U.S. citizens and people born in the Western Hemisphere from the quota.

1953: the Refugee Relief Act extends refugee status to non-Europeans.

1954: ``Operation Wetback`` - in which United States Border Patrol aided by municipal, county, state, and federal authorities, as well as the military, begins a quasi-military operation of search and seizure of all illegal immigrants, forces the return of thousands of undocumented immigrants to Mexico.

1956: The Hungarian Revolution is crushed by the Soviets. A temporary hole in the Iron Curtain allows a burst of refugees to escape, bringing in 245,000 new Hungarian families to the U.S. by 1960.

1959-1970: Refugees flow in from Fidel Castro`s ``new`` regime in Cuba, driving 409,000 new families to the U.S. by 1970.

1965: Immigration laws revised to abolish national percentage quota. Democrat-controlled Congress passes the Hart-Cellar Act, abolishing the system of national-origin quotas. Over 28,000,000 have legally immigrated since 1965 under its provisions. Immigration is now mostly ``chain immigration`` where recent immigrants who are already here sponsor their relatives.

1975: The U.S. withdrawal from South Vietnam and the subsequent armed Communist takeover of South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia brings a new wave of refugees, many of whom spent years in Asian camps waiting to get into the U.S..

1986: The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) is passed, creating for the first time, penalties for employers who hire illegal immigrants.

1990: The Immigration Act (IMMACT) -- Modifies and expands the 1965 act; it significantly increased the total immigration limit to 700,000.

1996: Several pieces of legislation mark a turn towards harsher policies for both legal and illegal immigrants.