Celebrate Immigrant Heritage Month by honoring the journeys and cultures that shape America. Since 2014, this observance has encouraged reflection on our roots and shared history. Browse our collection to explore powerful stories and perspectives.
President Trump has signed several executive orders making sweeping changes to the immigration system. Immigration was one of voters’ top issues in the election, with many supporting Trump’s message that the current system is broken. But how did we get here? Laura Barrón-López takes a deep dive into the history of immigration policies and laws that led to the complex system we have today.
For over 200 years the U.S. Immigration policies have determined who the U.S. lets in, and who is shut out. NPR’s Tom Gjelten explains.
The US is far from the only country in the world that offers unconditional birthright citizenship. While it’s uncommon in Europe, Asia, and Africa, it’s very common among Western Hemisphere countries, partly because of their history as colonies populated mostly by settlers. But of the many countries with birthright citizenship in the world, the US is by far the largest, with hundreds of thousands of baby citizens born here every year to noncitizen parents. Those numbers naturally raise the question: Is this what birthright citizenship was meant for? And why do we have birthright citizenship in the first place?
Why the US has so many undocumented immigrants. Immigration looked very different before 1996, when President Bill Clinton signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA). The law was supposed to stop undocumented immigration by increasing enforcement and punishing people for being in the US undocumented. Instead, it incentivized people to stay in the US — and the undocumented population doubled.
