Immigration Policy and Impact on Latinos

In the first 15 years of the 20th century, more than 15 million immigrants came to the U.S.  During this time anti-immigration sentiment was high and Italians in particular were targeted and blamed for stealing American jobs. Sound familiar?? We see this prejudice  playing out with Latino immigrants today. 

Those in the Latinx community often have access to only lower wage, labor or domestic jobs and many are faced with complex immigration issues as a result of trying to navigate a difficult U.S. immigration process that does not function well. 

Immigration in the U.S is difficult and complex because of long processing times, complicated process steps and expensive for prospective immigrants.  

3 main categories are: Family Based Immigration, Employer Based Immigration that is temporary or permanent and Diversity Visas which involves a complicated lottery process. In order to apply for citizenship through naturalization, the individual must have a green card for 5 years (or 3 years if family sponsored) . 

Other channels are refugee/asylum, DACA for immigrants who arrived in the U.S. under age of 16,