When Americans think of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, they think of the thousands of innocents who died in the collapsing twin towers, of the brave airline passengers who diverted their suicide plane from a direct attack on the U.S. Capitol, and of the united focus of all Americans and allies to punish the aggressor countries and  to stand up for the USA.  

But few people realize how significantly 9/11 transformed immigration in the United States.

Immigrants had always been welcomed in the country from earliest colonial days for their hard labor and to grow a loyal citizenry with some. The Constitution gives Congress the duty to deal with naturalization and hence all aspects of immigration. But there were no national immigration laws until well after the civil war. In 1891, Congress passed the first national immigration law that set up official ports of entry and the Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS). It prohibited laborers – but not scholars and doctors – from Asia and limited immigration to only the work able – turning away anyone with a chronic disease or disability including children of entering families.

The first comprehensive immigration law of 1924 established visas to be given mainly to northern Europeans and neighboring Mexicans and Canadians. But it codified strict quotas on immigrants from other countries.  The focus of immigration was on workers.  Immigration was ajudicated out of the Labor department and Labor Congresssional Committees.

But in 1964, the Civil Rights Act passed, making discrimination against (or preference for) any race, religion, creed and national origin illegal,  In 1965 the current comprehensive immigration bill – The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) – passed. It  is the most liberal immigration law in the world that allows anyone to apply for permanent immigration status (with a 7 percent cap for every nationality). It created dozens of temporary work, study and visitor permits and funded the most generous refugee and asylum policies in the world even today. The congressional committee jurisdiction changed from labor to the judiciary committee. With civil rights and the Holocaust as its drivers, the INA's focus changed to social justice, managed by the INS. Even all illegal immigrants in the country were given amnesty in 1986. The number of foreign students rose to over one million in 2000.

But then came the traumatic and shocking terrorist attack of 2001 and everything changed.  Suddenly the focus of immigration management became national security.  An entire new agency, congressional committees and a new presidential cabinet secretary position was created: the Department of Homeland Security.  It combined 22 existing national security agencies from cyber security and emergency relief to the Coast Guard.. 

But most of all, the DHLS was charged with all aspects of immigration management and enforcement,  The INS was dissolved and in its place were two new bureaus to handle the conflicting roles of immigration:

1. Customs and Immigration SERVICES (CIS) including preparing immigrants to be naturalized if they chose.
2. Immigration and Custom ENFORCEMENT (ICE) – the first agency ever in U.S. history charged with enforcing immigration laws INSIDE the US including enforcing expired temporary permits and employer restrictions to hire foreign nationals without work permits and to remove (deport) illegal immigrants.

One of the first new laws to pass Congress after the 9/11 attack was the establishment of a digital foreign student and exchange visitor information system (SEVIS) connected to the host colleges, the FBI and ICE.

Now enforcement of immigration laws is a major issue in the 2024 U.S. presidential elections as well as in many elections in western Europe.

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Two books on immigration by Margaret Orchowskj will be released this fall on Amazon and in bookstores. "The Law That Changed the Face of America: The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965"  -- the story of the most liberal immigration law in the world and how it made the United States the most successful Nation of Immigrants in history -- will be re-issued in paperback Nov 5.  It is available for pre-orders now on Amazon.

And

"The Five Things Everyone Should Know About Immigration – whatever your opinion" a 60-page reporters'-notebook-style book about immigration's basic facts from legal permits to deportation to citizenship. It is designed to be highly readable. There's no excuse now to get the basics wrong.  Available on Amazon October 1.