For my Evolving Ideas essay and TED talk I will be talking about immigration policy and changes in the immigration system as a whole. Specifically how they have changed throughout the years in terms of the kinds of immigrants being let into the country at given time, how policy changes have affected families with small children, and also the effects of covid 19 on the immigration system.

The story that needs to be told is that of working class people moving to a different country in order to provide a better life for their families. These people face many challenges and take risks before arriving to the U.S. where they might be denied due to a certain policy change. It is important to have some idea of what other people experience in order to further understand each other and communicate on a deeper level. Knowing how policy changes affect many peoples livelihoods might help some to see immigrants in different ways other than the stereotypes of what they hear.

I think that this is a subject that I have some experience with; in Texas there is a large population of latinos who have either immigrated or someone in their family came to the United States under different policies and under different circumstances. I know many people that are children of immigrants or immigrants themselves who have been affected by different policy matters. Also my parents are immigration lawyers so I have been around this subject all my life.

Policy changes in immigration are nothing new, the government first implemented a change to their immigration laws in the 1870s, the first major change which was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1888. These changes were did not impact immigration in a large way because at this time in history there was no numerical limit on the amount of immigrants allowed into the United States, only qualitative ones. I think the best place to begin observing the changes made to immigration policy is in the 1940s because this is when the Bracero program was put in place. Before this there was a quota system used to restrict immigration and it favored Europeans and prohibited Asians.

The book I will be using for a part of my speech is called Measuring Change in Immigration Policy by Suzanna Challen, the book criticizes policy saying that there needs to be change in policy to reflect the supermajority influencing policy making in the senate.