In the aftermath of 9/11, the US has radically altered how it deals with immigrants

The World
A fence marks the border between Mexico and the US in the Anapra neighborhood of Ciudad Juarez.

Forging a coherent US immigration policy was front and center on Washington's policy agenda. 

Then the September 11 attackers hit. 

"It completely side-lined, totally shelved any possibility of change in our immigration selection system," says Muzaffar Chishti of the Migration Policy Institute. "The national security considerations have derailed that process." 

One big change in the aftermath of September 11 was the amount of money US taxpayers began paying to enforce immigration policy. New agencies included US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP). 

Trying to enter the US illegally became riskier, and penalties for attempting to slip across the US-Mexico became especially stiff. 

"The old era where we would catch you and send you back with a u-turn, those days are gone," he says. 

Individuals apprehended while crossing the Mexican border illegally for the first time are charged with a misdemeanor. A second illegal attempt is now a felony. Once they're caught, the undocumented are brought 1500 miles away from their original point of entry. Immigrants found within 100 miles of the border are no longer given a hearing. 

Those who make it to the US and begin driving a vehicle have are especially vulnerable. Undocumented individuals picked up for traffic violations are finger-printed and some quickly end up in deportation proceedings. 

Chishi says it is rare that these new procedures stop individuals who pose a national security threat to America. But those enforcing the policies do tend to detect large numbers of individuals with criminal backgrounds. 

"That criminal background could just be making an illegal entry," Chishi adds.  

These post-9/11 immigration policies will be put to a new test in coming months, given the annoucement by the White House this week that it would resettle some 10,000 refugees from Syria. Chishi calls the quota "extremely tiny," and says strict vetting procedures are likely to "slow the process hugely." 

"We should be able to screen people for their links to terrorism, and those people should not be let in," he says. "But those who have no links to terrorism should be able to clear much faster than our present system allows." 

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