|
|
Immigration
More than 1,000,000
immigrants were granted legal permanent resident status in the United
States during fiscal year 2001. They
included thousands of agricultural workers, architects and engineers,
artists and musicians, doctors and nurses, homemakers, children, and retirees.
About 200,000 were born in Mexico. More than 280,000 planned to settle in California.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service estimates that there were
about 5 million undocumented
immigrants living in the United States in October 1996 and that this
group increases by about 275,00 persons per year. About 40 percent
of the undocumented population reside in California.
Beginning in 1993, steel fencing and stadium lighting were installed
along the U.S.-Mexican border in the San Diego Sector, to discourage
unauthorized crossings under cover of darkness. In
October 1994, the Border Patrol launched Operation
Gatekeeper in the San Diego Sector, to push undocumented immigrants
away from heavily populated areas to the desert and mountain terrain
further east, where they would be easier to apprehend. In the November
1994 election, Proposition 187 appeared on the California ballot. This measure -- which would
have denied public health care, social services and education to
undocumented immigrants -- was supported by 59 percent of California
voters, but declared unconstitutional before it could take effect.
|
