National Immigration Forum

About the author: The National Immigration Forum advocates and builds public support for public policies that welcome immigrants and refugees and that are fair and supportive to them.

Since September 11, the federal government has, in the name of homeland security, investigated, detained, and deported huge numbers of immigrants. The shifting of immigration functions from the Immigration and Naturalization Service to the Department of Homeland Security is a powerful signal that the government views all immigrants as potential terrorists and is moving away from the ideal of America as a nation that welcomes newcomers. Instead of threatening and harassing immigrants, the government should be working on gaining their trust and on building intelligence networks within immigrant communities in order to identify the very few immigrants that present a...