updating brignoni-ponce - New York University School of Law

2008] UPDATING BRIGNONI-PONCE 605
grants are not eligible for federal public benefits such as income
supplements, health care, and food stamps. 239 Most immigrants come
to the United States because there is demand for their services, and
they do not displace American citizen workers. 240 Immigrants often
fill low-skilled, low-cost jobs that many American citizens will not
even consider taking. 241 Since immigration laws make obtaining the
correct documents extremely difficult, the result is that most immigrants
who want to come to the United States must enter illegally and
live in the shadows of society since they lack proper
documentation. 242
Seeing undocumented immigrants only as creating significant economic
and social problems ignores U.S. policy that has encouraged
immigration to the United States while limiting the access to legal
status. 243 This also ignores the benefits that the United States receives
239. NAT’L IMMIGRATION LAW CTR., FACTS ABOUT IMMIGRANTS’ LOW USE OF
HEALTH SERVICES AND PUBLIC BENEFITS 3 (2006), available at http://www.nilc.org/
immspbs/research/imms&publicservices_2006-9-12.pdf. The claim that immigrants
are responsible for high rates of emergency room usage is contradicted by research
showing that communities with high rates tend to have relatively small percentages of
noncitizen residents. Id. at 1.
240. For example, between 2000 and 2020 the United States will not have a net
increase in native-born workers aged 25 to 54, and immigrant workers will need to fill
this “worker gap.” See IMMIGRATION AND AMERICA’S FUTURE, supra note 235, at 3. R
241. Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202, 228 (1981) (noting no credible evidence supporting
argument that children are burden on economy and recognizing that immigrants
are attracted to the United States by the availability of employment which results in
labor for the local economy and tax money for the state); Hernández-Truyol, supra
note 82, at 264; Perea, supra note 61, at 2 (“For a chance at a better life, the undocu- R
mented are willing to work hard for much less than they deserve.”).
242. One example of this difficulty is the caps that limit each country to no more
than 7%, approximately 25,600, of the total number of annual worldwide visas. IMMI-
GRATION AND AMERICA’S FUTURE, supra note 235, at 22; supra notes 125–26 and R
accompanying text. Because of these caps, a U.S. citizen sponsoring an unmarried
child from Mexico is likely to wait fourteen years for unification, and a legal permanent
resident sponsoring a spouse can expect to wait six years regardless of country of
origin. IMMIGRATION AND AMERICA’S FUTURE, supra note 235, at 22. R
243. See United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873, 878–79 (1975). One such
policy was the government-sponsored Bracero Program of the 1940s–60s, which facilitated
the migration of Mexican workers to the United States. Tallman, supra note
38, at 884. These economic issues are complicated and out of the scope of this paper. R
Suffice it to note that focusing on a particular immigrant’s decision to immigrate to
the U.S. puts all the responsibility for immigration on the immigrants. See SASKIA
SASSEN, LOSING CONTROL?: SOVEREIGNTY IN AN AGE OF GLOBALIZATION 84 (1996).
This allows commentators to speak about the United States passively receiving an
“influx” or “invasion” of immigrants without considering the activities of the U.S.
government or American corporations that may have contributed to the formation of
economic links with emigration countries and invited the movement of people and
capital. Id.; see Rebecca Smith & Catherine Ruckelshaus, Solutions, Not Scapegoats:
Abating Sweatshop Conditions for All Low-Wage Workers as a Centerpiece of Immi-