American History
U.S. has in the recent past experienced a lot of reforms in laws and policies governing
immigration. Creation of new agencies for the implementation of the laws (e.g. Department of
Homeland Security (DHS)) and transfer of power from legislature to the executive by the judiciary
are some of the changes. Most Acts passed in the 1600’s – 1900’s have been amended and new
one created e.g. the US – Patriotic Act of 2001. This paper elaborates on the function of the three
arms of government – The Legislature, Judiciary and Executive – in regards to Immigration. It
connotes to the inter links that exist between them in providing smooth and efficient operations in
regulation of laws on people coming into the U.S.
The U.S. federal government legislative branch is represented by the congress which enact
legislation and appropriates money required to operate the government.. Some of these
immigration laws include the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (INA), Immigration
Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), the Immigration Act of 1990, Illegal Immigration
Reform and Control Act of 1996 (IIRIRA) and the USA- Patriotic Act of 2001. The president who
is the head of the executive then signs the passes bills into law while the various federal agencies
responsible for immigration which are a representative of the executive, put the law into action
e.g. DHS responsible for the U.S citizenship and immigration services, custom and border
protection and visits, Department of State (DOS) with the mandate of formulating policies on
populations, refugees and migration and for interpreting visa laws and as a liaison between the
government and other overseas embassies (Davy et al., 2005). The judiciary plays an important
role when any of the laws on immigrations are violated. It provides assistance to the elaboration
of the constitution on matters regarding to immigration. For instance, the judiciary determined that
the federal government has the absolute power over matters pertaining to the implementation,
execution and prosecution and not the state, local governments or the legislature (Stock, 2015).
