During the past few months, there has been much discussion and change when it comes to United States immigration. Alexis Santos, a PRI associate, was asked by ABCNews23 about his thoughts on President Trump’s immigration views, “When it comes to need for a border wall, the numbers just do not add up.”
The PRI monitors immigration figures; in the 80s and 90s they observed that most United States immigrants were originating from Mexico and Latin America rather than European countries as previously seen. However, they found over the last several years that the number of immigrants crossing the Mexican border into the United States has in fact decreased. The cause of this decline is due to a zero-net migration between the countries.
Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia, Penn State’s director for the Center of Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, commented on refugee immigration and the Federal discussions surrounding the topic. She stated, “extreme vetting is already in place” and “refugees are one of the most rigorously screen populations in the U. S… it is the last system that a future terrorist is going to use.” State College is not considered a sanctuary city, but with resources like the PRI and the Center for Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, there is promise for bipartisan legislative solutions at both the local and Federal level.