Our Nation's Immigrants in Peril: An Urgent Call to Social Workers (Guest Editorial‪)‬

Social workers have always been at the forefront of work with immigrants. From our profession's earliest days working with immigrants at the Hull House in Chicago to the current immigration debate, our commitment to social justice has driven both our service and policy positions regarding immigration. Our values have not changed, neither have some of the more divisive and destructive aspects of the immigration debate. Historically a nation created by immigrants seeking respect for individual freedoms, the United States has a history of anti-immigrant rhetoric and public policies criminalizing immigrants or viewing them as a threat to U.S. security. The same themes that were raised in the 1800s are being raised today, but now with a focus on Latino immigrants and under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Since March 2003, the functions of the Immigration and Naturalization Service were transferred to the new DHS as three bureaus: Citizenship and Immigration Services, Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Following immigration protests in May 2006, DHS and ICE have increased their raids, arrests, and deportations, creating a hostile climate for all immigrants regardless of their legal status and making undocumented immigrants, their families, and communities especially vulnerable. Given the heated debate on immigration, it would seem that the United States would have extremely high numbers of immigrants. In fact, only 11.7 percent of the current population is foreign born (U.S. Census Bureau, 2004), and of them 30 percent are naturalized citizens (Passel, Capps, & Fix, 2004). Children in immigrant families make up 20 percent of U.S. children, and four-fifths of them were born in the United States and are therefore citizens. Although people from all nationalities immigrate to the United States, the majority of immigrants are from Latin America. In fact, more than 53 percent of all foreign-born individuals are from Latin American countries, primarily Mexico (U.S. Census Bureau). Between 80 percent and 85 percent of the immigrants from Mexico initially enter the country as undocumented immigrants (Passel, 2005). It is this undocumented population that has led to controversial state and federal proposals.