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According to the 2010 US Census, the Guatemalan-born population totaled 1,044,209 people, comprising 2.1% of the overall immigrant population of the US, and making Guatemala the 10th highest sender of immigrants in the US. [1]
Up until the 1960s, Guatemalan migration to the US was negligible. [2] The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Office of Immigration Statistics notes the first trickles of migration in the 1940s and 50s, but migration truly began to increase through the 1970s and 80s. [3] By the 1990s, more than 100,000 migrants were coming into the US by means of green cards each decade and then that number slightly dipped in the early 2000s. [3] More recent data is harder to gauge, as majority of Guatemalan migration is predicted to be unauthorized. [4] The US Census data in 2000 marked 372,487 Guatemalans in the US and by 2010, the number had reached over 1 million, showing a 183% increase in Guatemalans in the US over the decade. This shows that even though legal migration may have slowed, migration as a whole from the country is on the rise. [1]
In the past decade, legal Guatemalan migration to the US has been predominantly through immediate relative petitions [5] and family sponsorship, [6] whereas "temporary" visas [7] have been granted primarily through the H2A and H1A programs for seasonal agricultural and non-agricultural labor. [8] These numbers are relatively small though (in 2016, about 13,000 Guatemalans were granted legal permanent residency, compared to about 174,500 Mexicans, Guatemala's neighbor, and about 7,500 Guatemalans were granted temporary work visas, compared to about 843,500 Mexicans). [8]
Very few Guatemalans have furthermore been granted citizenship. DHS data traces a range of about 6,500-9,700 Guatemalans granted citizenship annually since 2006. [9] In 2015, only 27% of the Guatemalans in the US were citizens. [10] Many Guatemalans, who are undocumented or on a temporary status, are blocked from a pathway to citizenship. [11] Facing immigration restrictions, such as the ceiling placed on relative-based immigration in the Immigration Act of 1990 and the massive amounts of border patrol that have increased through acts in 1996, 2001, 2005, and 2006, Guatemalans have predominantly had to enter the US without documentation. [12]
Furthermore, despite a recent spike in asylum claims, according to a 2017 report by the Center for Migration Studies, many Guatemalans with legitimate claims of persecution are being rejected and deported back to the situations of violence from which they had fled. [13] Asylum law depends on very specific instances of perception on the basis of race, religion, political opinion, nationality or membership in a social group in order to prove that one is a bona fide refugee and immigration attorneys have struggled to make the argument that being a victim of gang violence places a person in one of those categories. Furthermore, as many Guatemalans must claim their need for asylum at the border with minimal to no legal support in developing their claim, it is extremely difficult to win cases and many end up being subject to removal. [14] Despite the clear violence that more recent Guatemalan immigrants are fleeing (in 2014, Guatemala had the 9th highest murder rate in the world with 31.2 murders/100,000 residents) and the recent skyrocketing of asylum claims, the asylum grant rate has remained at an outrageously low 3-5%. [4]
Fearful of this reality, many who can, end up entering the US via what the immigration theorist Philip Martin calls the "back door" route—entering unauthorized. [12] In fact, Pew Hispanic cites that in 2015, unauthorized migration made up the majority (56%) of Guatemalan migration, approximating 550,000 unauthorized Guatemalan immigrants that year. [4] Some Guatemalans have qualified for the program of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) since the Obama Administration instituted it in 2012, but Pew Hispanic estimates that only about 17,700 Guatemalans satisfied the requirements to receive DACA status, which is currently being contested by the Trump administration.
Guatemalans have primarily settled in California, Florida and Texas. As of 2015, 29% of Guatemalans in the US lived in California while 8% respectively lived in Florida and Texas. [4] Within California, Guatemalans are concentrated in Los Angeles (20%). [4] Within these cities, ethnic enclaves and already-present communities help receive new migrants, connecting them with jobs and easing the transition, thus decreasing the linguistic and cultural costs of migration.
Immigration to the United States has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of its history. In absolute numbers, the United States has by far the highest number of immigrants in the world, with 50,661,149 people as of 2019. This represents 19.1% of the 244 million international migrants worldwide, and 14.4% of the United States' population. In 2018, there were almost 90 million immigrants and U.S.-born children of immigrants in the United States, accounting for 28% of the overall U.S. population.
A green card, known officially as a permanent resident card, is an identity document which shows that a person has permanent residency in the United States. Green card holders are formally known as lawful permanent residents (LPRs). As of 2019, there are an estimated 13.9 million green card holders, of whom 9.1 million are eligible to become United States citizens. Approximately 18,700 of them serve in the U.S. Armed Forces.
The Immigration Reform and Control Act was passed by the 99th United States Congress and signed into law by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on November 6, 1986.
Dual intent is a concept in United States immigration law. Typically, it refers to the fact that certain U.S. visas allow foreigners to be temporarily present in the U.S. with lawful status and immigrant intent. This allows those visa holders to enter the U.S. while simultaneously seeking lawful permanent resident status at a port of entry. Otherwise, visa holders may be presumed to have immigrant intent and can be kept from entry as a matter of law.
A K-1 visa is a visa issued to the fiancé or fiancée of a United States citizen to enter the United States. A K-1 visa requires a foreigner to marry his or her U.S. citizen petitioner within 90 days of entry, or depart the United States. Once the couple marries, the foreign citizen can adjust status to become a lawful permanent resident of the United States. Although a K-1 visa is legally classified as a non-immigrant visa, it usually leads to important immigration benefits and is therefore often processed by the Immigrant Visa section of United States embassies and consulates worldwide.
Parole, in the immigration laws of the United States, generally refers to official permission to enter and remain temporarily in the United States, under the supervision of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), without formal admission, and while remaining an applicant for admission.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that administers the country's naturalization and immigration system. It is a successor to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), which was dissolved by the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and replaced by three components within the DHS: USCIS, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Foreign nationals (aliens) can violate US immigration laws by entering the United States unlawfully or lawfully entering but then remaining after the expiration of their visas, parole, or temporary protected status. Illegal immigration has been a matter of intense debate in the United States since the 1980s.
A Form I-766 employment authorization document or EAD card, known popularly as a work permit, is a document issued by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that provides temporary employment authorization to noncitizens in the United States.
The Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy Act of 2007 or STRIVE Act of 2007 is proposed United States legislation designed to address the problem of illegal immigration, introduced into the United States House of Representatives. Its supporters claim it would toughen border security, increase enforcement of and criminal penalties for illegal immigration, and establish an employment verification system to identify illegal aliens working in the United States. It would also establish new programs for both illegal aliens and new immigrant workers to achieve legal citizenship. Critics allege that the bill would turn law enforcement agencies into social welfare agencies as it would not allow CBP to detain illegal immigrants that are eligible for Z-visas and would grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens with very few restrictions.
During the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, the United States had limited regulation of immigration and naturalization at a national level. Under a mostly prevailing "open border" policy, immigration was generally welcomed, although citizenship was limited to “white persons” as of 1790, and naturalization subject to five year residency requirement as of 1802. Passports and visas were not required for entry to America, rules and procedures for arriving immigrants were determined by local ports of entry or state laws, and processes for naturalization were determined by local county courts.
Temporary protected status (TPS) is given by the United States government to eligible nationals of designated countries, as determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security, who are present in the United States. In general, the Secretary of Homeland Security may grant temporary protected status to people already present in the United States who are nationals of a country experiencing ongoing armed conflict, an environmental disaster, or any temporary or extraordinary conditions that would prevent the foreign national from returning safely and assimilating into their duty. Temporary protected status allows beneficiaries to live and, in some cases, work in the United States for a limited amount of time. As of March 2022, there are more than 400,000 foreign nationals in Temporary Protected Status.
The Office of Immigration Statistics (OIS) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security under the Office of Strategy, Policy, and Plans.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is a United States immigration policy. It allows some individuals who, on June 15, 2012, were physically present in the United States with no lawful immigration status after having entered the country as children at least five years earlier, to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and to be eligible for an employment authorization document.
According to the Japanese Ministry of Justice, the number of foreign residents in Japan has steadily increased in the post Second World War period, and the number of foreign residents was more than 2.76 million at the end of 2022. Being a country with a total estimated population of 125.57 million in 2020, the resident foreign population in Japan amounts to approximately 2.29% of the total population.
Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative is a form submitted to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services by a United States citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident petitioning for an immediate or close relative intending to immigrate to the United States. It is one of numerous USCIS immigration forms. As with all USCIS petitions, the person who submits the petition is called the petitioner and the relative on whose behalf the petition is made is called the beneficiary. The USCIS officer who evaluates the petition is called the adjudicator.
Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) is a program managed by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a branch of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). SAVE facilitates lookups on the immigration and nationality status of individuals in the United States. It is an intergovernmental initiative designed to help federal, state, tribal, and local government agencies, or by a contractor acting on the agency's behalf, to determine eligibility for benefits, licenses or grants, government credentials, or to conduct background investigations. It is one of two programs that uses the Verification Information System (VIS). The other program is the Electronic Employment Eligibility Verification Program, also known as E-Verify, and is used by employers to verify the immigration status of employees. For additional verification, SAVE relies on the Person Centric Query System (PCQS).
Guatemalan migrants are the 10th largest migrant group in the United States of America., and the 3rd largest immigrant group from Central America. The 2015 American Community Survey estimates the Guatemalan American migrant population at 1,300,000, which is roughly 3% of the US foreign born population, and 0.4% of the total population of the United States. Of this group, the majority live in California, New York, Florida, and Texas. Roughly one quarter of Guatemalan Migrants reside in Anaheim County, California alone. A majority of these migrants are men; according to 2015 American Community Survey, roughly 57% of all Guatemalan Migrants are male. They also tend to be younger, with 86% falling between the ages of 18 and 65. In comparison, approximately 60% of the native born population and 80% of the foreign born population are in the same age range. Of the 650,000 (62.5%) Guatemalan migrants in the labor market, approximately one third are employed in the service sector.
Federal policy oversees and regulates immigration to the United States and citizenship of the United States. The United States Congress has authority over immigration policy in the United States, and it delegates enforcement to the Department of Homeland Security. Historically, the United States went through a period of loose immigration policy in the early-19th century followed by a period of strict immigration policy in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Policy areas related to the immigration process include visa policy, asylum policy, and naturalization policy. Policy areas related to illegal immigration include deferral policy and removal policy.
The U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 was a legislative bill that was proposed by President Joe Biden on his first day in office. It was formally introduced in the House by Representative Linda Sánchez. It died with the ending of the 117th Congress.