The  politics and laws regarding immigration has long been a subject for debate and consideration  at our nation’s Capital, and in  the State of Indiana. (An interesting topic,  considering the Declaration of Independence was signed by at least 8 persons not born  on United States soil!). EARLY 1800s. The early pioneers  (who helped  settle Indiana) were  very honorable people, and their ranks  included ministers, laborers, farmers, mechanics,  educators, successful  industrialists and varying business owners.These notable citizens  were (in most cases) foreign immigrants, or the sons and daughters of  foreign immigrants.

 The State of Arizona continues to make front page  news, as a result of their controversial immigration law.  A recent report indicated apx 60% of the people polled  (2) (3)  in America favor Arizona’s new immigration law, and leaders  from 20 other States (2) have reportedly proposed similar immigration laws for their States.

A BRIEF  OBSERVATION OF INDIANA’S IMMIGRATION HISTORY

1816—1820: Indiana. By 1816, when Indiana was admitted into the Union as a State, the population did not exceed probably about 70,000, but the tide of immigration had set in, so that by 1820, the population amounted to almost 150,000. The inhabitants of the new State began to open new farms, to found new settlements, to plant new orchards, to erect school-houses and churches, to build hamlets and towns and to engage, with some degree of ardor, in various peaceful pursuits of civilized life. A sense of security pervaded the minds of the people” Source; Memoirs of Wayne County, Indiana; Henry Clay Fox; 1912

1848—1869; The years from 1848 to 1860 were marked by heavy foreign immigration into the Ohio valley. Indiana received fewer of these immigrants than any other State, nevertheless, the character of the State was more affected than at any other time in its history. At the close of the period there were 118,184 foreign-born persons in the State, almost one in ten of the total. Of these, over half or 66,705 were from Germany. Ireland ranked next with 24,495; then England with 9,304; France with 6,176. The Germans came from all parts of the empire, Prussia leading with 12,067. An examination of the annual immigration reports shows that the volume of immigrants into the United States increased rapidly from 1844 to 1854 when it reached 427,833, its highest mark before the Civil war. It fell sharply then to 153,640 in 1860.

The Irish, French and English, though totalling 40,975 in Indiana, were so well dispersed over the State that they soon were lost in the general mass. Large numbers of the Irish, after building the canals and railroads, located on farms. Irish neighborhoods could be found for a generation or two in which many of the customs of old Erin were maintained, but no great effort was ever made to perpetuate their culture. They soon joined heartily in all American sports, labors and duties, taking active part in politics. In fact these late Irish comers found about as much Irish blood in America as they left in Ireland. The same observations will apply to the French and English in even larger degree. In the county histories and here and there in the newspapers one comes across evidence of these neighborhoods, but they soon melted away.

The Germans as a rule settled in the towns, forming compact neighborhoods, in which they retained their German language and customs as long as possible. They held out longest of the immigrants against the Americanizing tendencies. In Indianapolis, Evansville, Ft. Wayne, Laporte, Lafayette, New Albany and other places they published newspapers, conducted schools, churches, and business in the German language. Their secret vereins, forced upon them by centuries of tyranny in Germany, in which they did about what the older settlers were doing in their singing schools, spelling matches and other social pastimes, were objects of suspicion to the natives. They combined business and politics whenever they took any interest in the latter.

Organized effort was made to perpetuate their language and customs. Few Irish or French children, born in Indiana, either learned or cared to learn any but the English language, but the Germans almost invariably learned the German, the parents insisting that it be taught in the schools and used in their own churches. In 1858 and 1859 they secured the publication of the State laws in the German language, and in 1869 they secured a law giving them the power to demand the teaching of the German language in the common schools.

 Marion county had 6,395 foreign-born population in 1860 out of a total of 39,855; Laporte county, 5,008 out of 22,919; Vanderburg, 8,374 out of 20,552; Floyd, 3,836 out of 20,183; Lake, 2,649 out of 9,145; Tippecanoe, 4,126 out of 25,726; Allen, 6,842 out of 29,328; Dearborn, 5,871 out of 24,406; and Dubois, 2,764 out of 10,394. Each of these counties still has a strong German element where the customs of the fatherland are revered. The Germans as a rule became business men. They introduced and have largely carried on the brewing business in the State. Source; A History of Indiana From 1850 To The Present; Logan Esarey, PhD.; Vol. 2; 1918  

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INDIANA ADDRESSES ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION ISSUES

2010: According to the website  U.S. Immigration Support, 45,000 illegal aliens reside in the state of Indiana, and about one-third of the state™s 6,000 to 8,000 farm workers are illegal aliens, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. About 34% of Indiana™s foreign-born population is from Mexico, with 29% coming from Asia and Oceania, and 22% coming from Europe and Canada. The three largest groups of immigrants (to Indiana)  come from China, India and Mexico.

ADDITIONAL  INFORMATION.

Dan Burton; Illegal Immigration (2) ~ State Senator files illegal immigration bill  ~ House amends illegal immigration bill

Indiana’s proposed illegal immigration bill ends in walkout  ~ Illegal Immigration costs

Enforcement  ~  Securing Indiana Borders  ~ Immigration Amnesty  ~ Dan Coats stance on illegal immigration ~ Federation For American Immigration Reform (FAIR)  ~ Organizations supporting amnesty for illegal aliens ~ (a) (b) (c) (d) (e)

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U.S. IMMIGRATION

OLD IMMIGRATION LAWS; Source for the following information; Immigration Laws and Regulations of February, 1906; U.S. Government Printing Office; 1906; ACT OF MARCH 3, 1891; Approved March 3, 1891.

1891—1906:    Sec. 9. That for the preservation of the peace and in order that arrests may be made for crimes under the laws of the States where the various United States immigrant stations are located, the officials in charge of such stations as occasion may require shall admit therein the proper State and municipal officers charged with the enforcement of such laws, and for the purposes of this section the jurisdiction of such officers and of the local courts shall extend over such stations.

 Sec. 11. That any alien who shall come into the United States in violation of law may be returned as by law provided, at any time within one year thereafter, at the expense of the person or persons, vessel, transportation company, or corporation bringing such alien into the United States, and if that can not be done, then at the expense of the United States, and any alien who becomes a public charge within one year after his arrival in the United States from causes existing prior to his landing therein shall be deemed to have come in violation of law and shall be returned as aforesaid.

1893; Sec. 2. (ACT OF MARCH 3, 1893) That the following classes of aliens shall be excluded from admission into the United States: All idiots, insane persons, epileptics, and persons who have been insane within five years previous; persons who have had two or more attacks of insanity at any time previously; paupers; persons likely to become a public charge; professional beggars; persons afflicted with a loathsome or with a dangerous contagious disease; persons who have been convicted of a felony or other crime or misdemeanor involving moral turpitude; polygamists, anarchists, or persons who believe in or advocate the overthrow by force or violence of the Government of the United States or of all government or of all forms of law, or the assassination of public officials; prostitutes, and persons who procure or attempt to bring in prostitutes or women for the purpose of prostitution; those who have been, within one year from the date of the application for admission to the United States, deported as being under offers, solicitations, promises or agreements to perform labor or service of some kind therein; and also any person whose ticket or passage is paid for with the money of another, or who is assisted by others to come, unless it is affirmatively and satisfactorily shown that such person does not belong to one of the foregoing excluded classes; but this section shall not be held to prevent persons living in the United States from sending for a relative or friend who is not of the foregoing excluded classes:

 Provided, That nothing in this Act shall exclude persons convicted of an offense purely political, not involving moral turpitude: And provided further, That skilled labor may be imported, if labor of like kind unemployed can not be found in this country: And provided further, That the provisions of this law applicable to contract labor shall not be held to exclude professional actors, artists, lecturers, singers, ministers of any religious denomination, professors for colleges or seminaries, persons belonging to any recognized learned profession, or persons employed strictly as personal or domestic servants.

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1923; U.S. IMMIGRATION  INFORMATION FROM THE COLONIAL PERIOD UNTIL 1923

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICA’S IMMIGRATION LAWS; ALICE GRAM, Editor, Publisher;  
EDITORIAL OFFICES, MUNSEY BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D. C., 1923

 U.S. Immigration Information (2) (3) (4)

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reports Arizona to U.N.

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