The Association of Immigration and Nationality Lawyers was founded on October 14, 1946, in Manhattan, New York. At that time, the organization consisted of nineteen members. Seventy-one years later, that organization—now named the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA)—boasts more than 15,000 members.
Why do immigrants, their families, and their employers need so many lawyers? This article will help answer this question by tracing how our immigration law structure and policies have evolved to their current state of affairs within our “nation of immigrants.” For example, although the total number of legal immigrants entering the United States during the 1950s was already more than 2.5 million, that number rose to 3.3 million in the 1960s. The number of immigrants entering the United Sates continued to increase until the 1980s, when the annual number of lawful immigrants dropped to around 500,000 per year. This article will address, among other things, a brief history of immigration law throughout the decades, historical events and their impact on immigration policy, how the policies of President Trump have differed from those of President Obama, and thoughts on the future of immigration law and policy in America.