A preemptive action is made to keep some other action from being taken. Before you could be accused of eating the whole cake, you decided to make a preemptive apology, which was met with awkward silence. Tired of being disturbed by your roommate's loud music, your preemptive strike was to crank up your favorite opera as soon as you arrived home. Unfortunately, he'd already made a preemptive strike of his own by borrowing your stereo. Don't confuse preemptive with peremptory, a word meaning âarrogant.â You don't have to be arrogant to make a preemptive move, just cautious.
Ellis Island was the entry point for twelve million people, about three-fourths of the migrants who entered the United States between 1892 and 1924. On its busiest day, April 17, 1907, Ellis Island officials processed 11,747 immigrants. Other federal immigrant processing stations were established at Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and at Angel Island in San Francisco Bay.
From 1996 to 1998, the number of immigrants in detention increased from 8,500 to 16,000 and by 2008 this number increased to more than 30,000. According to the Global Detention Project, the United States possesses the largest immigration detention system in the world. In 2003, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) was created under the Department of Homeland Security. ICE enforces the United Statesâ immigration and customs laws, uses investigative techniques to apprehend and detain those suspected of violating them, and then deports many of these individuals.