The issues of U.S. migration and illegal immigrants are taking the heat amid President Barack Obama's announcement regarding making unilateral changes in U.S. immigration laws.

Millions of undocumented immigrants are facing possible deportation, while awaiting an executive order from the president to circumvent the U.S. Congress and allow them to stay in the country.

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Immigrants are appealing to the Obama administration to "not rip the families apart," but the president has yet to announce whether he will use his executive power to end the deportations.

With all the political drama, how did the immigration issue start and how did it change U.S. migration politics?

The U.S. has been experiencing an influx of immigrants for the past couple years, thanks to an event that began 50 years ago when the first immigrants began coming into the States.

In 1964, under the Bracero Program, Mexican workers were allowed to work temporarily in the United States.

The program ran for almost 22 years, and over its course, about 4.5 million Mexicans were legally contracted in the U.S., some taking on jobs for meager compensation.

The program became the genesis for migration patterns of Mexican nationals in the United States.

In 1965, the law on immigration was established when Pres. Lyndon Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationality Act.

The act denounced the country's "origins quota system" and preferred a system that allowed immigrants, with specific skill sets and had existing relative who are U.S. citizens, into the country.

When the law was signed, its proponents and supporters assured Americans that it will not create in a mixed demography in the country, an assertion that was later proved to be grossly untrue.

Because of the leniency given to the U.S. immigration system, America experienced a "demographic tsunami," according to online news site Philly.

Since the law took effect Europeans and Latin Americans started migrating to the U.S.

Reports stated that since 1965, there have been about 25 million Latin Americans who have legally migrated to the United States.

TagsMexico, border, immigration, Latin America, U.S. President Barack Obama, US immigration