How Did 9/11 Changed America

“9/11 was a terrible, horrific, tragic day.” -Richard Engel. Nearly 3000 people died. About 3051 children lost their parents. Al Qaeda terrorists hijacked 4 commercial planes, crashing them into the 2 World Trade Towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania. 9/11 was one of the deadliest attacks on American soil. Yes, it was horrific. Yes it was terrible. Yes it absolutely was tragic. However, instead of focusing on the horrifying events of that day, allow me to redirect your attention to the after effects. America changed drastically that day, and it is still affecting us today. Kirsten Gillibrand states: “The horrific damage of 9/11 did not end when those buildings came down.” The damage it caused also helped America to rebuild its foundation,

Immigration and Deportation also changed drastically! Several administrations and federations were created after 9/11, and the TSA was not the only major one. According to Matthew Green in “How 9/11 Changed America: Four Major Lasting Impacts,” the Homeland Security Act and the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002 was created in 2002, just to name a few. Not only were these acts created, but several administrations and federations were created, such as The Department of Homeland Security. Some organizations received upgrades, such as The Immigration and Naturalization Service and the U.S. Customs Service becoming their own department now known as the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The same article says that these programs dramatically increased the annual number of deportations, which climbed from an annual 200,000 to nearly double that amount. Not only did deportations increase, but “Visas became harder to come by for tourists, students, and foreign nationals and those who were admitted into the country were subject to further scrutiny as fingerprints and other biometric data was collected,” Charles Poladian states in “The United States After 9/11: 6 Things That Have Changed Since 2001.” Basically, immigration decreased and deportations dramatically

Government accepted less privacy. Domestic spying became a huge thing. “Remembering September 11: How America Has Changed” by Brian Stauffer says that there are currently 3,984 organizations all over the country that take part in domestic counterterrorism efforts. The same article found in Reader’s Digest says that “... the National Security Agency alone has about 30,000 people eavesdropping on 1.7 billion intercepted e-mails and other communications every day.” In other words, they are collecting a lot of data from our phone conversations, emails, and social networking communications every single day. As the article states, it says that when Congress passed the Patriot Act, it expanded federal officials’ powers to keep tabs on most of our personal information. Not only are they intercepting emails, but they are also tracking credit card use, cell phone call, and car travel. This may seem a bit invasive, but a survey shows that about ⅔ of Americans are willing to put up with the personal impositions in order to prevent