Immigration policy in the United States is entirely backwards. This wonderful nation of promise and hope, epitomized by the words on the Statue of Liberty "Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free/The wretched refuse of your teeming shore/Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me/I life my lamp beside the golden door!"[1] These inspiring words from the poem "The New Colossus" were the beacon of light given off from the United States. However, there have been times in the history of the United States when immigration, the source of the great melting pot (or Salad bowl depending on your view) known as America slowly turned into a refiners fire, removing the unwanted immigration through various political tactics as well as social pressures.
Commonly influenced by wars, most hatred towards immigration stems from ignorance and prejudice towards a specific group. This was clearly evident during the 1950s and the Korean War, when the McCarran Internal Security Act required any communist (or suspected communist) to register with the US Attorney General.[2] (This act was described as being one of the worst violations of the 1st Amendment rights and was later deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court) Then followed by the Operation Wetback[3], led by the INS to remove 1 million illegal immigrants from the Southwest (particularly Mexican and other Latino natives). Even earlier than that, in WWII, hatred towards Japanese-Americans and German-Americans leading to internment camps and the Alien Registration Act of 1940. Earlier in WWI, changing names of German food to be more patriotic (i.e.-sauerkraut became liberty cabbage). There have been problems with scapegoating a particular group for social or economic problems at some point in history or creating laws to limit the number of those that may earn citizenship have affected groups such as the Irish, Germans, Japanese, Afro-Americans, Chinese, Filipinos, Mexicans, Polish, etc... as well as others such as religious groups.
The problem isn't too many illegals flooding the system; the problem is the system. I lived in Arizona for approximately two years, and such an overwhelming majority of them sacrificed so much to live in this country. They don't come here to mooch off the system, they come here to start a new life, because they believe in the American Dream, something many Americans believe is fading. The fact that the citizens of the United States try to protect the Constitution by removing illegal immigrants is absurd. Naturalization and immigration are both powers of the US government, not the states, but even that aside people fail to realize the application of the words of the Constitution. The Due Process clause in the 5th and 14th Amendments, as well as the Equal Protection Clause in the 14th, apply to ALL persons, not just citizens of the United States. These are liberties that we believe ALL people are entitled too. This was solidified in 1976 in the Supreme Court case Hampton v Mow Sun Wong, which unanimously agreed that a citizenship requirement for government jobs violated the Due Process clause.[4]
The fact of the matter is that the current immigration policies are flawed. It is getting very difficult to legally obtain citizenship in the United States, and just about as hard to earn asylum as well. It isn't that they're taking valuable jobs from citizens (debunked by Stephen Colbert's take on the Take Our Jobs initiative) and it isn't that they dramatically increase the crime rate (yes, the number of illegal immigrants in the prisons have increased, but that is due to pressure to arrest illegal immigrants, most convicted and sentenced for entering the country illegally) that is the issue; the naturalization process itself is simply too long, difficult, and limited. Most people would be appalled if, when they arrived at the voting booth, they were required to take and pass a test to vote, yet this is a requirement of citizenship for those wishing to naturalize themselves. Long waiting periods (minimum of 5 years with many years often getting backed up longer), high costs of fees (it now costs $595 + $80 for fingerprinting), as well as a limit on the number of immigrants accepted each year. These are even more sub-divided into more specific categories, limiting the amount from each.[5]Proper immigration reform will not only decrease the deficit, through the millions spent on "securing borders" with a fence/wall, deportation of those already here, as well as creating an influx of citizens prepared to put into the system, but will unify America in a way that proves that in spite of all our vast differences, we're still all joined together by one overarching bond --- the American Dream.
James Evan Woods
[2] Full Text - http://tucnak.fsv.cuni.cz/~calda/Documents/1950s/Inter_Security_50.html
[3] http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/pqo01
[4] http://www.cis.org/CitizenshipSupremeCourt
[5] http://www.usimmigrationsupport.org/immigration-us.html
Hey Evan,
ReplyDeleteI'm Caitlin, I went to school with you in Arizona and I've unsuccessfully tried to get your e-mail address, would you mind e-mailing me at caitlincerra@hotmail.com?
As for the post itself, it's well written and right off the bat you reminded the audience about the most important issue - we're straying from the purpose of the country we're so proud of. America isn't for rich people who can buy their way through the citizenship process (since it can cost not just an arm and a leg but also your first-born son, which is just one way the lower-class is DISCRIMINATED into not 'going the legal route'). The notion of illegal immigration didn't exist until the 1920's, and let's be honest, it's just a legal way to discriminate against people who are different, just as the Catholics, Irish, everyone was at one point discriminated against in America's history. What's sadder isn't that it's going on, but that people don't look into the past and use history as a guide to root out injustices in order to correct the present. Arizona's governor Jan Brewer just signed a bill into law that will legally steal about 50 acres of land from a Native American community, just because the Native Americans wanted to build a casino there. As if slaughtering Native Americans, as well as trying to destroy their culture and territorial integrity in the past wasn't enough (example, Dawes Act), the Arizona Legislature expanded injustices into the here and now.
As for walls, they breed ignorance and hate between peoples. Just look at the Berlin Wall during the Cold War. It's become a cultural symbol for the walls that PEOPLE build between themselves and other people. But the PEOPLE can tear those walls down... has anyone else noticed that the cultures most different from our own are the ones we're at war with? We constantly worry about China and their weapons programs, but good ol' normal and American-like England is perfectly fine. I know there's a whole political history behind that, but still.