What I would like to know is, How would you feel if you were an legal immigrant and your state started passing stricter immigration laws? Express your opinion.
See below for the article.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Obama's Illegal-immigrant Crackdown: Implications for Hispanics
Today in class I discussed the article Obama's Illegal-immigrant Crackdown: Implications for Hispanics, By Parik Jonsson. In the article it gives facts about Hispanic immigrants such as that Hispanics are now the majority groups being sent to federal prison, because of criminal prosecution of repeat border jumpers. Since Arizona and Alabama has passed tough immigration laws it is not only effecting illegal immigrants its also effecting legal immigrants. In Collinsville, a small town in Arizona, Hispanics are apart of the community. Half of the stores that are owned down town are Hispanic-owned. After Alabama passed the stricter laws you began to see Hispanics leave and others are left hidden in their houses. Legal immigrants are starting to feel judged.
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I would feel discriminated against because they would be judging me strictly on race. Before asking me for citizenship papers or asking me where my parents are from, all a police officer would have to do is look at the color of my skin for him to decide whether or not I was a legal citizen of this country or not. I feel like that is not right. That goes against our Constitution: "All men are created equal." Deciding that someone is an illegal alien just by looking at them is raceism. I feel in this case you could call it legalized racism. If they are cracking down on Hispanic immigration policies, they aren't going to stop anyone who is caucasion and ask them how they got into this country.
ReplyDeleteI think that if I was a legal immigrant and people around me were judging me and telling me that I was an illegal immigrant, I would be a little mad but I would also try to voice my side of the arguement and say that I am not illegal. If I was not given a job because of my foriegn born status then I would file for discrimination.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with what Laura said because our Constitution guarantees that all of our citizens are all created equally and given equal opportunities. I think that it is great that the policies are going to remove the illegal immigrants that are taking our jobs and do not belong in our country; however, if I was a legal immigrant having to face discrimination just because of my appearance I would be upset. Just because I looked different than the white people in the country does not mean I act different than them or that I am here illegally. I think that it is wrong of people to stereotype that all Mexicans that are residing in the U.S. are illegal immigrants and that they all jumped the boarder to come here; in today’s web quest, we learned that only 40% of the illegal immigrants jump the boarder to come here. I think that as a country, we need to work on being more opened minded to different cultures and the stories behind each person’s life because too often our society stereotypes other groups that are different than us. If we were more open, we would not create these stereotypes and it would minimize discrimination of the different social groups co-existing in our nation.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone above. I would feel very discriminated and lesser than everyone else. I would also feel very unwanted, considering the reason the immigration laws are becoming more strict is because they don't want as many immigrants; both legal and illegal. I would begin to feel like there is a label being put on all immigrants; whether they're legal or illegal. I would also feel judged like Laura said because everyone would start to assume I was an illegal immigrant as well, which wouldn't be true.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with everyones' opinions expressed above that with more strict immigration laws encouraging racism to seek out illigal immigrants is unjust. As Lauren said above, only forty percent of immigrants illigally jump the border and to add we also discovered in our web quest that illigal immigrants are less likely to take employment over a native worker in the United States. These immigration laws are unfair, there is no other official way to depict an illigal immigrant from a legal immigrant on the street without proper investigation unless racism is used to label a certain ethnic group as a suspect to be an illigal immigrant. I would feel offended by this immigration law if I was going about my day and someone picked me out of a croud of people to prosecute me as an illigal immigrant. The state and law enforcement cannot assume that someone is illigal, it is offensive and false accusation.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the previous comments because I would also feel discriminated against. It is not right for others to judge someone by the way they look. If someone told me I was an illegal immigrant without knowing about my history, I would be very angry. People can not be judged by their looks; it is rascism and discrimination. Our country is supposed to be accepting of everyone and by judging others, we are not following what our country, as a whole, believes in. Even though people look the same, doesn't mean that they are all illegal immigrants. Many immigrants came here legally and without proper background check, there is no way to tell whether they are legal or not. Therefore, nobody should be criticized based on their looks and race. Everyone deserves to be equal and not be singled out because of their looks.
ReplyDeleteThe American dream to many people means starting fresh in a new place and trying to change your life for the better. Throughout history, immigrants have traveled across the globe to do this and many people continue to do this today. I believe that immigrants and, in the case of this article, Hispanics deserve to be able to come here and start new like many have done in the past free of discrimination. I somewhat agree with Laura as well as Lauren that it is that what police officers are doing is unconstitutional because all men are created equal. But I do disagree with Laura because this right is for American citizens. It is not just for anyone who lives in the United States. As we have talked about in class, the process to become a legal immigrant takes a very long time which is what forces many immigrants to come here illegally. It is very unlikely that an immigrant will have his papers on him if a police officer decides to pull him over, but the fact that so many immigrants have gone around our government system by “jumping the boarders” gives police officers the right to check immigration status. What I am now starting to wonder is why is becoming a legal immigrant in the United States such a long process? Does this process in anyway try to protect the United States or the citizens living there? After trying to imagine what being a legal immigrant in the United States would be like, I agree with the posts above that I would feel discriminated against, but if I had waited a very long time to be a legal immigrant I would be very upset that others weren’t doing the same thing especially because they would be the ones causing the bad stereotype that all immigrants are illegally in the United States.
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