Current Events Analytical

Immigration today is in some ways just as controversial as it has always been. It plays a part in many issues like September 11th, 2001, the earthquake in Haiti, and things that happen in everyday situations. The American system of immigration has changed a lot over the years, but it hasn’t really improved too much. There are still people who are for immigration and people against it, and both have their own opinions of what should be done and what needs to change.
Soon after the terrorist attacks of September 11th, Samuel Francis wrote a column about protecting America against future terrorist attacks by restricting and regulating immigration. He wrote about how one of the dimensions of the problem was that there are places within our society that possible terrorists could live and operate virtually unnoticed by the rest of the world. “This dimension concerns what I have termed the ‘alternative societies’ that mass immigration has created and which allow alien terrorists to live and operate without being noticed.” According to Francis, because of mass immigration and them creating their own little societies more separate from ours, terrorists could be living somewhere in America out of the rest of the nation’s radar. He believes that because of mass immigration, we have let our own enemy to live within our country. Also, that the leadership class needs these possible terrorists for their own benefits such as cheap labor and a new underclass regardless of what the American public wants. Francis shows more modern immigration and how the fear some have of it can now be linked to other fears, like that of terrorist attacks.
Instead of looking at only the negative aspects of immigration, Saskia Sassen wrote about how America should be working with the rest of the world to negotiate immigration policies instead of increasing the police action and policies within our country. When faced with the threat of mass immigration of poor from around the world, most of the country agrees that the best course of action is to maximize borders and the policies within them. But, Sassen writes about how this is not the best way to regulate immigration. She shows how not only immigration has changed over the years, the world has changed a lot too. When this was written at the beginning of the 2000s, civil and human rights were being fought for more and more often in both the United States and Europe. “When the object of stronger police action is a broad spectrum of people- immigrant women, men and children- sooner or later it will get caught in the expanding web of civil and human rights it will violate those rights and interfere with the functioning of civil society.” Here, Sassen is explaining how those who are oppressed won’t stay oppressed forever, and will eventually fight back and this will affect everyone living in American society. Too much police action concerning immigration and illegal immigration will also affect the people of the United States and interfere with the desire of rule of law that is so important to our society and past. Over the years, countries across the globe are developing cross-border integration for a variety of reasons such as “for goods and services, for capital, for information, and for communications.” Because this is becoming such an important part of our society, it wouldn’t be in our best interest to increase border control and police action about immigration. The best way to regulate immigration, in Sassen’s opinion, is for countries to work together to create these policies. Even Sassen agrees that immigration is not an issue that will or can be solved quickly. But, if people begin to see and to understand the key aspects of the regulation of immigration we will be more able to create more effective and progressive immigration policies.
Obviously, immigration still isn’t perfect in America. The need for a new system of immigration here is not only shown through the eyes of Americans. Because of the long waiting lists and all the people that want to immigrate to America, it can take years for a person to get approved to come here. Not only this, but immigrants are also separated from their family members who could be approved much later. Twenty six years ago, Peter Aldeza arrived in Illinois after being approved to emigrate from the Philippines. After arriving, he filed paperwork so his brother and sister could join him. It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that his sister was able to come to America, and his brother still hasn’t gotten approved. The story of Aldeza and his sister proves the changes to be made to immigration today. It also shows how hard and frustrating it is to immigrate legally. “They say some prospective immigrants, frustrated by the delays, find a way into the country illegally.” Illegal immigration is an issue that is discussed frequently today and this story proves how our system of immigration may be increasing this problem. A bill was introduced in Congress last year that will keep families together and decreasing the delays of legal immigration.
Recently, the earthquake in Haiti led to controversy about letting Haitians bypass immigration rules and come to America. In the article, “Help Haitians, but don’t throw open U.S. borders”, the author describes how doing this would actually be a disservice to them and to the rebuilding of their country. This issue is especially controversial because of all the other people in the world that maybe haven’t survived a natural disaster but are still in terrible living conditions. If the U.S. lets Haitians come into the country by the thousands, it would not be fair to all the other people who would equally benefit from immigrating here. This proves how the issue of immigration affects a lot of people and connects to many issues today. With this particular situation, America has to in some ways be a good parent. They have to learn when to baby other countries, when to take them in and when to send them away. “America will do the most good by doing what it’s capable of doing more efficiently. Finding ways ot make Haiti more livable, more quickly, will encourage citizens to stay. Helping to finance reconstruction will create thousands of jobs for Haitians, in Haiti. That might not feel as good as saying ‘ya’ll come,’ but in the long run, it will be far more beneficial.”

Families Spearated By Miles, Laws; Immigration Rules for Close Relatives to be Re-Examined

This article showed the problems with U.S. immigration today. It is really hard for people to get into the United States, and it can take years for a person to be approved for immigration. The article describes a man, Peter Aldeza, who immigrated here from the Phillippines twenty six years ago. His sister was supposed to follow him here, but it wasn't until 2008 that she was approved to immigrate here. "Their story embodies the experience of thousands of families waiting on a legal immigration process bogged down by delays, a frustration that lies at the heart of renewed efforts to reform the U.S. immigration system." Of course, this system can't possibly be perfect or even make everybody happy. It's hard to take into consideration all the factors of immigration and still maintain our culture and infrastructure that many conservative's are worried about. A new bill is being introduced that will try to maintain family unity and allow people to immigrate with their immediate family members to avoid situations such as Aldeza's. I think that this shows a complicated issue involving immigration. There are people who are for and against more immigrants coming here. Because of this, we have regulations and laws about immigration requiring each immigrant to be approved to come here before they actually do. I can't imagine moving to a foreign country alone, and I don't know if I would go through with it if I had to. It shows a lot of willpower and determination for a better life that immigrants are willing to come here and leave their family and friends behind, waiting possibly years until they could join you. Immigrants should definitely be aloud to bring immediate family with them easier. But, this could also maybe lead to problems with people pretending to be related and a lot of immigrants coming here at once. It's crazy that after all these years, immigration is still a very controversial issue and is still discussed and faught about. I'm not really sure that this problem will ever be solved in a way that will make everyone happy and work good for everybody but I hope someday this issue will be closer to being solved.

America Must Cooperate with Other Nations in Regulating Immigration

This article, by Saskia Sassen, describes how immigration can’t be regulated solely by increased police enforcement and government policies and how these responses are not the only ways to deal with most of the country wanting immigrants out. “When the object of stronger police action is a broad spectrum of people – immigrant women, men, and children- sooner or later it will get caught in the expanding web of civil and human rights, it will violate those rights and interfere with the functioning of civil society.” In this quote, she brings this problem to a place that mostly everyone can connect with. Basically, eventually this problem will not just affect immigrants and those living near them. It could end up touching everyone and will disrupt the balance of all American society. “Sooner or later, this type of police action will touch us, the documented.” Immigrant migration to America is almost unavoidable. As a country, we need the relationships we have developed with other countries for goods, services, technology, and more. Instead of trying to get people out of our country, we should welcome them in, especially those coming from countries that we are often communicating with. Must more could get achieved for both countries if they worked together. Not only this, but because of how seriously violations of human and civil rights are taken recently, it wouldn’t be beneficial for anyone. “Whatever the control achieved, the trade-offs are too costly both for the immigrants themselves but also especially for the receiving societies in terms of violations of civil and human rights and the threats to the fabric of civil society.” From this, it doesn’t really seem worth it to me all that is being done to prevent immigration. Also, how far is America going to go? Through the efforts made to regulate and maintain immigration, we are setting ourselves up for chaos. From everything that can be learned from history, the fact that those who are oppressed won’t allow themselves to stay oppressed forever is something that seems to keep repeating. Another point that Sassen makes is that the periods of mass immigration don’t last forever and are patterned. Just like in America, every country changes and goes through good and bad periods of time, and bad times are not the only reasons that people migrate or immigrate to other countries. She ends saying that people eventually will need to “adopt a more international understanding of subjects such as immigration that used to be regarded in purely domestic terms.”

"America Must Cooperate with Other Nations in Regulating Immigration." Opposing Viewpoints: Illegal Immigration. William Dudley. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2002. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Deerfield High School. 8 Feb. 2010

Immigration Must Be Restricted to Protect America Against Terrorists

Written only a month after September 11th, 2001, this article showed connections between the fears of terrorism that emerged after September 11th and immigration. The first connection this article proved was that between fear and hatred. The author, Samuel Francis, writes about what he believes to be the two dimensions of the problem. The second one is that there are places in America where “alien terrorists” can live and operate in without really being noticed by everyone else. He also exemplifies the stereotypes that are made about Arabs in this country. The facts that they maybe can’t speak English well and sometimes choose to live in the same areas doesn’t really sound too different than any other minority that has immigrated to America at some point. From a quote from an article written about Patterson, New Jersey, it is evident that the rest of the country at this time also assumes that Arabs exhibiting this kind of behavior are terrorists. “The area was ‘one of several East Coast staging areas for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon,’ and the ‘hijackers’ stay here also shows how, in an area that speaks many languages and keeps absorbing immigrants, a few young men with no apparent means of support and no furniture can settle in for months without drawing attention.’” It doesn’t really make any sense to me how we are so concerned about them blending into our society and culture but when they choose to live together and for their own kind of subcultures, we assume they’re doing something wrong. Francis also talks about lessons that can be learned from other nations concerning this issue. The first lesson is that the enemy is here, not in Afghanistan. He describes how mass immigration and open-borders policies have led to potentially thousands of men that could be going unnoticed in our country but are working with terrorist groups preparing them against their enemies. But, what he wrote at the end of this paragraph really stood out to me and showed more connections of these ideas. “Short of expelling entire populations in a massive act of ethnic cleansing, there is virtually nothing the United States and the West can do about the new enemy within.” This line stood out to me because it reminded me a lot of what happened in Germany during the Holocaust. I had never really connected this at all to immigration, but it shows a possible consequence or result of the issue of immigration in America. Will we get so obsessed with maintaining our American culture and preventing immigrants from taking it over that we will attempt to remove all those who aren’t seen as Americans?

"Immigration Must Be Restricted to Protect America Against Terrorists." Opposing Viewpoints: National Security. Helen Cothran. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2004. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Deerfield High School. 8 Feb. 2010

Help Haitians, But Don't Throw Open U.S. Borders

Although the people in Haiti need all the help they can get, the author of this article believes that there are ways America can help without just inviting all the Haitians to immigrate here. Of course, in some cases, coming to America and restarting their lives seems like it would be the best option. But, I agree with this article when it describes how all Haitians coming here will not, in the long term, help to rebuild their country. "For starters, inviting thousands to feel Haiti is no way to help Haiti rebuild. To the contrary, Haiti's survival depends on encouraging its best and brightest to remain and work on its revival." Also, it wouldn't really be fair to let anyone affected from the earthquake in Haiti immigrate to America. There are people from countries all over the world living in all kinds of conditions waiting to come here. Despite the suffering going on in Haiti right now, it wouldn't be fair to the rest of the world. Instead of carting Haitians here to America, I think that it would definitiely be more beneficial to them for the future to help improve how things are for people in thier own country. Even though it might seem hash and not helpful enough right now, in the end it will help them more by developing the skills they need to reconstruct their country if anything like this ever happens again.

"Help Haitinas but don't throw open U.S. borders.(NEWS)(Editorial)." USA Today (Jan 29, 2010): 07A. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Deerfield High School. 8 Feb. 2010