The Border Patrol State Essay

Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz’s, Labor and Legality is a book written on the Mexican immigrant network in the U.S. She centers it on the Lions, a group of Mexican men from Leon, Mexico that all share their lives and help explain the many networks and strategies that are used in order to excel and gain happiness. There have been many different sorts of misconceptions about immigrants, and in recent years about undocumented immigrants from Mexico. The U.S. has made a sort of war on illegal immigrants and has made it a seemingly high priority in the media and in politics. Therefore, many Americans have been mislead and ill-informed about the history of immigrants/undocumented immigrants. Gomberg-Muñoz’s Labor and Legality helps set us straight. She unveils undocumented immigrants for the people that they are instead of the criminals that the media leads many to believe. Although she doesn’t have a wide range of participants for her study, I believe that she addresses many of the misconceptions and just plain ignorance that American people have of people that are undocumented; why stereotypes are supported by the people themselves, why politicians include stronger illegal immigration laws, and everything in between. Many of her topics reveal a sort of colonialism that the U.S. practices on Mexico; the exploitation of undocumented peoples to the benefit of the U.S. through economics, hypocritical laws and campaigns, and the racist and prejudice consequences.

apprehend lawbreakers, it was equally their duty to save the lost and the dying” (Urrea 18). The Border Patrol is the antagonist for the immigrants because when they get caught they send them back to where they came from. “Now they had a choice. Cross the road and stagger along the front range of the mountains, or stay on the road and hope the border patrol would find them” (Urrea 14). Throughout the story some Mexicans were wishing to get caught by the border patrol yes their enemy.

The book “Coyotes” by Ted Conover describes the lives of immigrants who cross over to from Mexico to the United States. It describes the hardships that they face along the way and it shows what it is like to be an illegal immigrant. Ted Conover is an American journalist who basically wanted to shed light on the impact of illegal immigration in both Mexico and the United States. In order to do this he travels to Mexico so that he can experience firsthand what it is like to be a Mexican crossing the border illegally. From there the book describes his journey of trying to navigate life as an illegal immigrant in the United States.

In her book, Labor and Legality: An Ethnography of a Mexican Immigrant Network, Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz describes the lives of ten busboys, she referrs to as the Lions, living and working in the Chicago area. Gomberg-Muñoz provides an insight into the lives of these undocumented Mexican workers. They share their stories of crossing the border, the affects of their absence on family back in Mexico, and the daily struggles of living in a country without the benefits of citizenship. The Lions, as well as other undocumented Mexicans, have to face Americans stereotypes every day. Probably the biggest stereotype the Lions contend with is the belief that all Mexicans are hard workers.

ICE stands for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, they deal with matters concerning border control, customs, trade and immigration to insure public safety and homeland security. Their priorities focus on preventing terrorism and the illegal movement of items, as well as people. Within ICE, there are three subgroups that fall into specialized tasks for the agency, such as Homeland security investigations (HSI) and the Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). Although being a fairly new agency there has been more than a few controversies on how ICE handles the illegal immigrants, however, since 9/11 the U.S has been trying to find the most effective ways to stop terrorism. So, that also means that not everyone would agree with the tactics that ICE used to solve the problem for those specific cases.

Amidst the chaos of the protest, the Gottliebs were transported away in an ambulance. By nighttime, Ravi was in Miami; Amy, in shock and pain. Six long days passed by until she finally received word that Ravi would return to the New York area, remaining detained but close nonetheless. According to the author, Ravi’s arrest is just the latest in a series that clearly demonstrates the ICE’s intention to suppress the voices of immigrant activists; in the past week alone, three activists have endured similar experiences. Throughout the article, Gottlieb primarily utilizes pathos to inform her readers about the reality of the immigration system.

Border militarization did not make people change their minds about coming to the United States, but rather just made them change how they did so and their rate of return (Massey, Durand, and Pren). With more enforcement in California, it left Arizona exposed. In “The State of Arizona”, they drive by where the border stops being a wall and just barbed wire. If you are trying to get into the United States, it is much easier to cut barbed wire than climb a wall. Not only are these extra migrants who would have typically went to California contributing to the larger migrant population, “The State of Arizona” mentions plenty of the migrants who have been living in the United States for many years, with no intention of returning. The son of the man who is detained actually even mentions that he does not want to go to

When needing to rest before they cross the desert, an officer who says to Ma, “If you’re here tomorra this time I’ll run you in.” She confronts them and he retorts with prejudice,” We don’t want any of you settlin “down here.” …You’re in California, an’ we don’t want you goddamn Okies settlin’ down.” (214) The progression of hostility escalates as migrants proliferate, jobs get scarce, and wages reduce.

In the story of Forbidden Workers - Illegal Chinese Immigrants in New York, we are given a look at American Society from the perspective of an illegal immigrant who is taken advantage of because of their status and the vulnerable position that they are put in because of it. Peter Kwong provides a broad, but subjective, analysis of American life, labor laws, and other key points in immigration. However, while the message Kwong conveys with this interesting and informational work, it is hindered by his bias which comes out blatantly throughout, limiting the book that would have earned a recommendation for the American Psychological Association (ASA) award for the International Migration category, but instead deserving an honorable mention.

Border corridos revolve around the Texas-Mexico border and illustrate the effects of the The Mexican-American War. During the Mexican-American War, Mexico lost the battle and the state of Texas, which made the Rio Grande the national border. As a result, Mexicans who lived on the other side of the river had to decide between America and Mexico. The people who chose to stay in America became “Tejanos (Texan-American)”(Davis, Lecture) and their culture, language, and property were respected due to the signing of the “Treaty of Guadalupe” (Flores, 167). However as Anglo-American settlers moved into Mexican territory, a “land-grab” was institutionalized, which sold most of Mexicans’ lands for cheap prices, due to the Mexican population’s unawareness. Not only that, but Texas officers known as “Texas Rangers” discriminated and violently treated ethnic Mexicans (Davis, Lecture). The border corridors reflect the interethnic conflict between whites and Tejanos and portray the injustice during those times. Similarly, Badman Ballads portrays the oppression of one ethnic groups towards another. This ballad illustrates blacks discriminated by whites during the

The main focus of this week’s readings was about the United States reception of immigrants through policy. From the Martin reading, we saw that there are two main approaches to immigrant policy. They may be accommodating or they can also be restrictive. For the former, these policies extend rights to unauthorized immigrants, such as access to health care or tuition assistance. These policy tend to appear where there has been a history of unauthorized immigrants and the local populace does not see the harm in having them within their city. Varsayani describes sanctuary ordinance as a cities declaration of noncooperation with federal immigration authorities. These cities will choose to deal with unauthorized immigrant as a citizen of that city and will only contact federal immigration authorities in case of a felony. On the other hand, there are the exclusionary policy approaches that are undertaken by state and local level governments. Varsayani explains that when a city or state experiences a large influx of immigrants whether they may be legal or illegal there sometimes is a negative reaction to their arrival. Often fueled by fear many citizens make assumptions about illegal immigrants and join together to pass ordinances or propositions that would make it difficult for those immigrants to live in their city or state. Whenever states or local governments do this they preempt their power over immigration issues that are not part of their jurisdiction. This is often done

As proven through Silko’s own testament, the border patrol clearly does not make Americans feel safe. And, while Silko does not directly speak of those that this system stops, she does mention many people that are wrongfully stopped. In each of these stops patrolmen waste time, energy, and resources on individuals with valid identification. Silko recounts her own experience when saying, “I was detained once at Truth or Consequences, despite my and my companions Arizona drivers license” (Silko 2). She continues on to speak of other people, namely of mixed descent, whom were stopped under similar circumstances, while whites were rarely stopped. In these accounts the system is helping no one; the border patrolmen are not detaining illegal immigrants, and citizens are forced to conceit their liberty or face further struggle, all while valuable resources are being wasted. In Border Patrol State, Silko makes numerous illusions to the feeling of freedom while driving down the vast, open highways characteristic of the south, or being taught in schools that every citizen has the right to freedom, although, unfortunately as her somber tone alludes, the border patrol state takes that freedom away. Citizens with valid credentials are coerced and bullied into being stopped and searched for all sorts of illegal contraband ranging from drugs to undocumented immigrants. If one is not complicit with patrolmen, they can be detained or forced to wait hours on end for search warrants which will in most cases end in a mandatory strip search, even if they have

This experience prompted him to conduct research with these communities and ultimately author Forgotten Citizens, where he illustrates their experiences with the law, the daily lives of children living in the shadows, and the possible outcomes of detection and deportation. The journey of undocumented parents usually begins with risking immeasurable dangers to come to the US (p.33) and proceeds to dealing with laws, policies and anti-immigrant sentiments that stack against them (chapter 3). As a consequence of this constant vigilance, their US citizen children suffer psychological and emotional tolls, as illustrated by Felicita and Alejandra who learn about their parent’s legal status and begin a process of censoring everything they do and say. Their parents’ incarceration and deportation experiences further traumatize these citizen children. In some cases they become exiles from the only country they know, being taken back to their parent’s country, at others they become orphans left behind in the US by their parents, in the best of cases with family members, other times in the foster care

The first thing that really hit home for me was that people have to use ladder and secrecy to gain access to think country. This isn’t the way people should have to enter our county. People shouldn’t feel like they have to cross the desert in the dead of night, trying to get over a wall and survive in a wilderness that takes too many every year. To use rafts and busses and vans to cross a border that has no checkpoints on their side. The body the Border Patrol agents found is a great example. The person is dressed nicely, in a polo and khakis, and is wearing decent sneakers. They were probably trying to find a way to lead a better life. Instead, they were taken by the harsh environment that is the Sonoran Desert. At one point, they show a pile of bone they are collected, and they are so white. They have been in the sun for so long, who knows how long they have been

The social commentaries in both The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle and “Child, Dead, in the Rose Garden by E.L. Doctorow unveils the true reality of the American Government and the social injustice of the American society. In the Tortilla Curtain, T.C. Boyle took upon an adventure of two illegal immigrants from Mexico who faced the unsettling truth of the social class system of America. But In “Child, Dead, in a Rose Garden” E.L. Doctorow expresses the injustice of the Government and their ability to blindside the public with fraudulent information.