Essay on The Impact of Terrorism on Immigration

In the airports, Muslim people became “the usual suspects”, were thoroughly searched and often interrogated. In her article, O’Connor claims that the lives of American Muslims changed forever, and the statement is hard to disagree with (“How 9/11 Changed These Muslim Americans’ Lives Forever.”) Those who had nothing to do with the September 11 attacks, their children and grandchildren were sentenced to face racism, hate and violence.

    All around the world terrorism has increased tremendously. There have been recent terrorist attacks in Spain, London, Paris, and Berlin and that has made the United states question their safety. “Mass migration has caused terror attacks across Europe and is responsible for the recent bloodbath in Nice where 84 people were slaughtered, according to senior Hungarian politicians”(Christy's 1). Illegal immigrants

The United States is a country that was built on immigration. The first settlers, Native Americans, represent less than 2% of the total population; the remaining 98% of the population are immigrants or decedents of immigrants. Today, the US still has the highest immigration rate in the world with 757,434 naturalizations in the 2012 fiscal year only (US Naturalizations 2012, Department of Homeland security). People try to immigrate to the United States for many reasons. Some people immigrate because they have been granted a refugee status or asylum and other people immigrate to fulfill their dreams. Immigration has an effect on the American society and economy. The US cannot survive without immigrants.

The repercussions of September 11, 2001 have been numerous and one thing that certainly cannot be repudiated is that 9/11 resulted in Americans needing a scapegoat. In his book, Scapegoats of September 11th, Michael Welch devotes the first chapter, “Hate Crimes & State Crimes in the War on Terror,” to a discussion of how the September 11th attacks have resulted in stereotyping and the discrimination against a few ethnicities and religions in the United States. In looking at the aftermath of the attacks, Welch also talks about how politicians responded to the attacks and the strategies that they used to advance their political ambitions.

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, immigration control and national homeland security have been issues of concern for both the national government and private citizens. In the wake of the attacks, a lot of articles were written about what the appropriate response should be to prevent another attack. In 2004, Mark Krikorian wrote an article for the Providence Journal entitled “Safety through Immigration Control” in which he contends that the only means to keep America safe from a follow-up attack is to strengthen and enforce immigration law to prevent terrorists from being able to enter the country. Edwidge Danticat, writing for The Nation in 2005, provides a juxtaposition to Krikorian’s stance in her essay “Not Your Homeland”, in which she describes her witnessing of the inhumane conditions many immigrants are forced to endure in the name of increased security to protect the country. She questions whether the added protections are worth the human cost we are paying by treating immigrants and refugees as guilty until proven innocent. At the crossroads of these two perspectives lies the question: what is the proper balance between national security and the humane treatment of immigrants?

The subject of illegal immigration coupled with the concern of the growing number of illegal immigrants in the United States has been a long standing national debate. A single finite definition of the term “illegal immigrant” has proven difficult to specify. For the purposes of this paper, I will use the term “undocumented immigrant” defined as an individual who has “entered the United States illegally or violated the terms of their residency status” (Chan, Scott, Krishel, Bramwell, and Clark, 2006).

However, it is not only Muslim terrorists who are trying to enter the United States, but refuges as well. Devastating events mainly happening in Muslim countries lead to direct arrival of Muslim ethnic communities in the United States. It is unjust to believe each and every human traveling from Islamic States are terrorists since each state is disproportionately dictated meaning some have less violence and civil rights than

The history of terrorism is as old as humans’ willingness to use violence to affect politics. Terrorism can affect everyone, whether directly or indirectly. However, a group that is largely affected is immigrants, mainly due to the U.S. policies on Counter-Terrorism. These policies might protect our country, but they also indirectly lead to discrimination against immigrants. The U.S. policy on Counter-Terrorism causes unfair immigration laws, encourages social media to demonize foreigners, and creates an unfair society for immigrants to live in.

The sun rises to a deep spring-blue sky on Sunday the Fifth of May 2017; 51,000 people are converging on downtown Spokane for the 39th running of the Bloomsday road race. Thirty miles to the south, near the town of Fairfield, a small cluster of people watch from a distance as two men in protective coveralls and respirators pour fifty gallons of a clear fluid into the payload compartment of a Bell 300C helicopter. The crop duster, which was purchased for cash in Walla Walla, is a descendent of the Korean War era helicopters depicted on the television series MASH. After the liquid is loaded, and the outside of the helicopter is sanitized, the pilot runs

Yee, V., Davis, K., & Patel, J. (2017, March 06). Here’s the Reality About Illegal Immigrants in the United States. Retrieved November 10, 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/03/06/us/politics/undocumented-illegal-immigrants.html

The September 11 attacks on the United States shaped an environment that gave law enforcement agencies wider freedom to take on more serious airport security checks of people who show to be of Middle Eastern descent. (p. 79)

National terrorism has been the focus of attention since September 11. But now domestic terrorism is becoming increasingly common among hate groups across the nation. Domestic terrorism can be defined as visible crime, or “street crime.” These acts would consist of violent crimes, (acts against people in which injury or death results) property crimes (acts that threaten property held by individuals or the state) and public order crimes. (acts that threaten the general well-being of society and challenger accepted moral principles) It can also however be described as political crime, (criminal acts by or against the government for ideological purposes) which would include the 9/11 and the Oklahoma City bombing.

Illegal immigration is an increasingly huge issue in the United States. To solve this crisis or at least slow down the rate of illegal immigration, solutions with actions must be put into place. The first step would be to verify citizenship or legal residency for everyone. There should be a national database that can be accessed that would instantaneously verify this information. The federal government should employ Agents to go door to door to procure documentation from each person in a household to verify their citizenship or legal residency and then upload that documentation to the national database. If verification is not readily available, the person should be given 30 days to get the required documentation.

The government can implement many new methods to increase security, or better yet give off the image of better security which is what they have predominantly done, yet ultimately there will always be a way to bypass or come up with a new way to infiltrate that measure. The government so far has done a variety of things ranging from the closing of the Dulles airport (permanently), working with the FAA on new security measures, having pilots carry handguns, and a not so specific, profiling.

Purpose: To inform readers of the effects the recent terrorist attacks have on society today.