Un American Bill Analysis

The collection “Coming to America” is comprised of journal entries, biographies, and autobiographies that discuss the social and political transformations that arose from immigration. “Of Plymouth Plantation”, “Balboa”, and “‘Blaxicans’ and Other Reinvented Americans” illustrate how immigrants shape America’s direction. The changes that occurred when settlers migrated seriously impacted the nation they were travelling to. The first of these changes pertains to culture. Immigrants brought their religions and languages to their host country, and that caused a great deal of acculturation, usually to the new religion or language. Government is another principle that was implemented into the “inner workings” of the new country. Lastly, the newcomers

As one of the presidents during the Progressive Era, Theodore Roosevelt led the United States of America through a series of dramatic changes that interrupted the lives and ideologies that Americans during the time were more than familiarized with. Industrialization, women’s suffrage, the sexual revolution, imperialism, and “muckraking” journalism were just a few of the controversial, yet significant characteristics of this era. However, perhaps one of the largest and most vital influences during this time period came from the outside. Immigration was an issue that Roosevelt himself addressed rather perceptibly in his paper entitled “True Americanism,” which first appeared in a magazine called The Forum in April, 1894. However, it is not

In his book, Not Like Us: Immigrants and Minorities in America, 1890-1924, Roger Daniels explores the true history of American nativism in a time period where immigrants entered the country in greater numbers than ever before, or since. Instead of focusing on politics or economic growth at the turn of the twentieth century, Daniels instead discusses the social context of the time and the treatment of immigrants and minorities. Born in New York City and educated at both the University of Houston and UCLA, Daniels holds a Ph.D. in History, is the Charles Phelps Taft Professor at the University of Cincinnati, and has written several books on the matters of race and ethnicity.

In Congressman, Robert H. Clancy’s speech An “Un-American Bill”: A Congressman Denounces Immigration Quotes addresses racial discrimination in America. Clancy’s purpose is to inform people of the truth in immigration laws. Using a profound tone, Clancy conveys Americans not seeing the truth about certain acts and laws in America. Clancy supports his argument of racial discrimination towards immigrants in America in the Johnson-Reed Act by using personal experience, appealing to the reader's emotions by telling heart-wrenching stories, and having factual evidence.

In the article “Surges and slips: Immigration in America over 200 years” by Associated Press discusses immigration into the United States of America. This article relates the current issues facing the White house during this presidency. In the body paragraphs of this article: immigration laws, civil rights history, and the conflicting economic and social issues that confront the country. Furthermore the conclusion brings the audience’s attention back to current issues. During the section titled “Immigration Laws Shape Diversity of Nation,” the author discusses early limits on citizenship. As seen in the second to last paragraph of the section,”A 1790 law limited citizenship to ‘free white persons’ of ‘good moral character’ who had lived in

I do not fit in one box on a federal checklist, I am of several cultures. My experience of listening to my Grandmother’s stories made me acutely aware of this fact. I am not just an American, I am a Mexican-American. Living in the Rio Grande Valley, I am part of this “third country” that Anzaldua calls the borderland (Anzaldua Borderlands 1987, 3). In this third country where the “third world grates against the first and bleeds”, the spilt blood creates a new country; an uneasy fusion of both cultures (Anzaldua Borderlands 1987, 3). In my case I was born to a father from Mexico and a mother from America, I am part of the third culture, the Mexican-American. I am proud to be an American and a Hispanic, yet America devalues me because of my heritage.

Immigrating to America is a process in which many people all across the world entrust as their one way ticket to a better life. Whether they do so legally or illegally, coming to the United States ensures better opportunities, economically, politically, and so on, to people who would have otherwise been worse off in their countries of origin. Even so, the common understanding of being “better off” can be considered a misconstrued concept when it comes to living in the states. Many families that choose to immigrate to the U.S. fail to realize the cultural hardships that newcomers tend to face once on American soil. Anything from racial discrimination or bias at work, in neighborhoods, at school, etc., can all be challenges that people encounter when making a move to the U.S. Such challenges are described by Richard Rodriquez in his autobiography Hunger of Memory. In this passage, he explains how cultural differences between Mexican and American ways of life have shaped him into the person that he is today. He also chooses to highlights the problems that he faces growing up in a predominately white neighborhood, while attending a predominantly white institution. Much of his writing consists of the cultural differences and pressures he feels to assimilate to Western culture and how this process, in turn, changes him into the person that some may find to be unethical, but nonetheless, someone he is proud of.

Since the dawn of American colonization in the early 1600s, the notion of immigrating to America has long been instilled upon various people as a stimulating opportunity to begin a fresh chapter in their lives. Even now, this possibility has brought many variations of people to America, culminating a society that brims with dreams and aspirations to form the diversified nation of today. When speaking of the current state of immigration, it is easy to conclude that immigration is heavily discussed from political standpoints. Though this current condition is composed of highly controversial perspectives, many of the early-century viewpoints found in literature genuinely embrace reality, for these writers were indeed immigrants themselves, thus adding an authoritative standpoint over immigration. The Americanization of Edward Bok (1921) by Edward Bok and The America I Believe In by Colin Powell, display the perspectives of two authors, who have lived as immigrants, through their own personal anecdotes. Both Edward Bok and Colin Powell convey a sincerely grateful tone and develop the idea of Americanization and the quest for opportunity through the use of connotative diction in contrast to the Immigration Chart and Political Cartoon which have a downright concrete and pessimistic tone and supports the idea that immigration exposes various challenges to incoming immigrants.

Mai Ngai’s book, Impossible Subjects, powerfully studies the unfortunately understudied period between 1924 and 1965, the lifespan of the national origins quota system. This era begins with the passage of the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act in 1924 and ends with the lifting of national origins quotas through the passage of the Hart-Celler Act of 1965. The era from 1924 to 1965 remapped the nation by developing both a particular racial and ethnic identity and a "new sense of territoriality" (Ngai p.3). This period demonstrates the most widespread immigration restriction in U.S. history that literally "remapped the nation" (Ngai p.3). Ngai argues that widespread immigration exclusion created an intensified sense of national borders as well as increased security on those boarders. This helped produce what is now defined as the illegal alien (Ngai). Impossible Subjects primarily concentrates on immigrants categorized as illegal aliens, alien citizens, colonial subjects, and contract laborers. Because these are immigrants whose experiences are not greatly represented in our national narrative, the regulations that have governed them have never greatly been exposed, resulting in a collective oblivion within United States history. Ngai turns her research to important analytical use. Ngai’s most interesting lines of argument lie within her analysis of the creation of illegal immigration from Mexico and her analysis of Japanese internment during World War II.

As the author of the book, Daniels has tried to exemplify his view towards hyperbolism of the rhetoric and misleading statistics that were conceptualized by the legislation looking upon the immigration process. He has also tried to depict his

In the United States, the cliché of a nation of immigrants is often invoked. Indeed, very few Americans can trace their ancestry to what is now the United States, and the origins of its immigrants have changed many times in American history. Despite the identity of an immigrant nation, changes in the origins of immigrants have often been met with resistance. What began with white, western European settlers fleeing religious persecution morphed into a multicultural nation as immigrants from countries across the globe came to the U.S. in increasing numbers. Like the colonial immigrants before them, these new immigrants sailed to the Americas to gain freedom, flee poverty and

One of the most defining traits for the United States of America is that the nation is one made up of immigrants, it is a basic building block that can not be overlooked, nor should it. That being said, it is important to countless citizens to be open when it comes to immigration, while keeping the country hospitable to its citizens for generations to come. However, this attitude to immigration is a fairly recent phenomenon in American history, especially in regards to immigrants coming in from non-Western European countries. With the introduction of the Immigration Act of 1965 and the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) came about the changes to immigration policy that would forever change the face of the nation and create the diversity that has become a point of pride. The sentiment is not felt nationwide, however, as the immigration patterns brought about with these two acts has brought hostility as well, especially from those who feel that immigration is a threat to the country as a whole, specifically illegal immigration. Immigration, and its illegal counterpart, is an issue that defines this period in American history, and while it did not necessary start off targeting Mexican and Latino immigrants, it has very much been immortalized within the communities and become the face of immigrants to the nation as a whole.

Savannah Cox, writer and editor of New Republic, wrote “Trump’s Refugee Ban Isn’t as Un-American as You Think”. Cox claimed the refugee ban isn’t the only un-American thing in America, considering the fact that similar major events happened. She gave examples like the Immigration Restriction Act in 1917 which Congress overrode Wilson’s rejection, and she said “This marked the first time the U.S. used federal law to discriminate against immigrants”; these quotes and examples strengthened the idea that acts and bans because it became a “popular” topic which starting hundreds of years ago, making it part of America and everyone in America. In the article, Cox targeted the American people because the overall subject of the article was about America

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

In “Uncle Sam Doesn’t Always Want You”, Mark Arex asserts “nativism is the most stubborn traits of American”. He introduces an anti-immigration debate, which is called Proposition 187, argues about whether immigration can get a valid status in the United States. Mark uses his experience to point out a phenomenon that the former immigrants against the new immigrants again and again. However, they seem to forget they are also immigrants to the United States. Also, the author points out that demand of workers leads to necessarily immigration. Nevertheless, worry makes the former immigrants to limit the new immigrants. Besides, he generalizes Schrag’s idea, the author of “Not Fit for Our Society”, the American remembers orthogenesis