Undocumented Criminals

Throughout the various books that we have read, one of the many concepts that stood out for me was the well-being and healthcare of undocumented workers. Due to the current criminalization of immigration, most undocumented workers live in a constant state of fear and anxiety. This really made me think about the psychological and somatic outcomes of fear, stigma, trauma, and prejudice for undocumented workers. This brought into question the structural and symbolic violence that causes undocumented workers to suffer from mental and physical illnesses and how the treatment, if any, is administered.

Illegal immigrants have been a hot topic lately due to the popularity of this topic amongst the Republican Presidential Nominees, especially Donald Trump. These illegal immigrants bring various things to this country when they come. Some things are positive, such as a family simply seeking to find a better life, while some things are harmful to the United States, such as the amount of crime among illegal immigrants. In July 2015, the most recent estimate of illegal immigrants was 11.2 million. This same data shoes that 56 percent of all deportations last year were convicted criminals, which accounted for 177,960 individuals (Shoichet, 2015). Crime among illegal immigrants is a problem, and sanctuary cities, which are supposed to be a solution, may be making this problem worse.

Immigration is one of the central themes of the founding of the United States and as such it is often the epicenter of controversy among both citizens and policymakers. Throughout the twentieth century, American citizens and policymakers have brought to the forefront the importance of immigration and the role immigrants play within society. This can be a cause of friction between immigrants and multi-generational citizens because immigrants are often viewed with a negative connotation. They are often blamed for stealing jobs from hardworking citizens, draining the healthcare system and adding to the homeless population. They are associated with crime, poverty and in general they are perceived as undesirable members of society (Spenkuch, 2014). The relationship between crime and immigrants is of particular importance because there is a common perception that immigrants cause crime and their neighborhoods are riddled with criminal activity. Also important to note is that the characteristics of immigrants tend to coincide with members of the native-born population that are disproportionally incarceration. In general, they are poorly educated, earn low wages and are young, males. This led to the perception that incoming immigrants continuously add to the lower class, criminal population. In order to clearly understand the relationship between the two concepts they must be examined both from a theoretical and empirical viewpoint

A couple of facts that counters the image of illegal immigrants as criminals include, “The anti-immigrant forces draw, for example, on the ‘2006 (first quarter) INS [immigration and Naturalization service/FBI statistical report on undocumented Immigrants’ with its array of alarming statistics about illegal immigrants and crime to make their case that undocumented immigrants not only break the law entering the country but also break the laws, with a proclivity to violent crimes, once they make their homes here.” And, “One of the most disturbing findings of the IPC study was that immigrant children and immigrants with many years in the country are more likely to become criminals than first-generation immigrants or those with less than 15

“Everywhere immigrants have enriched and strengthened the fabric of American life,” (John F. Kennedy). Latino immigrants are some of the most unappreciated members of the US population, yet they constantly keep the United States alive, and thriving. They frequently get taken advantage of by big corporations, denied their rights, and are never taken seriously by law enforcement, all because of their limited English and their lack of familiarity with the United States workplace.One such company that carries out such devious tactics is a company by the name of, Taylor Farms. Undocumented Latino immigrants at Taylor Farms need a voice, because it is a moral obligation to expose and eradicate this form of modern slavery. Impoverished

There are millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States, many of whom are Latinos. Americans today tend to believe that undocumented immigrants are: rapist, drug traffickers, live off the welfare and come to the United States to take American’s jobs. Indeed, American employers are hiring, so jobs are there, but the American people are not doing them. Therefore, someone must do the hard labor that no one wants. Many Latinos immigrate to the United States looking towards a better future for their families. They come with a positive perspective that their children are going to have a better life and are not going to experience any injustices. For many decades, white Americans have oppressed and marginalized undocumented immigrants because

This article assumes that many do not give this problem a face a personal story. I feel that many are forced to focus on the bad stories they hear in the news that show immigrants involved in crimes. people are told to fear and beware of those who are here to still the american dream as if they are here to take what they don't deserve.

In recent months, undocumented immigrants across the country have been stripped of their rights. One thing that is on the minds of many citizens nationwide, is whether or not undocumented immigrants should receive instate tuition in the states they reside in. More specifically, it means whether undocumented students should pay higher rates than citizens to attend a university or college even if their work ethic is smarter than those with citizenship. More importantly, we’re oppressing, discriminating, and alienating a whole group of people due tour pride getting in our way. Particularly, undocumented students and their parents are getting affected by this situation as the whole point they came here was to have their children or themselves

In the past few years a dispute has risen in the middle of the controversy about illegal immigration and border security. Are the children of illegal immigrants U.S. citizens? This a question that has provoked intense arguments and various attempts to change the birth right law established in the Fourteen Amendment. Many conservative people believe the sons and daughters of undocumented immigrants shouldn’t be granted American citizenship. They interpret the 14th amendment to exclude anyone whose parents are not legal residents of this country. There has even been attempts to change the Constitution and the Fourteen Amendment more exclusive. Doing so would leave many people without nationally. Regardless of the countless arguments everyone

The article “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” was written by Jose Antonio Vargas. In it, Vargas tells of the time when his mother brought him to the Phillippines’ Ninoy Aquino International Airport when he was twelve. His mother told him that she wanted to give him a better life so he boarded onto a plane with a man he had never met before and was told that he was his uncle. He arrived in Mountain View, California and moved in with his grandparents Lolo and Lola. Vargas says that he grew to love his new home and when he entered sixth grade that’s when he found his passion for language. He tells of his struggle of making a distinction between “formal English and

Although events such as San Bernardino in 2015 provide anecdotal evidence of immigrants committing acts of extreme violence, these events are extremely rare. Nonetheless, tragedies such as these inevitably grab headlines and capture the attention of millions of Americans across the country. Tragedies such as the attack in San Bernardino hold strong emotional appeal to proponents for restrictive immigration policy. However, these rare and uncontrollable events should not provide the base of logic for America’s national immigration policy as they are not a proxy for immigrant behavior as a whole. Various statistics regarding crime among immigrants may reveal an underlying reason for lower crime rates, which is that the majority of immigrants understand the implications of committing a crime and know that it would not be in their best interest as a new member of the country they wish to call home. Natives, moreover, have crime rates five times that of immigrants. This demonstrates the potential positive externalities that immigrants contribute to the social sphere by lowering the crime rate and acting as models within urban America.

examines the assumed link that immigrants are intently bad. The crime-immigration nexus is the assumed link that immigrants are criminals (Hagen, Levi, & Dinovitzer, 2008). This this idea often leads to increases in the number of immigrants incarcerated, which Hagen et al. labels as a “self-fulfilling prophecy” (2008). Because, if people are perceiving immigrants as criminals, people are going be looking for criminal, which results in more immigrant being incarcerated. In addition, researchers’ findings that “support” this data, fails to show how the cultural capital a person brings to the United States is not utilized, therefore marginalizing individuals, as a result, creating more violence (Hagen, Levi, & Dinovitzer, 2008). To clarify, “cultural capital” is the experience an individual has from their life, which they bring with them, such as in a schooling environment (Cruz, 2018). Furthermore, within this article, Hagen et al. explain that there is a “initial sin” an immigrant has a non-native person living within the United States. This is described in the text as “breaking the unwritten law” (Hagen, Levi, & Dinovitzer, 2008). Which is that immigrants are held at a much higher standard than native-born citizens. This is symbolic violence, because individuals are vilified for stereotypes, and not capitalized on their cultural capital that

The average rate of crime can dramatically decrease with the deportation of illegal aliens. Chris Fleisher from the American Economic Association, claims that many undocumented immigrants are being blamed for crime. The crime in the United States is tremendous because immigrants with no jobs or money have nothing else to do other than commit

The thought of arriving immigrants in any host country has been accompanied by reactions of exclusion, and continues to expand throughout the years. During any social illness, immigrants tend to be the first to be held responsible by their recipient societies. Most crimes are associated with immigrants due to the fact that they may not posses the same socio-economics status as natives. Another contributing factor is the media that conducts numerous stories that highlight the image of immigrant crimes to recall the alleged difference between native and foreign born. Undoubtedly, the correlation between immigration and crime has become one of the most controversial discussions in current society. As we enter a new era, immigrants will have

According to Bartollas & Miller (2014), discrepancy between the number of people who say they were victimized and the number of crimes known to the police varies with the type of offense (p.33). A lot of times police officers choose which crime to report due to the seriousness nature of the criminal behavior. Although a crime is a crime no matter how serious it may or may not be many officers are bias towards the type they report. Plus, many crimes don’t get reported to the police and therefore go undocumented. A good deal of crimes goes undocumented because people do not like to call the police instead they want to either brush the crime under the table due to being family, or they want to handle it by themselves without the interference of