Undocumented: How Immigration Became Illegal Summary

Immigration has always been a topic of conversation in politics, especially in the last election. People’s views towards whether immigration is a bad or good thing for the economy is up for debate. Many people find that immigrants destroy the economy, and have no right coming into the United States. Whereas some people view immigrants as a vital part of the United States’ social class, and they view immigrants as strong, willful people who made the difficult decision in coming over to the United States. In the two articles, “In Trek North, First Lure Is Mexico’s Other Line” written by Randal archibold, and “The Heartache of an Immigrant Family,” written by Sonia Nazario, it gives people an insight into the struggles and hardships families endure

Jose Antonio Vargas, courageous author of the essay “Outlaw”, contributes a first-hand life story to the boiling pot that is the argument over immigration. He recalls his own story chronologically, beginning with the month and words spoken by his mother on his day of departure over twenty years ago. He justifies the reasoning behind his leaving by retelling almost every illegal immigrant’s initiative, a craving for “a better life”. Vargas takes the reader on his journey, piggybacking through his fight for citizenship. He explains the numerous obstacles he’s had to bob and weave around and the laws he’s had to duck and cover for. On paper, Jose is the perfect American citizen, loved by his teachers and bosses a clean cut right side of the tracks

As of 2012, 11.2 million illegal immigrants reside in the United States, making up one third of the country’s foreign-born population (Krogstad, Passel). The majority of the Republican Party, angered by the lack of security and enforcement required to control the issue, wish to allot as much time and resources possible into restricting access to those who fail to enter the country legally (repubicanviews.org). In her recent work, blatant conservative blogger Michelle Malkin critiqued the government’s handling of the situation and vocalized her disapprobation towards the subject when she asserted there are more urgent matters, such as terrorist threats, for the country to address. She states, “Capitol Hill and the White House have been far too preoccupied with legalizing millions of illegal aliens in the name of homeland security to follow up” (Malkin).

The book “Undocumented: How Immigration Became Illegal” by Aviva Chomsky describes what the process of immigration is actually like and how complicated and rough it truly is for an immigrant. Especially those who have crossed the border illegally and/or those who possess illegal documents. However this book questions what does it really mean to be illegal. As well as throughout the book it illustrates that immigrants are being treated rather closely to how slaves were treated. The work they do connects these ideas as well as other facts such as families being disconnected, immigrants being trapped in a certain part of the world, unable to travel far, and the tiny amount of rights they have compared to an average white american citizen.

Americans may often forget that immigrants are human beings too. A lot of them may not see all the risks that comes with trying to cross the border along with all the issues and problems immigrants face. In Aviva Chomsky’s “How immigration became illegal” she tries to get Americans to understand what it might feel like trying to come to America and really shows it from an immigrant perspective.

For many decades the history of the United States and immigration has always been a very talked about topic of debate. Many Americans did not like the collision that immigrants would have upon the native-born American people, while others welcomed the flow of people as adding to America’s multiculturalism of difference. According to Immigration: Good or Bad for America (2016), a large amount of immigrants try to enter the U.S. borders without proper documentation, in this manner being labeled as illegal immigrants. In addition, the United States unusual position as a nation of immigrants is being questioned by

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

Unlawful immigration has been a generally examined topic in legislative issues in the US. Some argue that immigrants are important as they take the employments Americans don 't wish to take, and that they later ought to be offered authorization to remain in the nation. Others nonetheless, are of the sentiment that they ought to be extremely punished seeing as what they are doing is illicit, arguing that the illegal workers are taking endlessly occupations from Americans and not paying their duties. In spite of the fact that there are arguments supporting the claim that undocumented immigrants ought to be punished, there are numerous counterarguments for why they ought to be permitted to remain. Illegal migration movement has achieved such

This paper explores the United States, Immigration Policy from an historical, fair and factual perspective. The Immigration Act of 1990 States limited “unskilled workers to 10,000 a year. Skilled labor requirements and immediate family reunification were major goals. The Act continued to promote the nuclear family model, foreign-born in the US was 7%”. This paper will also explore the demographics and diversity, of immigrants, throughout the U.S. This paper includes an article form the website of the Washington, D.C., Immigration Policy Center, and American Immigration Council. This paper will examines significant research data from the Pew Research web site on Hispanic trends and immigration, around the United States. This paper will also cover numbers, facts and trends which shape the immigration policy. This paper will also include five different books written by authors concerning the immigration policy and public issues which most concern Americans. This paper will cover topics of history of social problems and the policies that address immigration, special interest groups advocacy groups, political party and supporters, social justice and ethical issues, policy outcomes of illegal immigrants and how other countries compare to the United States when dealing with immigration.

In this text, Schulkin compares our country to a lifeboat floating in the middle of a sea littered with poor people. He describes this lifeboat as being capable of accommodating only a certain amount of people and goes on to say that exceeding this limit would swamp the boat. In this comparison, he implies that illegal immigrants are the poor people littered about sea around the lifeboat (1). Every chapter is a testament to the author’s belief that America is on the verge of collapse due to illegal immigration. He argues on everything from what he calls the “illogical justification of birthright citizenship” (10) to the health concerns he claims Mexican immigrants pose towards Americans.

For example, an illegal immigrant may be working in a restaurant for over twelve hours a day, but doesn't get paid for overtime. Most importantly, some of these workers don't even know they are victimized, they even think certain level of corporal punishment from their boss is acceptable, because they used to work that way and they believe it's the way it should be. After all, they are earning much more than they used to when they were back in their original countries.

“We are nation of immigrants. Some came here willingly, some unwillingly. Nonetheless, we are immigrants, or the descendants of immigrants, one, and all. Even the natives came from somewhere else, originally. All of the people who come to this country come for freedom, or for some product of that extraordinary, illusory condition. That is what we offer here—freedom and opportunity in a land of relative plenty.” (Middletown Journal 2005)

This is an interdisciplinary work that incorporates criminology, social work, sociology, law, and anthropology. It shares the stories of individuals who have been severely affected due to the irregularities of the local, state, national and transnational immigration policies. The authors use the term nativism to illustrate the hegemony in the United States in terms of the politics and economy that according to many is being lost. They describe how immigration is being described as a crisis that is validating the War on Terrorism and Drug along on the U.S. – Mexico border. They explain how undocumented individuals are being criminalized because of this nativist ideology that has influenced and reinforced harsh policies that attach an enemy

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).

Immigration is currently a hot topic within in the United States government. Currently the United States Congress is fighting to decide the fate of the Dreamers, and the Immigration bill DACA. Like many controversial issues within the government, the Democrats and Republicans are in a disagreement on what to do. Each article, examines a different take on the current immigration reform. Bier’s main argument is that individuals who are contributing to immigration reform are ignorant, that Immigrants are not hurting the American Labor market. The next article, I examined, was written by Eric Cantor; Cantor states that although the parties each have a high stake on the decision Congress makes on DACA, there must be a decision otherwise, the law will remain status quo. Next, we look at Gessen’s article, the main argument is that immigrants should not be looked at valuable or illegal, they should not have to be talented in order to be welcome within the United States. Lastly, Vargas, an undocumented Immigrant, discusses the difficulties of being illegal within the United States, yet still shines light on the positive influences he had throughout his childhood and time in America.