* Mae M. Ngai, Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America (Princeton University Press, 2004). ISBN: 9780691124292…
The United States is a diverse country that hardly leaves gaps for minorities to shine through. Immigration and Latin American immigration in particular, helps shape a picture of what a modern U.S. looks like. Over the past decades, the Mexican population in the U.S. has become increasingly diverse with regard to national origins. The book Transborder Lives: Indigenous Oaxacans in Mexico, California and Oregon by Lynn Stephen is an ethnography of Mixtecs from San Agustín Atenago and Zapotecs from Teotitlán del Valle now living in Mexico, California, and Oregon. Stephen focuses on the structural settings that frame migrant and labor relations. Through the use of interviews, she provided the readers with human relations, experiences in labor…
In The New York Times article, “Deportation Nation,” writer Daniel Kanstroom reveals the unfair side to President Obama’s Dream Act. Most Americans find it humane to allow people who were brought to the U.S. as minors to obtain residency, but are unaware of the unethical deportation of those who have committed minor crimes. His purpose is to help readers become aware that thousands of people have unfairly been deported back to dangerous countries without hope of returning to the only place they know of as home. By establishing a credible character appeal and providing emotional artistic and inartistic data, Kanstroom succeeds at creating sympathy for the immigrants that are being expulsed for nonviolent crimes they committed in the past.…
Should the United States government Renew the DACA? Every year it estimated around over 300,000 or 90 percent of immigrants are deported. Regardless of the ethicality of the people, majority of the immigrants are deported, some for overstaying by only a day, others due to a new policy established by a higher power, and sometimes for crimes. Those who come to the United States usually come on visa or in recent years have come on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. America should not judge all immigrants in the United States, no matter the race or origin because majority of immigrants in this country came legally.…
Although this is surely not an act of full on discrimination, I believe it is an unfair treatment. Many of these recipients came into this country at a very young age with no knowledge of what documented or undocumented was. Despite this minor privation all DACA recipients still have one goal, to get a degree to further themselves in this country they know as their own. In the film, historian, Ignacio M. Garcia, said in relation to Gustavo Garcia’s own hardships; “As good as they were, they saw the ceiling quite low outside their community”. As a DACA recipient, Garcia’s statement hit home. Growing up there were many things I was not able to do because I was undocumented and my family was afraid. It was not something you went around and told everyone, although today I embrace it. I was not able to get a driver’s license when everyone else did, nor was I able to apply for jobs. However, my biggest concern yet was, will I be able to attend college. With DACA I have been able to work full-time, drive legally, and attend college. However, this is only temporary. We do not know for how long we have permission to work and study here. Nor do we have any hopes of this leading to citizenship. Just as lawyer Garcia, I can also excel through my college career and earn my degree, but without citizenship not all the opportunity doors open for me to expand outside of my…
The PBS Frontline documentary “Rape in the Fields” reveals the gross atrocities of human rights violations against undocumented immigrant women throughout America’s vast farmlands. The group consists of a half-million female workers. Culturally they are from a male dominated society that migrates to the U.S. for economic opportunity. These women are underprivileged workers without access to learn English. They are unaware of American laws that protect persons from violence and crime. They are very afraid and focused on basic survival instincts. Because they are in this country illegally, they are afraid of being deported and lose their income. Fear keeps them from speaking out and uniting to make changes in their work environment.…
Immigration is never an easy subject. Sometimes, it will dictate how people perceive others because of the lack of a green card or legality in the United States. Helen Thorpe wrote and published a narrative on four girls who recently graduated high school that each has big decisions to make. For Clara and Elissa, choosing which college to attend is their main concern, and for Marisela and Yadira, applying to college is their biggest concern because they lack having a proper social security number and a green card. In Helen Thorpe’s book “Just Like Us”, she explores the different realities that these girls are facing just of attending college in America. Out of the four girls, Clara and Elissa have it easier because they are legal citizens and…
In 2013 the states were given the opportunity to expand on Medicaid under the affordable care act. With this expansion the government would pay a 100 percent for the first three years and reduce down to 90 percent over ten years. Many of the southern states chose not to expand and went on to search for private insurance companies to help cover the cost they would be losing in the future years. These states include Texas, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina, Virginia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin. Two state that are undecided is Tennessee and Indiana. Texas was all for making sure people were insured in health and wellness but they had their own idea of covering them.…
Denying DACA students the opportunity to attend college while also excluding them from states scholarship funds creates an unfair barrier to a higher education and better future. In defense of these bills the state of Missouri claims that the money they will save by denying these benefits to DACA students will reduce immigration to the state, and allow other citizens to benefit from state aid. Though these benefits to the state do not, and can not outweigh the costs to DACA students that are denied access to a higher education. With the help of private donors, the University of Missouri Kansas City was able to secure funds to cover the difference between instate and out-of-state tuition to Juan Sanchez and twenty other admitted DACA students. However, this funding only covered one semester, DACA students are forced to find another solution to pay this amount of money or quit school. The article concludes with Peleger stating “DACA beneficiary students in Missouri are confronted with a new reality: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free – but first, show me your legal…
An Oct. 8 article by The Eastern Echo explained the work Student Body President Matthew Norfleet has done to further an Eastern Michigan University “Dream Act.” This policy would give EMU Foundation scholarships to the children of illegal immigrants…
The dreamers in Nicholls’ book The Dreamers are “undocumented” immigrant youth/students activists who came to the US as children and have lived and schooled there and so, they identify as American citizens. In the year 2000, many undocumented youths from California, Massachusetts, New York, Texas, and Florida came together to fight for equal rights in America by advocating for the Dream Act. The “dreamers” were born after the Dream Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act) bill was brought to Congress to grant a legal status to undocumented immigrants. The Dreamers had big expectations and dreams about their future in the United States. Therefore, they came together with other civil rights advocates to fight their way to…
For this assignment, I thought it would be important to research the new wave of Honduran immigrants coming to America by way of Mexico and the complexity of migration, culture and education. The process of migration is incredibly complex and in many respects, traumatizing for those that have taken the journey. For Honduran immigrants, there are issues of brutality and harsh living conditions endured in ones home country and deprivation of basic resources and human rights while crossing into unsafe countries. In many instances, there is already trauma before one arrives in the US. Once here, Honduran Americans must often contend with language and economic barriers; for the Garifuna people of African descent, issues of race, language and cultural…
I am an undocumented student. Sometimes I’m called a Dreamer. Other times an illegal immigrant. But right now I’m a DACA recipient. Within a few months, I may just go back to being one of the hundreds of thousands of students that are unable obtain a driver’s license, apply for certain colleges, and find work. And on my 18th birthday, I’ll be the only one among my friends unable to vote.…
In recent years there has been a significant influx in the number of immigrants, both documented and undocumented that have come to the United States. Each immigrant has a unique story about their journey to our country. This immigrant experience still shapes the broader American story by the influence that their actions and choices have on today’s society. From trying to get jobs to helping others get jobs to the very first immigrants, their experiences have molded the foundation of our very country.…
Every year, about 2.8 million students graduate from a United States high school. They have dreams of going to college or to the military to have an opportunity to make something of their lives. However, each year, there is also a group of about 65,000 students who will not have that chance to advance in their lives (CIR_DREAM paragraph 1). They are unable to do so because they were brought to the US illegally by their parents when they were children, and have the status of an illegal immigrant. Regardless of the fact that these individuals have lived their entire lives in the US, these immigration statuses affect their ability to obtain a higher education. Although an immigrant may have been residing in the state for years, they are not allowed to receive in-state tuition for college and must pay the high out of state or the international student tuition instead. Due to the fact that they are illegal immigrants, most individuals in these families are not able to acquire jobs that pay higher than minimum wage and cannot afford to go to college because of these high tuition rates. On this essay I will explain the background of the dream act, why the dream act should be passed, what would be the possible benefits and what struggle is having in the congress.…