Illegal Immigration Problems

Illegal immigration is a huge topic of contention in the United States today. Many people fearing for their lives tend to cross into our borders without legal documentation. They are willing to take their chances. Most of them come over from Mexico into Arizona, Texas, New Mexico and California. Immigrants from South and Central America use Mexico as their way into the U.S. Their biggest problem is what happens after they cross the border.
The current event chosen is an article written about an illegal family from Guatemala. They allowed CNN to capture their story as it unfolds. The father, Pedro, came to the U.S. in 2001. His wife, Angelica, and son, Jesus, followed him 13 years later in 2014. They came to America to live a better life and
make money to send to the rest of their family in Guatemala. They live in Mississippi but have to travel to Memphis for Angelica and Jesus’s immigration meetings. Every meeting is scary because they never know if they will be deported or if they will be granted more time by waiting to attend another appointment. The issue is that Angelica and Jesus are seeking asylum but the immigration judge said that their case does not meet the criteria. Their extended family were terrorized by kidnappings and threats but since their situation did not meet the criteria they could be deported anytime.
Angelica and Jesus have not been deported as of February 4, 2016. This article details an ongoing event but it is also an example of something that happens frequently within our country. According to Shoichet (2016), “Nationwide there are more than 430,000 cases pending in immigration court, and only about 250 judges to hear them.” That is why the immigration hearing dates keep getting pushed back for many immigrants and the majority are deported.
Assimilation, social deviance, social stratification, social control and structural functionalism are the sociological concepts that will be used to analyze the current event. Assimilation is where everyone is a part of one giant group where different cultures disappear (Chambliss, 2016, p. 208). This family wants to be like all of the other families in the U.S. They want to stay in the country and live the American dream. They want to do their part to add to society and fit in.
As explained by Chambliss (2016), “Deviance is any attitude, behavior, or condition that violates cultural norms or societal laws and results in disapproval, hostility, or sanction if it becomes known” (p.
131). Pedro, Angelica and Jesus crossing into the U.S. without going through the proper channels is against the law. Illegal immigrants are treated with hostility and threatened with deportation when they are found. They did not follow the rules and deviated from what society would consider legal.
Social stratification is the ranking of groups of people by inequality (Chambliss, 2016, p. 157). The family written about in the article are Latino. While the U.S. does not have a caste society, it does have a class society. This family could prosper and move up in society. They need to become legal residents to really have true success. They are currently in lower class society because of their status as illegal aliens.
Social control is where people try to control other people and make them conform to societies rules and norms (Chambliss, 2016, p. 147). The social control is between this family and the immigration office. The family is poor and does not have many resources to help them try to become legal. The immigration office has power over this family and dangles deportation over their
heads.
Structural functionalism is where everything within society has its place and works together to function as a whole entity (Chambliss, 2016, p. 17). Illegal immigrants have their place in U.S. society. They take a lot of menial jobs and perform them for little pay. This can also work for deportation. Illegal aliens take up jobs that legal residents could do. Deportation works as a way of removing people that may have no place in current society.
According to Chambliss (2016), “Socialization is the process by which people learn the culture of their society” (p. 81). Angelica had a hard time socializing with her co-workers to learn how to fit in with society more. She is trying to be a part of it while worrying about being made to leave the country. Jesus hopes to stay in the U.S. with his parents and continue learning about American culture.
These sociological concepts are just a few that can be applied to this article. While this family lives in fear of the unknown, they are still trying to contribute to society. This country offers them more than their country of origin. They want to stay together and live the American dream.