Immigration Reform In Huck Finn

Jim is a slave and he overhears his owner talking about swelling him again, so out of fear, he runs away in opes to find freedom. Huckleberry Finn, on the other hand, runs away partly because he doesn't like his home situation and partly because he is looking for an adventure. During the novel, Huck and Jim eventually meet up and go on the adventure to find a new home together and to escape slavery together. When Jim and Huck talk about being free, “it made him all over trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom. Well, i can tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, because i begun to get it through my head that he was almost free.” (Twain 110). The two boys eventually meet up with Tom Sawyer, who wants to
help Jim become free. At one point, Tom says, “Turn him loose! He ain't no slave, he's as free as any cretur that walk this earth!” (Twain 291). This is a very important part in the novel because it shows that Jim deserves to live in a happy place where he is accepted and not a hostile place where he is not. This is also true for immigrants and refugees trying to get out of their country.
Another example of a different form of immigration is in the novel Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. In this novel, the main character, Chris McCandless, feels like the place he is living doesn't make him happy, so he decides to change that. He becomes a nomad, moving all throughout the United States and living off either the wilderness or money that he makes doing odd jobs. McCandless came from a middle class family and got a college education, however, none of this made him feel complete. He abandoned his car and left all of his belongings to start a new life. He traveled all around the western part of America, only staying in one place for a few months. He was most excited to finally travel through the wilderness of Alaska, this was going to be his final adventure before possibly returning home. In the novel, one of the people being interviewed for the book describes McCandless before going to Alaska by saying, “The word that comes to mind is excited. He couldn’t wait to head out there and get started.” (Krakauer 6). This adventure unfortunately turned fatal and Chris McCandless died while on his expedition. This is a prime example of immigration because this person is leaving everything they know behind and even risk their lives in order to make a new life for themselves. In the novel, the author describes Alaska by saying, “Alaska has long been a magnet for dreamers and misfits, people who think the unsullied enormity of the Last Frontier will patch all the holes in their lives.” (Krakauer 4). This might be what people outside america think that america actually is, even though this is not very true. America is definitely a place for dreamers and idealists but at the same time, it is also a place for realists because not everyone who wants to achieve the American Dream actually does it.
Immigration reform if a very important topic in today's society because it has a lot of flaws and as a nation, we are not upholding the ideals that we were built on.
We are receiving way too many illegal immigrants who come to the country and stay without any visas or citizenship papers. Illegal immigration is a huge problem because these people cost the government over 113 billion dollars a year (Trump 287). This is way too expensive and we need to find ways to bring this number down. In one of his campaign speeches, our republican candidate, Donald Trump, talks about this issue and gives alternative options on different ways to fix it. He proposes, “On day one, we will begin working on as impenetrable physical wall on the southern border.” and he adds, “Mexico will pay for the wall.” (Trump 287-288). This is a very idealistic approach to the illegal immigrant problem, however it will not solve many problems at all. Not all illegal immigrants are from Mexico. An immigration article by the New York Times titled, “Here’s the Reality About Illegal Immigrants in the United States” states that about half of the 11 million illegal immigrants are from Mexico, however the other half are from countries such as, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and China (Yee, Davis, and Patel). This shows that we stereotype mexicans as being in the country illegally, when in reality, there are many people from other countries that you wouldn't even think about. President Trump also has a
tendency to villainize illegal immigrants too by painting them as murderers and burglars. In his speech he talks about how the Government Accountability Office reports that illegal immigrant and non citizens have about 25,000 homicide arrests (Trump 287). However, in Yee’s article, she gives the fact that only about 7.5% have been convicted of a crime and only 2.7% of these people have been convicted of a felony (Yee, Davis, and Patel). This shows the wrong information being given to the citizens and voters to try to make them become scared of illegal immigrants and in turn, make them leave the country, which they call home.
Recently, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, passed an executive order suspending immigrants and refugees from certain countries in the Middle East.
these countries include Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, and Iraq (Rothwell and Krol). All these countries main religions were the Muslim worship. This ban suspends the entering of the United States from these countries for 90 days (Rothwell and Krol). This is very bad because our country was built on immigrants with different backgrounds and religions coming together and putting aside their differences in order to build a nation that would accept anyone from anywhere with and religion. There are also many conflicts of interest in this ban as well. President excluded countries who he has done business or potentially done business prior to his presidency from the ban. These countries include Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (Rothwell and Krol). This is a conflict of interest because President Trump claims this ban is to put more security on people who live in the Middle East (of Muslim religion) so that we have a lower chance of a terrorist attack, however, we have never had a terrorist who came from the countries what were banned, they have all came from the countries who aren't banned. This ban is only used to keep out muslims who the people in high government feel don't belong here, when in reality, anyone who wants to live here and contribute to our nation belongs
here. Many citizens are very opposed to this ban and there have been many protests because of it. Many big companies are also speaking out against this Muslim ban aswell, including Budweiser, Starbucks, and Coca-Cola (Gutiérrez 28-29). Budweiser released a commercial and the main plot of it was a man named Adolphus Busch came to America without a green card and he originally wasn't accepted by and of the citizens here but then he made a friend and together they made Budweiser, one of the biggest beer companies in the country (Gutiérrez 28). This is a protest to the ban because it shows how people from other countries who may not seem to bring much to the table, or they may seem like a threat, can turn out to be essential to our economy and contribute to our country in huge ways. Starbucks promised to hire 10,000 refugees to their stores in order to speak out on this ban and Coca-Cola released a statement speaking out on the ban also (Gutiérrez 29).
Although we may have trouble with the issue of immigration to our country and who we let into our country, we must not let fear of it cloud our judgments on what we know is right and we must uphold our ideals as a nation. Our immigration system is very flawed and biased and many changed need to be enforced in order to make it more fair for everyone. In light of this, we must be accepting of people who are immigration to America and we must help them feel like our home is their home and that we will treat everyone fairly, whether they were born here or not. This country will never grow and thrive without new people and new ideas, we should welcome those people and ideas because we never know what they might accomplish in their time in our country.