Immigration Paper

From the air we breathe to the food we eat, we as people are all the same. Whether it may be light skin or dark skin, characteristics in which make us different on the outside differ, not because we want it to, but because of our ancestral history. History shows us that because of a person's location, adaptation to that location occurs.For instance, history shows us that people of darker skin are found in countries closer to the equator because more pigment is needed in a persons genetic makeup In order to withdraw themselves from the various diseases and effects that may be obtained from standing in the sun for an extended period of time. There are several causes and disparities of external traits or appearances that divide us Into several groupings or categories which are called â€Å"races. † In other words, races categorize people through socially significant hereditary traits.With the has been defined differently all throughout history. These indistinct interpretations ef fect the way one approaches the topic. Racism can broadly be defined as a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement; usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others. Racism and discrimination being the acts of ones prejudicial thoughts can lead us to believe that discrimination based on someone's ethnicity occurs everywhere.From the houses or apartments we live in to the shoes we wear anything and everything is a reflection of ethnic discrimination. For example, in America we have a capitalistic economy. In a capitalistic economy entrepreneurs profit off of work done by others who are hired to do the Jobs that business owners do not want to do. Statistics show that Jobs such as farming, cleaning, plumbing, etc. Are done by minorities while the superior race who is usually a white male gains a vast majority of profit due to many hours worked and low pay. Racism, a n ideology that is taught not born with, is present throughout the labor force.Ethnic discrimination is used to maintain balance throughout the division of labor. As stated previously in a capitalistic economy every Job requires someone of a Geiger position. No matter what Job title a person may have there is always someone of higher power. With that said, the workers who usually do the low end Jobs are usually Latino and African-Americans who are a minority race in America the land we call a democratic territory, though many beg to differ. Everywhere we look serves as a primary example to ethnic discrimination.This can be illustrated when stepping foot into a McDonald's seeing almost every worker of colored skin working six to twelve hours, still having trouble having a place to sleep, and knowing that the rooters Richard and Maurice McDonald are multi billionaires off of the work done by mostly minorities. Ethnicity: I am Spanish. I am White. I am Black. I am of Korean decent. I a m British. I don't have race or culture. Comments such as these are every day examples of how many people view their race and identity. Even though many people are unsure of what it truly means to have culture we make claims about it on a daily basis.Some feel they have a race while others simply feel they do not. We include based on who fits into this ideal and exclude those who do not. The fact of the matter is that culture is employ, learned through every day experience, conflicting and contradictory, relational because it is learned through interactions with others, and per formative, as our interactions are performances with public domain, is something that people never seem to think about, until we are put in a situation, in which we then become aware that we are different.Our knowledge of culture, ethnicity and identity is subconsciously internalized on a daily basis through constant social interactions. Although the concepts of race and ethnicity are socially constructed, th ey are real in their consequences. Their affects on the social world can be seen from my very own how Vive come to view my own sense of identity. As an adoptive child of white decent in a Hispanic family which lived in a predominately African American neighborhood I noticed many things as a child that allowed me to constantly become aware that I was different.Through interactions with peers in my elementary school, I noticed my hair was different; my color was a lot lighter than most, and that I was overall different. â€Å"Look who has nice shiny hair† were comments that lingered through my Junior high school days, where I struggled o fit in by shaving my head and dressing a certain way. Although I longed to feel a part of a certain group I kept sane by hanging with people of similar background. We were all ethnically similar in the sense that we all derived from Hispanic households. Based on this exclusion, ethnic symbols such as Spanish music and dancing were what set us a part and defined us.Not only was this alienation felt among my peers and myself, but it was also felt inside the classroom. Growing up I never quite felt that I could speak up in class and show my outgoing personality at such a young age n fear that people would make fun of me. I knew I was different and did not want to cause them to focus their attention on that difference. For projects in school, I would always take the role that required speaking the least, so that I wouldn't have to speak in front of them. I got along with everybody, but was not truly myself until I set foot inside my home, my private domain.At home I could eat all the rice and beans I wanted to without the fear of abandonment. Moving on to high school it was as if there was a shift from being ashamed of my race and culture to embracing it and wanting to showcase it. It was overnight, and I don't think that there was ever a time where I Just changed overnight, but it was definitely a process of starting to becom e comfortable in my own skin and being surrounded in an ethnic school with different cultures, and not Just whites, that allowed me to really embrace my racial difference. High school whether subconscious or not, racial sub-cultures emerge.In high school, cliques are formed on that very aspect of ethnicity and culture. People hang out with people that look like them, that dress likes them, and who they feel they can relate to. It was high school where I truly Egan to have a sense of my Hispanic culture. I ate all the rice and beans, danced to salsa and meringue, and sang along to Marc Anthony and Victor Manuel. It was only there that my true outgoing and friendly personal came out. I became more a more active participant in the school. For instance, becoming part of committees such as film club, debate club, and music club. Also big part of the swim team.Although I associated with all races, I took pride in hanging with my friends in my ethnic group. Only there we could talk about t he latest of our countries. The newfound confidence in my culture had a lot to do with media presentations. Despite the embedded racism towards Hispanics and African Americans on television, when growing up Hispanic artists had become increasingly popular, and so had urban culture. Spanish music had been brought back to light, and it had taken my fear of being different with it. Not only did I listen to it, I made it apart of me and welcomed it with open arms.When I watched television though I look nothing like the Hispanic people on television I knew I was apart of them because of the family I had been growing up in. I related to the culture. The culture have respect for it. Not only did media representations of black culture help me to understand my identity, it also helped redefine it. What I through it meant to belong to my Hispanic culture had begun to change. â€Å"Why can't you dance to Meringue? â€Å", â€Å"Can't talk Spanish? † , were common questions that were m ade to me as I moved up in my high school years.I began to feel stigmatize by my own Hispanic people. No I had to work twice as hard because I didn't fit in with the whites, and I didn't fully fit in with the Hispanics. For whites, I was to loud, liked too much Spanish music and had a style that was too â€Å"ghetto'. So again, I began to have doubts as to where I fit in. My university years were where I surrounded myself with other adoptive students who were able to relate, and find a true sense of identity. It is now since I am older and in university do I understand the power the media had in reinforcing stereotypes and maintaining social inequalities.It is this aspect do I continue to four struggles with today. As I am plagued with images of Hispanic women pregnant, speaking in slang, fighting, and in music videos half naked. Only within the last few years have I come to understand why I was struggling with fitting in. It is because the media portrays how they perceive the majo rity of Hispanic women. We get caught up in their misconceptions, and Just buy into what we think we are destined to become. The media leaves out the successful Hispanics who have struggled to make their life one worth living.Immigration: In 21st century America, illegal immigration is an issue at the forefront of many a debate. While people have always unlawfully crept across borders, recent history has seen no such wave of this crime as has been on display in the USA over the last few decades. Stemming from Central and South America, primarily Mexico, the flow of â€Å"border mummers† has increased substantially, and continues to do so, despite the efforts of border patrols and organizations such as Americans for Legal Immigration, Americans for Immigration Control, and the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps.According to the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) estimates of the illegal immigration population, between 1990 and 2000 the amount of illegal immigrants to the US rose at an average of 350,200 people every year, doubling the nation's entire illegal population. ‘ The amount of illegal immigrants has become so vast that since the mid-sass the umber of people entering the US illegally has surpassed that of their legal counterpart. Ii In 2000, INS estimates had the number of illegal immigrants from Mexico alone at 4,808,000, more than 60% of total Mexican immigrants. Ii By amount of illegal immigrants, the next 9 source countries combined provide less than a quarter of the people Mexico does. One of the most significant impacts of illegal immigration in the US has been crime. According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on incarcerated arrested a total of 459,614 times, averaging about 8 arrests per illegal alien. They were arrested for a total of about 700,000 criminal offenses, averaging about 13 offenses per illegal alien. 49% had previously been convicted of a felony, 20% of a drug offense; 18% a violent offense, and 11%, other felony offenses. 1% of the arrests occurred after 1990 56% of those charged with a reentry offense had previously been convicted on at least 5 prior occasions. Defendants charged with unlawful reentry had the most extensive criminal histories. 90% had been previously arrested. Of those with a prior arrest, 50% had been arrested for violent or drug-related felonies. Iv Note the â€Å"reentry offense† in the last two statistics. There are criminals who had already been convicted of crimes and deported on previous occasions, only to return illegally and continue a life of crime.According to the US Justice Department, over the course of 2003 an estimated 270,000 illegal immigrants served Jail time throughout the country. Of those, 108,000 were in California, the state that suffers the most from crime on the part of illegal immigrants. According to an Urban Institute study, 17% of America's prison population at a federal level consists of illegal aliens, an astounding f igure, engendering they only make up 3% of the US population. Former California Gob. Pete Wilson places the percentage of illegal aliens in U. S. Prisons even higher, at 20%.The incessant illegal immigrant crime wave shows no signs of slowing down, and the US government is not taking serious enough prevention measures. According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, citing US Justice Department statistics, â€Å"In March 2000, Congress made public Department of Justice statistics showing that, over the previous five years, the INS had released over 35,000 criminal aliens instead of deporting them. Over 11,000 of those released went on to commit serious crimes, over 1,800 of which were violent ones [including 98 homicides, 142 sexual assaults, and 44 kidnappings]. While many deported aliens reenter the country, it is a daunting enough task to prevent some from doing so a second time, and undoubtedly is a more effective measure in prevention than simply releasing them on to the streets, where crime in their demographic is prevalent. Part of the reason for such an enormous amount of crimes carried out by illegal aliens is the ease with which they can obtain assistance and backing from gangs, cost notable Mar Cultural, otherwise known as MS-13.Created in the sass by a group of Salvadoran peasants trained in guerilla warfare, MS-13 has become possibly Central America's greatest problem, and a growing one in the United States. Since â€Å"precise† statistics are impossible to obtain, the true strength of MS-ass's presence in America is unknown, but estimates claim over 15,000 members in over 115 cliques in 33 states, and these numbers are ever growing. Unlike Mafias of the past, where there was at least some code of conduct, MS-13 has become infamous for their depravity and brutality, not limiting themselves in any way.As noted in press releases by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, in 2003 multiple members of MS-13 were deported for the sexual assault of 2 minors, aged 16 and 17, displayed this brutality with the killing of children. V Physical harm caused by illegal aliens does not only come in the form of outright crime. Of 71 fatal car accidents on the Eastern Shore since 2002, thirteen were caused by illegal aliens, all but three of which had no insurance. In most cases, the vehicles had no inspection stickers, the drivers carried no license and alcohol was a factor.To anyone with common sense this comes as no surprise, seeing as one who displays contempt for the law by illegally entering the country, will probably show the same lack of respect toward any other laws, such as those put in place to keep US drivers safe. As well, there is the factor of diseases that are not endemic to the United States being spread by illegal aliens, who cross the border unscreened. Diseases either no longer existent in America, or seen only rarely, have seen comebacks or growth, including Malaria, Dengue, Leprosy, Hepatit is A-E, Chaos Disease, Sadomasochists,Guiana Worm Infection, Whooping Cough, Streptococci, Morsel's, Tuberculosis and HIVE. Malaria has seen recent outbreaks in New Jersey, New York City, Houston, and California, although it was eradicated from the US in the sass. Dengue, a disease heretofore unknown in the US, has now been recognized in a few outbreaks. In the 40 years prior to 2002, only 900 cases of Leprosy had been recorded in the US. From 2002 to 2005, that number ballooned to 9,000, most of which were illegal aliens.In 2004, more than 650 people contracted Hepatitis A at a single Mexican restaurant in Pennsylvania, four of whom died. Chaos disease is endemic to Central and South America, and until recently was unknown in the United States; current estimates show up to 500,000 people infected with it, mostly illegal aliens. Tuberculosis is a highly contagious disease that kills approximately 2 million people around the world each year, and is spread in the same fashion as the c ommon cold.The United States has one of the lowest Tuberculosis rates in the world, whereas Mexico is 10 times higher. As if that wasn't bad enough, a few years ago a Multi-Drug-Resistant (MAD) strain of TAB has emerged, that is resistant to all tankard antibiotics, and treatment can cost between $250,000 and $1 per person. According to one expert, in 2005, of the 407 known cases of MAD-TAB in California, 84% were in â€Å"foreign born† patients, mostly from Mexico and the Philippines who had been in America less than 5 years.According to the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2006 a newer strain was recognized, referred to as CDR-TAB (Extensive/Extreme Drug Resistant), which, as of late 2006, accounted for 4% of all US MAD-TAB cases, and is virtually incurable regardless of cost. While exact numbers for HIVE infected illegal aliens are impossible to obtain, due to he fact that researchers rarely ask one's citizenship status, what is known is that in California there are roug hly 2 HIVE infected Latin women for every infected Caucasian woman. The criminal ramification of so many illegal immigrants plays a role in the financial effect as well.Between 2001 and 2004, the Federal Bureau of Prisons' cost to incarcerate illegal aliens rose from about $950 million to about $1. 2 billion. As this is federal spending, it is money obtained through taxation, essentially leaving law- incarcerated illegal aliens deported, federal spending could drop more than $1 lions dollars a year, by all means a small move toward pulling the country out of debt, but a move nonetheless. The sheer mass of humanity pouring over the borders is something that cannot be withstood by America's financial means, and it's starting to show. In August 2009, the unemployment rate in America peaked at 9. %, more than double the 4. 6% of Just 2 years earlier, partly due to the fact that illegal immigrants have taken many Jobs once held by taxpaying American citizens. These illegal laborers have little trouble finding Jobs, especially those requiring little to no special skills, since they are willing o work for little, and their employment is under-the-table, saving employers money that would otherwise be spent on employee benefits and taxes. In the US, illegal immigrants currently make up 20% of cooks, 25% of construction laborers, 22% of maids/housekeepers, 25% of grounds maintenance workers, and 29% of agricultural workers.The combined total Jobs now unavailable to taxpaying Americans Just in these 5 professions exceeds 1. 72 million! Viii As if the direct financial ramifications of illegal immigrants taking Jobs from citizens weren't enough, taxpaying Americans are all but forced into financial benison by the second half of the coin. Due to millions of dollars in taxes not being paid due to illegal immigrants being paid off the books, taxes are hiked up to compensate for the drop in money being obtained by the government through taxation.So, while the illegal alien has a Job that pays him in cash, and no taxes to pay, the unemployed American citizen is now forced to pay higher tax rates without any income, which by definition can only lead to financial ruin, and subsequent reliance on the government for sustenance. A vast majority of those who advocate amnesty for illegal aliens are liberal Democrats, whose central political belief is that of a powerful government, and perhaps the fact the sudden influx of humanity would force more people into reliance on federal aid is precisely why.Amnesty for illegal aliens is, in concept, a beautiful, humanitarian idea. The argument usually flows along the lines of how poor, unskilled, uneducated workers from foreign countries only want to legally succeed, and support families, and become law abiding citizens who can better society. Statistics, however, quickly disprove this by displaying the truth behind the scourge of illegal immigrants. How their blatant, overall lack of respect for the nation's laws harms Americans financially and physically. How even after being arrested, or deported, they continue to break the law with little regard to possible consequences.As well, advocates for amnesty refuse to realize the practical impossibility of it. If amnesty to all illegal aliens was granted, the economy would not be able to provide nearly enough Jobs (as we are now seeing). Thanks to â€Å"anchor babies† (babies born in the US to illegal alien parents, so that the baby will be US citizen by birth, thus asking deportation of its parents all but impossible), millions of dollars are doled out by the government every year to illegal aliens to care for their US citizen children in the form of WICK, food stamps, and welfare.If the parents of these children were all suddenly legalized, welfare and food stamps would be handed out for them as well, raising government spending, and vicariously all taxpaying citizens would suffer by sustenance to families that would prefer to suckle at the t eat of the American government than to go out and work for a living. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people pour into America unlawfully. They upriver Americans of Jobs, receive government benefits that cost every taxpaying citizen, bring diseases, steal, assault, kill, drive recklessly, over-populate our prisons, and generally ignore the law.They come in such swarms that the entire American culture has been forced to bend to their will, with every large corporation and government agency now offering Spanish versions of all their services. They make life for American citizens financially difficult, and infuriate many with their brazen attitude toward learning English, with the belief that things must be available to them in Spanish. They make America a more dangerous place for all. Illegal immigration is a plague, and like all other plagues throughout history, it must be quashed quickly and decisively.Conclusion: All in all, we are all people. We all aspire to be something. Des pite the facts that show the negatives upon minorities, they are forced into situations in which they cannot control or have a hard time in doing so because of racism. Racism puts them in an environment in which violence is constantly around them. Without the absence of racism and the acceptance of people into a new world in which is made for all and not Just some, there will never be a world which can prosper.