It was Only a Dream...

David Frum from The Week describes in his editorial how the Dream Act has become more like an actual nightmare.  Frum cannot invision the Dream Act passing during the lame-duck period, and he sees it as a political ploy to please and mobilize Hispanic voters before the 2012 elections.  Then he explains three reasons of why the Dream Act not passing is a good thing.  The first reason is that older illegal immigrants will use falsified documents to file under the Dream Act, which automatically halts deportation. He also criticizes how the Department of Homeland Security cannot use previous information from the Dream Act to deport someone.  Another fault Frum sees is that children can sponsor their parents from amnesty starting at 12 years old. Lastly, he explains how the Dream Act gives a reason to young people to come to the United States and receive amnesty.

I understand where Frum comes from with his criticism of the Dream Act, but I feel he misses the big picture of what the legislation intends to do.  If the law passes, it will help many that have seen the United States as their home since they were little, but they are not legal residents.  I feel those number of young illegal immigrants are more substantive than the number of people that will abuse the Dream Act.  Many systems in the system are misused in larger proportions (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security), yet no one seems to consider those issues when discussing the Dream Act.  If we as a country can only look at the negative consequences immigration policy will bring, I fear we will never reach a conclusion on immigration.

U.K.: Getting Things Done?

In previous posts, the U.K. and its recent stance on immigration has been making controversial news.  Now officially, the U.K. has limited the amount of non-EU immigrants allowed into their country.  They are now only admitting 22,000 immigrants into the country, which is a fifth of the immigrants allowed into the UK in 2009.  Along with this, students and family members of visa holders are being limited from 196,000 to 100,000.  Despite these numbers, David Cameron, Prime Minister, declared that 1,000 visas will be used a year to reserve spots for highly specialized individuals.  Many inside the U.K. claim that immigration needs to be under better control because of the burden on public services.

It is nice to see that the UK can pass legislation, unlike the US, but it is also discouraging to see them passing almost close to nativist policies.  One thing I cannot find myself to agree on is the restriction on non-EU students let into the country.  As we have discussed in class, one of the more beneficial aspects of globalization and immigration is the flow of ideas and cultures, and I think by restricting students, the UK is losing an opportunity to gain more knowledge as a country.  As someone who has studied there, I have seen some positive effects immigration has had on their country.  They have even adopted curry as their unofficial national food.

Another Political Cartoon

In looking back at this semester, one important aspect I have learned is that cartoons, like this above, are myths.  This cartoon depicts that Mexicans do not want to assimilate as Americans, and they are hypocrites for stating they want to be Americans.  Obviously, all three of our books we have read have proven that this just is not the case.  For example, Leo Chavez in his book discusses the language barrier and how that Mexicans have learned English over the generations, just like other immigrant groups have done in the past.  Hopefully, people can see past the argument that Latino immigrants do not want to assimilate into American culture because that is obviously not the issue.  This country needs to figure out an effective immigration policy that does not allow for silly arguments, like assimilation, to happen.

Is it possible?

Following up with the remarks of Bill Richardson, The Los Angeles Times reported that the White House, along with the senate, are pushing for the Dream Act Legislation during this lame duck period.  The article explains that some, including immigration expert Angela Kelley, see this legislation as a good strategy for both the Democrats and Republicans.  Another political analyst, Javier Ortiz, does not see the need for Republicans to pass the legislation.  He explains that Latinos will vote for Republicans independent from immigration reform.

I found this article interesting because we have discussed in class the Dream Act passing during the lame duck period.  Overall, I think it would help both parties to pass this legislation because the Democrats will not appear so defeated, and it looks like the Republicans will work towards bi-partisanship in the next two years.  I honestly do not think Ortiz's point on Latino voters will always hold true.  The reelection of Harry Reid over Sharron Angle demonstrates that Democrats still do benefit tremendously from the Latino demographic.  I think what Congress decides to do with this legislation will set the tone on immigration reform for the next two years.  If it passes, I hope that the politicians can work to pass more immigration reform under the new Republican-run House, but if the Dream Act fails to go through, I do not believe we will see any reform for at least two more years.

Does Reform Have a Chance Now?

Something we have discussed in class is the chance of immigration reform passing during Congress's lame duck period.  Bill Richardson vocalized he believes that immigration policy change has a better chance of passing now than it did with the Democrat-run Congress before.  He stated that he feels Republicans might be more open towards the idea because they do not want to become a party that says no to every piece of legislation.  Despite this hope, he explained that it was legislation still had awhile to go.

I have to agree with Richardson that the chances are better.  A big reason the Dream Act failed was because it was too controversial for an election year.  Now that the election has finished, I hope that both parties have the will to create some bi-partisanship legislation that deals with immigration.

SB 1070's Effects

SB 1070 still had an affect on Latinos in Arizona, with around 100,000 leaving Arizona since the passing of the law.  It is estimated that around a forth of those moved back to Mexico, and the report did not include who was legal residents or not.  The report conducted also included that these migrations will actually hurt Arizona's economy.  The rest of the article goes on to explain SB 1070 and immigration law.

Even though many parts of SB 1070 were struck down, I feel the supporters of the bill are still reaping the benefits.  The law intended to scare illegal immigrants away, but unfortunately this report does not show how many legal residents left because of the legislation, also.  I also found it interesting that the report included an economic take on this massive migration because that is definitely an unfortunate side effect to cracking down on immigration.

Immigration and Sexism

Currently, the Supreme Court is hearing a case, where the defendant claims part of United State's Immigration Laws are gender discriminatory.  The law states U.S. citizen, unwed mothers can transfer their citizenship to their child if the child lives in the U.S. for just one year.  U.S. citizen, unwed fathers, on the other hand, need to have their child living in the U.S. for five years in order for the child to receive citizenship.  Ruben Flores-Villar is challenging this law because he was denied legal status, despite his father being a U.S. citizen.  Currently, he is claiming this law violates the 5th amendment.  The article also discusses how the justices appeared to feel with Sotomayor, Breyer, and Ginsburg appearing sympathetic.

I am not sure how this case will play out, but Chief Justice Roberts said the only way to fix this constitutionally was to "equalize" the law.  Overall, I feel the law does not make sense because it is completely biased towards mothers.  Personally, I feel it should be one year, regardless of the parent's sex.  I think it would be too difficult to move the mother's requirement up to five years.

Wrap-Up of Immigration in 2010 Midterm Elections

Here is a video from the New York Times; Lawrence Downes and David Shipley discuss how immigration has played out in this past election.




They discuss many issues that we have already covered in class.  Downes not only goes into the negativity surrounding immigration during the election, but he specifically acknowledges the extreme scare tactics that Sharron Angle used during her election.  He also discusses Obama's role, and he summarizes how Obama has made a substantial and clear stance on immigration reform but lacks in actual action.

I think this video was informative to watch from the standpoint of post-election.  I feel all these issues that have been discussed in this video and in class are unfortunately going to drop out of the pressing political discourse.  This may become beneficial to actually having something done in Washington, but it also might cause more apathy since the issue is not so pressing.

Something's Getting Done?

In the U.S., one of the biggest issues of immigration is the lack of changing the actual policy.  This is not a problem in the United Kingdom since they recently enacted a new immigration policy there.  A pivotal aspect of this legislation is to limit the amount of international students not studying in elite universities, such as Oxford and Cambridge.  As someone that did an exchange program over there with one of their standard universities, I was really disappointed to hear this piece of news.  I met some exceptional international students over at my school Leeds Met, and it is a shame that the opportunity might not be extended to them anymore.  I would be ashamed if the United States adopted a policy to lessen the amount of international students to come here and study.  I feel this kind of migration in the world is a great way for not only people to learn about different cultures, but it also helps exchange ideas and philosophies that might of not been discovered before.  I really hope the international students in the U.K. really push for the parliament to repeal this act because I do not feel this is the way to accurately address their increase in immigration.