Immigration & Unemployment
1. Read the following and post your thoughts on it.
2. Then wait 1 day and read 2 other students' posts and comment on theirs IN SEPARATE POSTS
In 1883, Emma Lazarus wrote "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
However, today we find ourselves in a new situation. Unemployment is a serious concern and there are security issues which surround the issue of illegal immigration.
a. What should the United States' policy be toward immigration?
b. As the sons and daughters of immigrants ourselves how should we respond equitably to those who wish to come to our country today?
c. Also how should the government treat those who give aid and succor to illegal immigrants such as Christian Peacemaker Teams (http://cpt.org/) who attempt to stop the deaths of immigrants coming into this country illegally? Should they be arrested?
d. I have provided some more info below. I STRONGLY encourage you to bring in your own outside relevant info to your post. However. document it (tell us where you got it-preferably w/ a link) And remember,
BE COURTEOUS! READ THE RULES ON THE 1ST PAGE IN THE CORNER. I WILL CITE YOU & BANISH YOU FOR POSTING OBSCENE OR MATERIAL> THIS IS ESSENTIALLY A VIRTUAL CLASSROOM> DO NOT INSULT ONE ANOTHER. BE RESPECTFUL. EVEN AS YOU DISAGREE!
[a side note: CPT came in as a response to a campaign called NO More Deaths(http://www.nomoredeaths.org/) and those arrested were arrested b/c they did evacuate people who were in dire medical need.]
posted by Anonymous at 8/29/2005 07:24:00 PM
1 Comments:
The United States' policy towards immigration is very tough, and doesn't really allow many people to come into the country legally. Obviously there is a huge demand for US immigration, as you can see from the huge numbers of people entering the US illegally. If the United States would perhaps slightly loosen its current policy on immigration, there would probably be fewer people entering the US illegally. However, that decision wouldn't be very popular, given the reputation that the Mexicans have been given in several cases.
The immigrants in Mexico just want to escape from a life full of poverty and horrible living standards, and the US makes it nearly impossible to do so. That is why so many people illegally enter the US.
H.G. Wells said, "History is more and more a race between education and catastrophe."
A lot of us now know the awful prejudice and conditions our ancestors were in when they first immigrated here. The Mexicans are like that now. And now we, the descendants of awfully treated immigrants are showing the same hatred towards the new immigrants as the US-Born people did then.
And not only are we being prejudice against the immigrants, but races in general now. Why? Because people are making a huge deal about forigners "taking hard-working Americans' jobs." People are talking badly about any country that has US jobs now, and part of the reason is politics. These awful political ads make it seem totally devastating, and there's nothing we can do. But there is.
One way to keep US jobs here is to get rid of unions or make them have less power over companies. Northwest's mechanics wouldn't take a pay cut to save the company! They said that they'd rather have the company go in bankruptcy than to take a temporary pay cut! They walked off the job. However, Northwest continued operations (luckily.) The mechanics were getting paid over $70,000 a year at about $30-$35 an hour! Plus they got benefits. That doesn't make it very appealing for comapanies to have factories or a ton of jobs here in America because it isn't cost concious.
The Christian Peacemaker Teams are fine. Why should an innocent person, who is trying to improve their life and fighting to get out of poverty deserve to die? Absolutly no human being deserves to die. The CPT's are simply keeping people alive. They aren't assisting them in getting the city; they're just saving lives.
It's like a firefighter, whose job it is to save lives. Same with nurses and doctors. Now why shouldn't we be saving these innocent peoples' lives? We need to wipe away the total bias our socity, our people, our friends, and even are family put in front of us, and save people. "What goes around comes around."
"The law is reason, free from passion." - Aristotle
The above quote is true. But, there are limits to that. If the law was truly free from passion, we'd have a total mess, and chaos. The law prevents people from doing inhumane things. But the law also must conform to less passion than what people have. Because, if the law had a too much passion, the courts would always return a "not guilty" verdict. Now what lies between no passion and too much passion for the law is totally unknown. We, as citizens, must interpret this to the best of our ability. But, the law isn't always defined, like in this case. Where we're assisting others, to save their lives, but also comitting a crime at the same time.
The is no true answer to law. One can only interpret it. But, it is certainly inhumane to leave someone for dead and to punish someone for an amazing duty. It's the law vs morals, and, quite frankly, I'm not sure where I lie.
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