current event

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Current Event #1

1) Article Title and Source

Diaz, Kevin. “Key Texas Issues Get Attention in President Trump's First State of the Union”.

Houston Chronicle, 30 Jan. 2018, www.chron.com/news/politics/texas/article/Key-

Texas-issues-get-attention-in-President-12538609.php, Accessed 3 Feb. 2018.

Mora, Sherri and William Ruger. The State of Texas: Government, Politics, and Policy. 3rd ed.,

McGraw-Hill Education, 2017.

2) Summary

The article, “Key Texas issues get attention in President Trump’s First State of the

Union” evaluates what President Trump had to say about immigration, including DACA, and

how future decisions about immigration could possibly affect the state of Texas. President

Trump mentioned in his State of the Union address a hopeful plan to give citizenship to up to

almost 2 million undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. at a young age. The article

also mentions that Donald Trump emphasized “unity” among the nation and its people (Diaz).

President Trump said, at his first State of the Union, that he wants to put new limits on legal

immigration to focus more on the citizens who are already part of the U.S. The article later says

that most Democrats in the room during the State of the Union address were not fans of the new

ideas that Trump had spoken about. The article also talks about Trump’s plans for an increase in

infrastructure and the promising future that Americans have for the next year.

3) Connection

The concept that closely ties to this article is immigration. Immigration is the “movement

of people from other countries” (Mora 24). The textbook mentions that Texas is a popular

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location for immigrants, illegal and legal, mainly because Mexico borders with Texas (Mora 25).

This article relates to immigration because Trump has plans to pull back and reduce the number

of illegal immigrants that enter the U.S. These plans include giving citizenship to 124,000 people

in Texas in exchange to receive the approval of $25 million for building a wall between Texas

and Mexico (Diaz). This article is important in displaying that immigration directly hits Texas.

With that, immigration is a controversial issue and the new ideas that are being put on the table,

could potentially affect Texas’ demographics.

4) Viewpoints

I think there are many different viewpoints to this difficult and polarizing issue.

Immigration has been important to Texas since the beginning and has ultimately made us a

Minority-Majority state (Mora 16). It is important to remember that the border of Texas moved

under each of the six flags described in Chapter 1 and many of the earliest settlers in this area

were of Spanish and Mexican descent. If the building of the wall was approved, it is possible the

state of Texas could suffer from a decline in the diversity we have and families, businesses, and

communities could suffer from this man-made obstacle. In addition, it is possible the government

is reluctant to build the wall because of how much we would have to spend on it. Economically,

trying to pay for something that not every American is for means money is being diverted from

other projects. Although these demographics could suffer, other people believe the safety and the

prevention of drugs and violence is worth building the wall. Before acting, it will be important to

understand if this is really an effective tool in reducing crime.

5) Reaction

My opinion of immigration stands between the middle of the main polarizing differences.

I understand why President Trump wants have more security, especially with how high tensions

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have been recently. The only problem is that I have a heart for people and really care for the

Dreamers here. I think it is easy to forget that DACA was made for people who were children

and had no choice but to come to the United States when they were young. To leave them in the

dark with the potential of being deported to a place that most of them have no recollection of,

would do more harm than good. I want to challenge President Trump’s idea he has to decrease

legal immigration. I think people should be given the right to immigrate legally and to put a halt

on that, seems to contradict what this country ultimately stands for. It is already difficult to

become a citizen and it would be disheartening to make it even more difficult by putting a limit

on how many people can become a citizen.