English essay

Debate on Illegal Immigration

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Controversy: Debate on Illegal Immigrants

Introduction

The immigration policy of the United States has been a topic of discussion over the last few years as the political class considers the border security concerns. This has meant that the fate of up to estimated eleven million immigrants who are undocumented lies on the balance. The fact that US President Barack Obama has offered reprieve to more than five million people has elicited a huge debate in the country and the American citizens are split as to whether the relief on deportation is the right idea. It is important that Americans get the facts right even as they argue on this divisive issue in the country. This paper basically will look at the arguments by different articles and will offer a response to those arguments as from my opinion.

Huffingtonpost.com created an article in which they highlighted the arguments that one needs as even the argument on immigration continue across the country. It is a creation of two individuals, Hank and Emily, who have contradicting stand points on this debate. Hank uses a very important term that most people may find interesting, “amnesty for illegals”. According to Plana (2014) “illegal is just illegal and one cannot be allowed to stay in the country if they broke the law”. In my opinion the president through allowing the immigrants to stay in the country is exercising his constitutional power and he is not acting as an emperor. The president has offered no amnesty to five million illegal immigrants, what he has done is to call for person to person vetting for all the immigrants and to ensure that parents to American citizens get work permit within three years. Hank has an intention of misinforming his audience by putting his argument out of context. It is my understanding that amnesty is not a clear word when it comes to immigration and therefore Hank is wrong when he thinks that the people are immune from deportation, the immigrants who are undocumented will be required to apply for relief.

The concept of living the shadows

According to Skerry (2014) “as the controversy of illegal immigrants has continued to rake emotions across the country, the image of “living the shadows” has been referred to by both sides to the debate”. There are those who advocate for the continued stay by the immigrants and they view the shadows as the cases where the undocumented immigrants have been harassed by the employers, landlords and even overzealous employers. The Americans who are against illegal immigrants are of the opinion that living in the shadows is the intruders who are making use of the public services that they are not entitled to through crimes and illicit activities.

The author here tries to show how much the debate has led to divided opinion that terms are even used and defined differently. According to him the imagery is quite misleading when it comes to the views that are concerned with this issue. The debate on immigration has been so fruitless due to the myths and misconceptions that being fueled by arguments such as this one. In this whole argument I would beg to agree with Skerry (2014) “the immigrants are not victims of anything, and they are neither perpetrators of arrogance and crime, these are individuals who have just gone as far in life to make tough choices in one risky and complicated environment”.

The choices that have been made by the immigrants have had both positive and negative consequences for the United States and for the immigrants. It is important that the policies which are to be made by the country must be able to contend with both sides of the story. The legitimate concerns which the Americans have must be considered when finding a solution to the issue of illegal immigrants but at the same time the genuine predicaments of the immigrant must be considered by the policy makers.

The pawn on political chess

An opinion poll was run on usnews.com which sought to find out whether Obama was right to offer work permit to young immigrants. There are people who have claimed that Obama has no authority to implement immigration laws that congress is not privy to. Alvarado (2015) of CNN argues “the Obama administration is using the whole issue as a political gimmick”. I would take the opinion of Alvarado as being ill advised it is true to say that Obama has got executive power to issue such decree, but that is not the solution. The action by the president is a positive step but there is a risk that this will delay reforms on the immigration policy. The young people who have had to go through the entire registration process are rightfully in their rights to get the reprieve. The only negative is that this is a policy which can only postpone the problems for this young generation and later they will get back into problems with the authority. Alvarado has a legitimate argument in the fact that a proper long term solution must come from congress and the partisan political act by the president makes the entire process even harder.

The last argument that I will bring into context is the claim by the Washington Post “fewer immigrants are now getting into the country illegally and this has changed the debate on border security”. In this article Hillary Clinton states that the government has to ensure that the detention facilities in the country are filled when illegal immigrants are arrested. This is not the solution; it is important that government should use the legal dimensions to come up with policies rather than increase patrol and spend a lot of money in technology and drones. According to Markon (2015) “commissioner of US customs and border protection the government has made tremendous progress and that the border is much more secure”. This is a tactic to move away from the issue at hand. The homeland security department has tried to use this gimmick to convince the American that they should not be concerned about immigrants.

The people have to continue pushing for policies that will ensure that this issue is buried once and for all. This side shows that are coming on through the media are importantly seen by the people in authority as weapons to divert attention. The president of the United States stated that the border has never been much secure and that the legislature should offer a means through which the unregistered immigrants to be made legal residents. The government has already sprung into action to protect some of unregistered immigrants through the use of executive actions. This shows a government that is more concerned with political action and little of legislative action. According to Markon (2015) “the federal courts have ensured that the law is up held due to resistance that has been offered”. The federal courts have therefore stopped one of the signatures by the president from moving ahead. It is important that the government should not move ahead of the law when it comes to creating a long standing solution to the debate. This according to me is the most decent thing to do by all the parties.

Conclusion

The debate on immigration by the Americans has to take a sober direction. It is important the people eliminate any form of myth, stereotype and hyperbole in order to get a lasting solution. The president and his administration must ensure that the politics opens up to a balanced solution to the entire debate. There is an option of these non documented immigrants to live in the country as permanent residents who are non citizens. They also have to understand that there is no future option of being naturalized. In coming up with a policy it is important to ensure that the predicament of non documented immigrants has been met and at the same time the ensuring that the wishes of Americans who for long time have believed that the immigrants have broken the law are upheld. The United States has to understand that addressing this issue of illegal immigrants is complex and ambiguous, and it is a complex situation in which there is an option of finding permanent solution.

References

Alvarado, T. (2015). Retrieved July 28, 2015, from http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/is-obama-right-to-grant-young-illegal-immigrants-work-permits/obamas-executive-order-is-political-theater

Markon, J. (2015, May 28). Fewer immigrants are entering the U.S. illegally, and that's changed the border security debate. Retrieved July 28, 2015, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/flow-of-illegal-immigration-slows-as-us-mexico-border-dynamics-evolve/2015/05/27/c5caf02c-006b-11e5-833c-a2de05b6b2a4_story.html

Markon, J. (2015, July 6). Calif. killing inflames debate on illegal immigrants, 'sanctuary cities' Retrieved July 28, 2015, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/calif-killing-inflames-debate-on-illegal-immigrants-sanctuary-cities/2015/07/06/8dc6eb50-241e-11e5-b72c-2b7d516e1e0e_story.html

Planas, R. (2014). Here's Every Argument You'll Need For Your Immigration Debate This Thanksgiving. Retrieved July 28, 2015, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/26/immigration-executive-action_n_6220496.html

Skerry, P. (2014). Splitting the Difference on Illegal Immigration Publications National Affairs. Retrieved July 28, 2015, from http://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/splitting-the-difference-on-illegal-immigration