Nicholas Jennings
Coach Clark’s 9th grade humanities
12-6-15
Solving the undocumented immigrant crisis
A family living in Mexico is forced to go to america because of gang violence in their town. They don’t have the time to become citizens of the US so they are given another set of rules that make them still pay most taxes but don’t get any special benefits. Meanwhile, a secret agent from England is coming to the country for a classified mission. He slips past all airport security and, because of his expert skills, no one knows he’s even in the country. Which one of these is an example of someone being undocumented? Trick Question. Both would be considered undocumented by the US government. This strange misleading of information is present in other places concerning ‘undocumented’ immigration as well: from the anti-immigrationist core reasoning, to one of the reason a Mexican family would head to america in the first place. The issue of the american immigration crisis seems to have split the country, and is a go-to topic in the current presidential race. It’s tricky because while people are coming into the country without the proper papers and breaking the law, their reasons for doing so make sense. While some believe america should increase border security and stop immigrants from coming, others believe in letting more people through and provide easier ways for an undocumented immigrant to become a citizen. The US should make it easier for working immigrants to come to the country legally, but in order to integrate them successfully they first need to re-format the phrases they use and use more facts when discussing undocumented immigrants.
One of the prime offenders of spreading misleading information is so partially because it seems the correct term at first. In fact, although it is usually considered a socially acceptable option, the term ‘undocumented immigrants’ still spreads false information and needs to be changed. The Merriam-Webster defines the word ‘undocumented’ as “not supported by documentary evidence”, however it has an alternate definition for cases involving immigration: “lacking documents required for legal immigration or residence”. So when talking about immigration ‘undocumented’ means the immigrant doesn’t have certain documents, but when talking about anything else ‘undocumented’ mean an outside source has no documents on a subject. This sudden change in definition explains why some people might think undocumented immigrants don’t pay taxes; If the immigrants were undocumented in the standard definition they wouldn’t have to pay taxes because no one would know they were in the country. However because of a sudden switch in definition, resulting in who is implied to be missing the documents to change when talking about immigrants, ‘undocumented becomes the correct term. By simply changing the definition of a word in certain situations, we have spread a lie that is one of the central topics of many immigration debates. Thus, in order to successfully integrate undocumented immigrants into a society that truly accepts them, the American people first have to change labels such as ‘undocumented’ to something more reflective of the truth.
‘Undocumented’ isn’t the only offence, the popular phrase “Immigrants are taking our jobs” also causes a lot of argument and slows the government process due to it’s use of the word ‘our’. A popular phrase used by many, including Donald trump in his Phoenix rally https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPED92gRpsY, is that ‘immigrants are taking our jobs’. The use of the word ‘our’ suggests that everyone’s affected by this, but a CIS study shows that immigrants mostly compete with young people, minorities, and people with low education. Overall the study says that immigration has a very small positive effect on the economy. This data shows that, if you are a well educated person who’s had a job for a while, you aren’t the type of person who should have to worry that an immigrant taking your job. The argument can still be made that immigrants could be taking some jobs, but using the word ‘our’ suggests that all jobs are at stake which paints a different picture than what’s actually happening and distracts people from the facts that the immigration crisis is mostly an ethics issue. Thus, through a misinterpretation of statistical information, the use of the word ‘our’ makes people needlessly defensive and can hinder an otherwise reasonable conversation. The fact that the biggest argument against a more humanitarian border system is simply incorrect is huge, and pointing out the anti-immigration arguments failure of logic is an important step to get any bill passed.
The misinformation doesn’t stop there. In fact, the current undocumented immigrant crisis is in part caused by the lack of outreach and fact sharing from the USA. In the movie “Which Way Home”, when asked about America, Kevin, one of the unaccompanied minors coming to america, says he imagines america as a big city like he’s seen in the movies. When he makes it to america he says it wasn’t what he expected at all, and someone else in the documentary even says coming to america wasn’t worth it. A similar situation happens in The Circuit By Francisco Jiménez: the narrator’s father and older brother tell him that life will be better in once they cross the border, but they find things are much different than expected once they cross the border. These accounts show that many undocumented immigrants that come to the US have received false information about the country. They are heading towards the promise of safety and a better life when currently that’s not always possible. In both examples the undocumented immigrants learned about America not from facts, but from stories. If the migrants had been told the facts about america, the same facts they learned the hard way when they got here, it is likely they might re-think their decision. One can clearly see that somehow the US isn’t conveying the truth about itself to many of the people who want to go there, if they were to try harder to do so they might be able to fix some of the grizzliest stories of undocumented immigration.
The US needs to make the facts about undocumented immigration more clear and needs to to use less misleading terms when talking about immigration in order to increase acceptance of undocumented immigrants and provide a path to citizenship. The US has discussed the issue of undocumented immigrants for a long time, but it’s government has never come to an agreement because there has always been a considerable amount of people on both sides of the issue, meanwhile Millions of immigrants struggle through terrible conditions in coming to, and staying in, the US. The solution to this issue cannot be made if politicians continue to use opinions in their debates. They should be spreading facts and understanding to the american people, not perpetuating rumors. Humans, as a species, prefer to listen to what they already believe in, rather than the opposing side, the only way to combat this is by using undeniable facts. Even If the government decided to provide a path-to-citizenship solution, so long as there are misinformed americans, the undocumented migrants will continue to face social problems within the country. The only way to end this argument once and for all is to show it for what it is. The sources above have shown that undocumented immigrants don’t come to the US to take advantage of our system, and that overall their effect on the economy is minimal but positive. In the end it comes down to a humanitarian issue: Should the US let people seeking refuge or pursuing a better life come to the country, or should it let them die because just they didn’t have enough time or resources to fill out a barrage of documents?
Coach Clark’s 9th grade humanities
12-6-15
Solving the undocumented immigrant crisis
A family living in Mexico is forced to go to america because of gang violence in their town. They don’t have the time to become citizens of the US so they are given another set of rules that make them still pay most taxes but don’t get any special benefits. Meanwhile, a secret agent from England is coming to the country for a classified mission. He slips past all airport security and, because of his expert skills, no one knows he’s even in the country. Which one of these is an example of someone being undocumented? Trick Question. Both would be considered undocumented by the US government. This strange misleading of information is present in other places concerning ‘undocumented’ immigration as well: from the anti-immigrationist core reasoning, to one of the reason a Mexican family would head to america in the first place. The issue of the american immigration crisis seems to have split the country, and is a go-to topic in the current presidential race. It’s tricky because while people are coming into the country without the proper papers and breaking the law, their reasons for doing so make sense. While some believe america should increase border security and stop immigrants from coming, others believe in letting more people through and provide easier ways for an undocumented immigrant to become a citizen. The US should make it easier for working immigrants to come to the country legally, but in order to integrate them successfully they first need to re-format the phrases they use and use more facts when discussing undocumented immigrants.
One of the prime offenders of spreading misleading information is so partially because it seems the correct term at first. In fact, although it is usually considered a socially acceptable option, the term ‘undocumented immigrants’ still spreads false information and needs to be changed. The Merriam-Webster defines the word ‘undocumented’ as “not supported by documentary evidence”, however it has an alternate definition for cases involving immigration: “lacking documents required for legal immigration or residence”. So when talking about immigration ‘undocumented’ means the immigrant doesn’t have certain documents, but when talking about anything else ‘undocumented’ mean an outside source has no documents on a subject. This sudden change in definition explains why some people might think undocumented immigrants don’t pay taxes; If the immigrants were undocumented in the standard definition they wouldn’t have to pay taxes because no one would know they were in the country. However because of a sudden switch in definition, resulting in who is implied to be missing the documents to change when talking about immigrants, ‘undocumented becomes the correct term. By simply changing the definition of a word in certain situations, we have spread a lie that is one of the central topics of many immigration debates. Thus, in order to successfully integrate undocumented immigrants into a society that truly accepts them, the American people first have to change labels such as ‘undocumented’ to something more reflective of the truth.
‘Undocumented’ isn’t the only offence, the popular phrase “Immigrants are taking our jobs” also causes a lot of argument and slows the government process due to it’s use of the word ‘our’. A popular phrase used by many, including Donald trump in his Phoenix rally https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPED92gRpsY, is that ‘immigrants are taking our jobs’. The use of the word ‘our’ suggests that everyone’s affected by this, but a CIS study shows that immigrants mostly compete with young people, minorities, and people with low education. Overall the study says that immigration has a very small positive effect on the economy. This data shows that, if you are a well educated person who’s had a job for a while, you aren’t the type of person who should have to worry that an immigrant taking your job. The argument can still be made that immigrants could be taking some jobs, but using the word ‘our’ suggests that all jobs are at stake which paints a different picture than what’s actually happening and distracts people from the facts that the immigration crisis is mostly an ethics issue. Thus, through a misinterpretation of statistical information, the use of the word ‘our’ makes people needlessly defensive and can hinder an otherwise reasonable conversation. The fact that the biggest argument against a more humanitarian border system is simply incorrect is huge, and pointing out the anti-immigration arguments failure of logic is an important step to get any bill passed.
The misinformation doesn’t stop there. In fact, the current undocumented immigrant crisis is in part caused by the lack of outreach and fact sharing from the USA. In the movie “Which Way Home”, when asked about America, Kevin, one of the unaccompanied minors coming to america, says he imagines america as a big city like he’s seen in the movies. When he makes it to america he says it wasn’t what he expected at all, and someone else in the documentary even says coming to america wasn’t worth it. A similar situation happens in The Circuit By Francisco Jiménez: the narrator’s father and older brother tell him that life will be better in once they cross the border, but they find things are much different than expected once they cross the border. These accounts show that many undocumented immigrants that come to the US have received false information about the country. They are heading towards the promise of safety and a better life when currently that’s not always possible. In both examples the undocumented immigrants learned about America not from facts, but from stories. If the migrants had been told the facts about america, the same facts they learned the hard way when they got here, it is likely they might re-think their decision. One can clearly see that somehow the US isn’t conveying the truth about itself to many of the people who want to go there, if they were to try harder to do so they might be able to fix some of the grizzliest stories of undocumented immigration.
The US needs to make the facts about undocumented immigration more clear and needs to to use less misleading terms when talking about immigration in order to increase acceptance of undocumented immigrants and provide a path to citizenship. The US has discussed the issue of undocumented immigrants for a long time, but it’s government has never come to an agreement because there has always been a considerable amount of people on both sides of the issue, meanwhile Millions of immigrants struggle through terrible conditions in coming to, and staying in, the US. The solution to this issue cannot be made if politicians continue to use opinions in their debates. They should be spreading facts and understanding to the american people, not perpetuating rumors. Humans, as a species, prefer to listen to what they already believe in, rather than the opposing side, the only way to combat this is by using undeniable facts. Even If the government decided to provide a path-to-citizenship solution, so long as there are misinformed americans, the undocumented migrants will continue to face social problems within the country. The only way to end this argument once and for all is to show it for what it is. The sources above have shown that undocumented immigrants don’t come to the US to take advantage of our system, and that overall their effect on the economy is minimal but positive. In the end it comes down to a humanitarian issue: Should the US let people seeking refuge or pursuing a better life come to the country, or should it let them die because just they didn’t have enough time or resources to fill out a barrage of documents?