Murrieta, CA

SUMMER 2014
Murrieta, CA
SUMMER 2014
http://abc7.com/news/crowds-force-buses-of-
immigrants-away-from-murrieta/150549/

http://www.racialicious.com/2014/07/07/murrietas-
anger-toward-immigrants-comes-from-the-top/

US in Latin America
- After Spanish American War (1898)
- US intervenes to secure commercial
interests in Latin America
- After WWII
- Intervention intensifies with the Cold
War (after 1945)
- Pattern of intervention?
- 1990s-2010s
- War on Drugs
Illegal Immigration in the US
Facts on Illegal Immigration
Currently 12 million illegal immigrants in
the US
1,400 new illegal immigrants each day
(500,000 annually)
Illegal immigrants represent 5% of the total
workforce in the US (and in Chicago)
Illegal immigration is becoming more of a
phenomenon in the Midwest


Why do illegal immigrants come
here?
To work
96% of the 4.5 million illegal immigrant men
are actively working

To help their families escape from
poverty

Nicaragua
50% below poverty line
GDP/capita: $2,900
El Salvador
36% below poverty line
GDP/capita: $4,700
Honduras
41% below poverty line
GDP/capita: $2,900
Mexico
40% below poverty line
GDP/capita: $10,000
US
12% below poverty line
GDP/capita: $41,800
Poverty
Illegal Immigration - Pros / Cons
Boosts the economy
Fill jobs Americans wont
do
Illegal immigrants are
consumers
They pay into social
security and dont take any
benefits
Industries depend on it
Restaurants, hotels,
nursing homes, agriculture
(50%), construction
Low prices for consumers
(Food in the US vs. other
developed countries)
Foreign economies
depend on $$ sent back
(remittances)
Poor foreign families
benefit

Take American jobs
Threaten natl security
Change/erode culture
(language)
Local tax burden
(education, healthcare)
Immigrants become
exploited/invisible class
Wages of low-level
unskilled jobs drop
Pros Cons
Immigration & The United States
The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes
command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "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!"

-Emma Lazarus



Exploring Attitudes
Illegal immigrants are criminals.

Illegal Alien
Illegal Immigrant
Criminal Alien/
Fugitive Alien
Undocumented
Worker
THINK!!!
Is it equitable to term a person illegal?
Can a person be illegal?

How does what we call these migrants help
to frame the immigration debate in this
country?
* New Orleans (refugees vs. evacuees)*


Exploring Attitudes
Undocumented workers do the jobs
Americans refuse to do.
Exploring Attitudes.
12 million illegal immigrants in the US has
destructive/negative effects on American
culture.

Exploring Attitudes
English should be the official language of
the US.

Exploring Attitudes
Illegal immigrants and an non-secure US-
Mexico border presents a very serious
terrorist/criminal threat to this country.
Exploring Attitudes
Having low prices on groceries and
manufactured items is worth having some
illegal immigrants in this country.

Harvest of Empire
Mariana Cabrera is right when she says,
People in the US have no idea why we
come to this countryand if they do, its
probably the wrong idea.
Harvest of Empire
Juan Gonzalez says, Theres always an
attempt of those who came a while ago to
look at those who came more recently as
the problem. This is called nativism and
from what Ive read/experienced it is still
alive and well today.
Nativism the view that native born people
(descendants of immigrants) are more
entitled to America than foreign-born
immigrants
Nativist Movement in America
Then and Now
1.
2.
Thomas Nast cartoon from 1870 expressing the worry that the Irish Catholics
threatened the American freedom.

3.
4.
Harper's Weekly image of the "coffin
ships" showing the cramped, unhealthy
accommodations for the Irish immigrants.

Irish Potato
Famine
(1845-1849)
Coffin Ships
The monument in
Doolough valley
has an inscription
from Mahatma
Gandhi:

How can men feel
themselves
honoured by the
humiliation of their
fellow beings?


The people we saw in Murrieta, CA are
clearly racist.
Harvest of Empire
What does the title, Harvest of Empire,
mean?

Harvest of Empire
A knowledge of the history of US
interventions (invasions, propping up puppet
governments, CIA led coups/social unrest,
NAFTA-related poverty) should change the
way the protesters in Murrieta, CA feel
about immigration/the plight of illegal
immigrants.

Not Legal, Not Leaving
Jose Antonio Vargas says at one point,
Yes, its my country too.
This statement is true.
Not Legal, Not Leaving
Jose Antonio Vargas should just get-in-line
and go through the appropriate channels to
become legal. (p. 2)
Not Legal, Not Leaving
Jose Antonio Vargas deserves a drivers
license and the State of Illinois should
maintain its policy of allowing illegal
immigrants to obtain drivers licenses.
Not Legal, Not Leaving
On page 4, Vargas writes, According to the
Office of Immigration Statistics at DHS, 86%
of undocumented immigrants have been
living in the US for seven years or longer.
These people are still not Americans.
Arizonas SB 1070 is a good law
Controversial provisions:
During a lawful stop, the law would require police officers to
determine immigration status of individuals who they
reasonably suspect to be illegal aliens and for all those
arrested.
Q: How does a police officer come to a reasonable
suspicion?
Q: What would the impact on law enforcement/citizens be?

Requires all people to carry citizenship papers with them at all
times.


Potential Solutions
The US Supreme Court Ruling
The three provisions it struck down:
The requirement that required legal immigrants to carry
registration documents at all times
The provision allowing state police to arrest any individual
for suspicion of being an illegal immigrant
The provision that made it a crime for an illegal immigrant
to search for a job (or to hold one) in the state.
The provision it upheld:
The provision allowing Arizona state police to investigate
the immigration status of an individual stopped, detained,
or arrested if there is reasonable suspicion that individual
is in the country illegally BUT banned racial profiling.

Potential Solutions
In May 2012, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley
had signed an immigration bill considered
the toughest in the nation, which barred
undocumented immigrants from attending
college, seeking work or renting property.
WE SHOULD TAKE A SIMILAR
APPROACH IN ILLINOIS.
Potential Solutions
Businesses should be highly penalized/fined
for hiring undocumented workers.

In 2007, Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) levied only $30
million in fines and forfeitures against
employers, but arrested fewer than
100 executives or hiring managers,
compared with 4,100 unauthorized
workers.

Potential Solutions
It is right that children of illegal immigrants
who are born in the United States should
automatically be American citizens.

Potential Solutions
Children brought here illegally through no
fault of their own by their parent should be
eligible for earned citizenship. By going to
college or serving honorably in the Armed
Forces for at least two years, these children
should be given an expedited opportunity to
earn their citizenship.
Potential Solutions
The US should turn a blind eye to the illegal
immigrants in this country because of their
important economic contributions.

Potential Solutions
Illegal immigrants should not be eligible for
public services (education/healthcare).

(You mostly agree with Alabamas anti-
immigration law *HB56* requires public
schools to collect the immigration status of
new students and their parents and makes
it a felony for anyone to transport or house
an undocumented immigrant.)

Potential Solutions
We should extend a fence and increase
security at the US/Mexico Border.
(A fence currently covers 1/3 of the border.)



Potential Solutions
The US should actively round up and deport
the 12 million illegal immigrants in this
country.

Potential Solutions
The US should allow illegal immigrants to:
Register with the government and pay a large
fine to stay in this country.
Receive legal work visas according to length
of time they have already lived in the US as
an illegal immigrant.
Congress should pass the DREAM Act for
those who arrived as Illegal immigrants
before the age of 16.

Proposed Solutions
Block drivers licenses
Guest worker programs temporary legal
status
Deny public services school/healthcare
Build a fence/wall (2,000 miles of border
US/Mexico)
More personnel, sensors
Minutemen CA, NM, AZ

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