Ilegal Immigration Issue
By Lea Erwin
Now more than ever illegal immigration has become a major issue. Within the last five months we’ve experienced the two largest raids in U.S. history. One that occurred in May, when ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents rounded up workers in Iowa and the other last month in Mississippi.
Today, the number of immigration fugitives living in the U.S. is 570,000, according to an ICE statistic, and with the November election fast approaching this issue will only further escalate in importance. But as we venture to the voting booths, do we truly understand all sides of the story? Until recently, I thought I did.
Last week I started reading Enrique’s Journey, by Sonia Nazario. It’s about a young boy from Honduras, who travels illegally by train-top to reunite with his mother in California. She left him when he was a young boy due to hardships of being a single mother and living on wages of less than two dollars a day.
Enrique struggles with his mother’s loss by acting out in school and although she sends him money every month, he still feels abandoned, so he decides to find her. He travels through cities in Central America and Mexico, of which he encounters beatings, women being raped, robberies, corrupt authority figures stealing from him, and countless other unimaginable atrocities.
The ICE website includes many articles on deportation and upholding the immigration laws, which are important, but what it does not include are the stories of these people and why they chose to abandon their homes and families. I agree that some immigrants are criminals with records and should be arrested accordingly, but what about people like Enrique? And if so many illegal immigrants are only trying to escape famine and poverty, why are we not opening our arms and helping them?
So, as we head to the voting booths this November with all our preconceived thoughts on illegal immigrants, I ask one question; if the majority of them are coming here to find a better life for themselves, why are we treating them like criminals?
Here are a few articles to read about illegal immigration: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/14/international/americas/14mexico.html
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17359001
http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2008/08/aging-us-will-m.html- great blogs too from writers in Mexico!
3 years ago