The presidency of 44th US President Barak Obama has been marked with rather prominent and significant shifts in policy, reverberating throughout many areas of the country. One of the president’s most controversial proposals that has yet to be fully acted upon is providing a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States. Supporters of the legislation point to a variety of moral and economic reasons to justify their position while opponents retaliate with their own concerns about the “fairness” of this policy action. For many against this pathway, citizenship is a delicate conceptual idea that already has a clearly defined pathway within the United States. Citizenship is often a rather subjective …show more content…
It can further be argued that Aristotle is solely interest in the actions of the citizen in regard to their virtue than simply their relative nature or disposition. In order to have a great appreciation for biology, it could be argued that one should have a basic understanding and appreciation of the cells that compose all life on Earth. In the same vein, a chemist might be more appreciative of chemical reactions when they are able to understanding the reactions happening at the molecular level between the elements involved. Much in the same way, Aristotle as an appreciator of the state attempts to gain a better understand of what makes up that state by proclaiming, " a state is composite, and, like any other whole, made up of many parts;—these are the citizens, who compose it. (Arist. Pol. III,1, 2).” When trying to demystify the term of citizenship, Aristotle is quick to dismiss multiple commonly associated definitions. For example, many would assume that living in a state is enough to make one a citizen of said state. However, as Aristotle argues, there are a variety of people that “live” in the state such as women and slaves that do not have the ability to exercise certain political rights and also lack the ability to be a citizen. This definition can generally be agreed upon even when relating it back to the world today where numerous people can live in a state but not be citizens, such as the aforementioned undocumented immigrants in the
The debate over illegal immigration has been a constant and ongoing struggle in the United States. Millions of illegal immigrants are living among us in the country, we have more entering daily. Recently, President Barack Obama touched on the topic with his immigration executive order. Unfortunately, with the republican takeover of the white house, many of his actions are not being supported. This is viable evidence that there are people who want to help fix the immigration system in a way that will benefit illegal immigrants and give them a fighting chance to prosper here in the United States. With that being said, there are also powers who do not want to see that happen because they believe that it is not in the best interest of the United States to open their borders to illegals. This puts to question what the next steps for the United States will decide and how that will affect Americans across the country. My goal of this essay is to enlighten the moral concerns in the debates pertaining to immigration.
The United States has long wrestled with questions over immigration policy, with heavy partisan rancor characterizing the nature of illegal immigration as a political issue. As a humanitarian, economical and sociological issue, illegal immigration is not only a pressing issue but one that can invoke highly charged and emotional reaction from both sides. This was amply demonstrated this past week when President Obama announced that the Department of Homeland Security would be granting 'deferred action' status to a category of illegal immigrants falling into a qualifying set of demographic conditions. According to Julia Preston & John H. Cushman Jr.'s 2012 New York Times article entitled "Obama to Permit Young Migrants to Remain in U.S," the President used his executive authority to limit the number of deportations committed upon illegal immigrants by easing the status of the youngest of these.
In the United States, there are over 40 million immigrants, both legal and unauthorized (Auclair, Batalova, Nwosu 1). Of that 40 million, an estimated 11 million immigrants are not authorized to be in the country (Krogsadt, Passel 1). In recent news, there has been quite the debate over whether or not there should be amnesty or citizenship offered to some or all of the undocumented citizens in America. I have a personal attachment to the subject. I believe there should be a clear and easy pathway to citizenship for immigrants with some restrictions. I support this idea because they provide for older generations, younger generations, and fill jobs
The subject of illegal immigration coupled with the concern of the growing number of illegal immigrants in the United States has been a long standing national debate. A single finite definition of the term “illegal immigrant” has proven difficult to specify. For the purposes of this paper, I will use the term “undocumented immigrant” defined as an individual who has “entered the United States illegally or violated the terms of their residency status” (Chan, Scott, Krishel, Bramwell, and Clark, 2006).
Mexico was estimated up to 70% from those undocumented workers. (Reiff, 2013) In 2001, Bush and congress hoped to help Mexican immigration to U.S. by the legislation immigration reform but the reform had to hold on since the terrorist attacks in September 11, 2001. In 2005, the U.S. House of Representatives supported the Border Protection and the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act were passed by the Senates in 2006. However, both of these cannot be a law because their contents are a few differences and had conflicts with conference committee. (Nakamura, 2014) In 2009, Barack Obama restarted this comprehensive discussion of immigration reform. In the speech of November 20, 2014, U.S. president Obama stated the current immigration system is broken and summed up the necessary of the immigration reform such as new immigrant families were flout by others, business owners provided the less wages and benefits to undocumented immigrants and most of immigrants only wanted to earn the money, regardless of the responsibilities of living in the U.S., which caused them being apart from the others and society, staying in the dark shadows all the time. (Obama, November 2014) In case of the problem coming worses, President Obama began a series of executive actions to fix the system on immigration. This article introduces some key players in US politics and how their strategies to support
2. I do not think Chavez expected her audience to agree with her position as it was posted in the politically conservative section of the Wall Street Journal. Before I read the political background section of Linda Chavez, I had thought the author to be liberal. But after reading the excerpt I the beginning of the publication, I noticed that she was a Hispanic Conservative. I could tell that Linda Chavez did not expect her audience to agree with her when she stated that “Repealing birthright citizenship is a terrible idea.” Most conservatives wish to dismiss birthright citizenship, but in this passage she explains the significance of it, and what it would do to the future of the nation.
In the most recent State of the Union address, the President continued to perpetuate stereotypes about these immigrants. Fear-mongering among politicians has become common, as they try to create rely on xenophobia, a common theme in United States’ history. However, nearly sixty-five percent of American Citizens favor a path for these Immigrants (Jones 1). This report provided by Gallup highlights the fact that many Americans do favor a path to citizenship, contrary to popular opinion. A republic, like the US, relies on the consent of the governed, and if Americans believe the government should provide a path, it is the duty of the government to follow through by enacting policies that reflect popular
Immigration is currently a hot topic within in the United States government. Currently the United States Congress is fighting to decide the fate of the Dreamers, and the Immigration bill DACA. Like many controversial issues within the government, the Democrats and Republicans are in a disagreement on what to do. Each article, examines a different take on the current immigration reform. Bier’s main argument is that individuals who are contributing to immigration reform are ignorant, that Immigrants are not hurting the American Labor market. The next article, I examined, was written by Eric Cantor; Cantor states that although the parties each have a high stake on the decision Congress makes on DACA, there must be a decision otherwise, the law will remain status quo. Next, we look at Gessen’s article, the main argument is that immigrants should not be looked at valuable or illegal, they should not have to be talented in order to be welcome within the United States. Lastly, Vargas, an undocumented Immigrant, discusses the difficulties of being illegal within the United States, yet still shines light on the positive influences he had throughout his childhood and time in America.
Immigration is a major topic in the Immigration presidential Race right now. I am on the side of getting comprehensive immigration reform. Reform is the term used in political discussion regarding changes to the current immigration policy. In the political sense of the word, "immigration reform" may include promoted, expanded, or open immigration, as well as reduced or eliminated immigration. Comprehensive immigration reform has eluded Congress for years, moving decisions into the executive and judicial branches of government and pushing the debate into the halls of state and municipal governments. Meanwhile, the fates of the estimated eleven million undocumented immigrants in the country, as well as future rules for legal migration, lie in the balance. I believe the government should provide a fair path to citizenship for the millions of people living in the United States illegally because most people come to America for better lives. Donald Trump is the leading candidate for the republicans in this year’s election. He is known for his extreme views and opinions on immigration. I will analyze Trump’s arguments to counter against mine to make my argument the best that it can be.
The man we now call the president of the United States, Donald J Trump has recently made comments about decisions that might happen in this country. The disturbing comments has affected many families emotionally, mentally, and physically especially our families who are illegal immigrants. The new president has made accusations of deporting all illegal immigrants in this country, including our younger generation of immigrants who immigrated to this country as children by the decision of their parents, the younger generation of immigrants are also known as our dreamers, DACA students. The article, “Rethinking Immigration Reform” written by Mike Coffman a Republican who represents Colorado’s 6th Congressional District, argues that the
The concept of “citizenship” is a social construction because everyone in our society plays a part of defining citizenship. One may refer to citizenship as being a naturally born citizen or and immigrant who got their citizenship papers. Social media, news outlets, and even our family may change our perception of citizenship. Citizenship is usually tied in with immigration and how we think of immigrants. Thus, it would have never existed without society’s help of shaping the meaning and norms. Therefore, this has formed bills, debates, and independent opinions. These include the I-Word Campaign, the DREAM Act, Anti-Immigrant Movement,
Barack Obama’s use of presidency is a controversial topic even as his final term is coming to an end. Obama went to great lengths to get what he wanted accomplished during his two terms. He did this by using executive orders. Executive orders are controversial because they are not specifically allowed in the constitution. Obama accomplished many great things using the different powers granted to him during his presidency.
“Immigrants are the future of America!” said Senator Chuck Schumer on Feb. 16 at an event in Washington D.C. supporting “A Day Without Immigrants”. The issues upon the US Immigration policy has been skewed because of many prejudice theories and biased opinions. Roughly “500,000 enter the US legally according to the Department of Homeland Security each year. Each year the population grows that come from immigrant descent whether legal or illegal”(Stricherz). The policy placed upon US immigration has been regulated fairly, but also has had its flaws, despite being a legal or an illegal alien.
We’re fast approaching the end of Obama’s tenure as President of the United States meaning inevitable discussions regarding the ‘Obama legacy’ are beginning to emerge. Common amongst such discussions is Mullen’s assertion that Obama has been a ‘good President in bad times’ (Mullen, January 2016) with commentators applauding his legalisation of same sex marriage, reducing of unemployment and the deficit, his normalisation of relations with Iran and Cuba as well as his implementation of ‘Obamacare’: all of which have occurred within the context of an increasingly obstructionist Republican led Congress. Rather strikingly, such discussions have failed to discuss Obama’s trade record; in January 2015 The New York Magazine asked 53 Historians their opinions on the Obama legacy and the word ‘trade’ is not mentioned once (New York Magazine, January 2015).
Immigration is a controversial topic that has impacted our society for decades perplexed by policies media coverage, perceptions based on one’s own lack of knowledge, personal experiences and a host of other factors that influence how our society views immigrants and immigration policies. The United States is a diverse population of people and filled with experiences that come from various walks of life that contribute to enhancing our social culture, economic development, and cultural acceptance.