Immigration and Naturalization Service Article

As America has changed, so has the process of immigrating to America. Many people are choosing not to follow the proper process and are living in the Untied States as illegal immigrants, otherwise known as aliens. It is the job the the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the INS, to keep this issue under control, but as this article states, they are not in control of their own administration. I think in order for America to maintain its safety and keep the immigration process in check, the government needs to step up. The article says that the INS, which has been run by Department of Homeland Security, is becoming two separate divisions. However it will take several years to smooth things out. I do not think that is acceptable, while there has been chaos in these organizations the number of aliens have increased by seven million. I believe they need to find away to fix the problem fast, or the number will continue to increase. The job of the INS is, "facilitating legal entry of aliens, assisting aliens seeking permanent residence or naturalization, preventing illegal entry by aliens, and catching aliens entering or staying in the United States illegally." With all the chaos they are not fulfilling their duties.

Due to all of the disorder, there have been major mistakes that these organizations made.The one the article talks about scares me the most. "Arrival of student visa approval notifications at a flying school in Venice, Florida six months to the day after the September 11, 2001 attacks; the notifications were for two of the hijackers. Though the men had been approved prior to the attacks, the notification was sent after September 11." The 9/11 hijackers were able to get flying approval and the United States government did not even realize it. Our Country should be aware of these things at all times, I do not understand how the INS and DHS could have let this go unnoticed. If they cannot do their jobs, then the government should form a new organization who can do it better. I believe that if the problems in the government can be worked out, then there can be a solution on how to fix the problems with the aliens.

citation
"Immigration and Naturalization Service." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 31 Jan. 2010.

anti-immigration movenment

It is clear that immigration has been a "hot" topic ever since the end of the Civil War. When they Civil War ended many people from Southern and East Central Europe began to immigrate to America. The citizens of the United States wanted the immigrants to be people who were just like them. They banned many groups of people from immigrating to America, just because they did not fit the Anglo-Saxon image. Some of those groups were non-Europeans, polygamists, and anarchists. I think that the people were able to continue to shape their society they way they wanted because of the the success they had with the Africans. The citizens were able to force the Africans into slavery, so why would they not be able to deny admittance to their Country. When studying history I have only learned about the racism that many people had against the Blacks, but this article is saying that they were racist towards anyone who was not like them. Just like they had done with the African Americans they created reasons that explained their actions. The article said, "Denial that immigrants could be assimilated, that they could participate in or even comprehend democracy, or that they would be loyal was the justification for the movement." They were trying to make the foreigners sound like the people who do not understand America, but it is them who does not understand. The whole part of being an American means that you have freedom. Most immigrants come in search of that, however the Americans felt that they would not be able to understand the freedom in America.

I think it is the diversity in America that makes our Country so great. We are all people and there is no reason that a person cannot comprehend what a democracy means. All people should have to opportunity to become an American if they want to, as long as the follow the proper process. Then end of the article discusses how some people want there to be more immigration reforms. I feel that people should not be able to just come and live in America, but if they are trying to improve their situation then there should be more effective ways of making people citizens. I just do not want America to become over populated because that would be bad for everyone. That is why there needs to be regulations. People should not be just shut out, but they can not just do what they please. I do not see the problems with immigration ever ending, however one thing I know for sure is that people should not be banned from America based on what Country they are from or what color their skin is.

citation
"anti-immigration movement." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 30 Jan. 2010.

SS St. Louis

While reading this article, I felt that I had heard parts of this story before. However I never understood the great impact that the immigration laws had on the refugees trying escape the terror occurring in Europe. The SS St. Louis was allowed to leave Europe with its passengers preparing to move to Cuba. When they had arrived in Cuba the refugees were not allowed to enter the Country despite the fact that they had visas. This was a scheme created by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, he was attempting to show the Jews that no Country wants them. I think this is a horrible thing to do, especially because the Nazi’s were already torturing them enough in their homelands. The ship sailed away from Cuba and the refugees were not admitted into the United States. The article states, “President Franklin D. Roosevelt said that the United States could not accept any more European refugees because of immigration quotas.” This is one of the worst decisions I have ever heard a President make. America is not isolated; they knew there were problems because many people had been trying to immigrate to the United States. The government should have accepted the passengers of the SS St. Louis despite the Great Depression going on in America. There would have been more people, but that means that there could have been more people to help try and bring the depression to an end. I do want to mention that America did accept 105,000 people from Nazi Germany; at least not everyone was turned away. As an interesting side note, Albert Einstein was one of the refugees who were admitted to the United States. It makes me think of how many people like him could have been brought to America if it was not for the strict immigration quotas.

Due to the fact that these European refugees were not accepted into any Country, they were all sent back to Europe. Two months after their return, World War II began. Over 600 of the 937 passengers were killed during the war. The article says the American people felt great “shame” when they learned of this information after the War concluded. I feel that they should feel shame; they could have saved those people’s lives if they had just changed the quotas. This was a desperate time throughout the World, but everyone should be able to live in a place where they feel safe. In future instances I hope that the American government will ignore the quotas and help people who are fleeing for their lives.

citation
"SS St. Louis journey." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 30 Jan. 2010.

Immigration Article

One of the things that struck me the most while reading this article was the fact that we are a nation that was built on foreign immigrants. Despite this the Untied States now has to turn people away. As well as the fact throughout recent history there has been discrimination of the who can come to this Country. When I think about discrimination I think of things like slavery, not about other Countries. The article states,"Congress also passed a variety of measures designed to exclude various categories." This means that the people were only being admitted if the government thought that they would be good for society. Many people were admitted based on job qualification. I feel that if a person has a legitimate reason for wanting to come to America then they should not be turned away. Most people will be able to support the success of the Country in some way. I found it surprising that one of the main groups of people who were turned away were the Chinese. It was not a great choice made by the government, because now China is one of the most elite nations in the World. We could have gotten some real geniuses and not even know it.

Another important issue that the article discussed was the fact that when various groups of immigrants arrived in America they were faced with persecution. The article says,"Many immigrant groups faced severe social prejudice." Some of those groups included the Irish, Germans, Italians, Swedes, Finns, and Poles. They had to deal with poor living conditions on top of the unfair treatment. Religion also had a great impact on how a person was treated, this was due to ethnic stereotypes. Though as time has progressed the people have become more and more accepted in to the culture of the United States. For me this is extremely important, because of the fact that in the past Jews were one of the ethnic groups that were persecuted. Luckily as time has gone on the Jews have been welcomed into society. I know that my life would be so much different if the change in society had not occurred.

This article ended with the focus of illegal immigration. I feel that this a problem that America has to figure out. I agree that many of these people do the jobs that a lot of Americans do not want to do. These aliens help our economy, but they put a burden on the tax payers. I am not exactly sure how the government should go about this, but the need to do so something and fast.

Citation
"immigration." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 28 Jan. 2010.

Intial Response to Immigration

When I think about immigration, my mind always goes back to the times in 4th grade. Immigration day was so much fun and you really got to see what it may have been like from the immigrants coming to America. I do know that they people immigrating to America had to overcome a lot of hardships in order to reach their final destination. Many people came from oppressive countries or extreme poverty. I also learned from books that I have read that the people had big dreams upon arrival,the roads are paved with gold, but they did not always pan out the way that they had hoped. One of the things that I really want to learn about is how the immigrants decided that they wanted to move to America. Who was giving them the ideas of how great the United States was. Most of all I want to know how they survived after they past immigration. Also what happened if not all the family memebers were able to pass inspection at places like Ellis Island. When I was in New York I went and visited Ellis Island, it was giant, it would be interesting to see the hustle and bustle there was once was going on in this station.

Change has not come fast enough~State of the Union

Throughout President Obama’s candidacy and presidency the idea he stood behind was change. Despite this he acknowledges that for many people in America “change has not come fast enough.” I think this is one of the most important things that Congress needs to be fully aware of. They are suppose to be working to make things better for the American citizens and to do that they have to realize that at this point they are not doing enough. President Obama kept mentioning all the letters that he receives from people around the Country, who are telling him what their problems are. I see this to be in a way an act of Civil Disobedience. These people are speaking out when they see a problem and taking it directly to the source. During the speech it is said that the people have the same anxieties and at the same time they are resilient. To me this demonstrates that even in the bad times the people of the United States are united in some aspects. If the people are united then it would be easier for change to come about. This unification also has to begin to take shape in Congress. As I was watching the division between the Democrats and the Republicans was extremely obvious. If the Congress is truly going to work to make things better for the people, then they need to show some unification in their thinking. They need to make decisions not based on what side the ideas are coming from, but whether it is what is best for the citizens. Overall I feel that President Obama did a good job covering all the issues in the society right now. I see him as a President who is rooted in Self-Reliance. He said that he would not do what was popular, which is thinking for himself. I believe that this speech can help to lay the ground work to help the improvement of the American society.

video watching

Sarah and I spent most of the class watching hilarious videos. It was so much fun. they allowed us to continue our witty banter...

This is a link to the site where we saw the videos:
http://must-see-videos.blogspot.com/