March 26, 2014
Mr. Tallar LA – P.5
Immigrants VS Government There is a lot of conflict in the world right now but a major struggle that is happening right now is when that needs, want or actions of a minority group come into conflict with the need, want or action of a majority group. We see this happening with congress and immigrants. Immigrants feel like their rights are being desecrated because immigrants are being deported for insignificant reasons. Immigrants are getting deported for minor or non-serious criminal records and because of government laws and programs, this is causing family separation. Both legal and illegal migration happens all over the world and the USA is no exception due to this deportation is happening a lot, which is shown in the article “Many immigrants deported for nonviolent crimes” by Andrew Becher and Anna Gorman. In the article, it talks about immigrant being deported because of minor crimes such as drunk driving and how it is creating family separation. In the article it says “Nearly three-quarters of the roughly 897,000 immigrants deported from 1997 to 2007 after serving criminal sentence were convicted of non-violent offenses, and one-fifth was legal permanent residents.”(Becker & Gorman) The difference between non-violent and violent crimes is that non-violent crimes are those crimes that do not involve the use of any force or injury to another person and violent crimes or violent offenses involve the use of force or injury to the body of another person. The quote here is saying that not all the immigrants deported were serious criminals. This is unfair because if they did nothing wrong than they shouldn’t be punished. Also what is even more prejudicial is that some people were legal residents. They shouldn’t be penalized like this because their legal here they should be punished then like any other legal citizen, if they did something wrong. In the same article it also talks about how over than 1 million family members have been deported to their native country. In the article we read this heart wrenching testimony where Yakara Hernandez from Tampa, Florida says “she said the family’s life had been on hold since immigration officials deported her husband to Honduras in December 2006.”(Becker & Gorman) We also hear the testimony of Leticia Benitez, who lives in Azusa, said her family had also been divided by deportation. Leticia’s husband, a legal permanent resident, was arrested in 2007 and deported to Mexico based on an old misdemeanor conviction for statutory rape. In the article it said “That was a mistake he did when he was a teenager, said Benitez, a U.S. citizen. He shouldn't be punished for that.”(Becker & Gorman) In the article his lawyer, Mario Acosta Jr., said that “he U.S. government had agreed that the crime should not have resulted in a deportation and that the case would return to appellate court.” (Becker & Gorman) The court here made a mistake and deported someone over something that happened a long time ago. So many people have been suffering from this separation because they are separated from their family and its hard not being to see someone they truly love or care, as I have lived this first hand with my family. When they have to be separate from someone they love or care about it not only affects them but it affects everybody around them because people seeing them sad because of this, they also become sad as well. This becoming a vicious circle. There are thousands programs and bills in the USA to protect the people, some of them are fair and some are not. As we read about this in the article “Obama wants judge to decide whether immigrants of minor crimes should be deported” by Suzy Khimm. In the article it talk about the draft immigration bill that is propose that would give judges greater discretion to decide whether immigrants convicted of minor criminal offenses should be allowed to remain in the United States. The bill would make the