Monday, October 10, 2011

Immigration: Really Alabama?

Recently Alabama passed an immigration law so harsh, that it caused an exodus of thousands of Hispanics from the southern state. This law contained provisions that allowed police officers to inquire about residency statuses in a routine traffic stop, and even went as far as confirming legal residency for children attending public schools. These two provisions (to name a few) are inherently racist, impractical, and unjust. The problem with police officers asking for legal papers to a select few people is that it will unavoidably facilitate legal racial profiling. The problem with asking the legal papers of children attending public schools is that it is taking away a universal right that everyone should be entitled to, especially when that right was paid for through property taxes that even illegal alien pays.


The problem I find with the passage of this sort of heinous legislation, is that it intrenches us in a mindset of fear, where it is us vs them. We begin to see those people crossing the boarder as enemies of the state, enemies that need to be rooted out by any and every means necessary, even if it means kicking a child out of school, deporting a parent, or racially profiling a Hispanic man.


The article I linked from the New York Times provides a beautiful example of this backwards thinking (accidently I’m sure) by citing a supporter of the bill, Mr. Orr. “Mr. Orr said there were already signs that the law was working, pointing out that the work-release center in Decatur, about 50 miles to the Northwest, was not so long ago unable to find jobs for inmates with poultry processors or home manufacturers. Since the law was enacted in June, he said, the center has been placing more and more inmates in these jobs, now more than 150 a day.


What I find so appalling about this alleged evidence of the effectiveness of the bill, is that it is essentially arguing that prisoners are more obliged to have jobs than immigrants. There is something seriously wrong with our country when we use the argument that convicts have more of a right to jobs and a home in this country than those already living here, namely the undocumented. What is happening to us? How have we become such a xenophobic and bellicose melting pot? For a change, let us try to pass legislation that supports foreigners struggling to live in our society by providing them with residency and access to education; instead of legislation that kicks children out of school, encourages racism, and forces the evacuation of thousands of scared people from their home state.


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/us/after-ruling-hispanics-flee-an-alabama-town.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all


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