Thread: On immigration, both sides overgeneralize

On immigration, both sides overgeneralize

10:17 PM, Jul 14, 2012



When people get passionate, they get sloppy.

This has always been my beef with immigration activists, whether it’s the throw-open-the-borders lobby or the seal-the-country-and-hide-your-women-and-children nativists. In their zeal to prove that theirs is the best solution for our country’s future, they make the mistake of overgeneralizing the term “immigrant.”

In an environment where the illegal immigrant witch hunt is directly contributing to harassment and discrimination against anyone with a foreign accent or the indescribable look of not being a U.S.-born citizen, it’s no wonder that some activists — out of frustration at what has in many ways become an anti-Hispanic movement — sometimes err on the side of overglorifying immigrants. But their good intentions are as dangerous as the desire of those who seek to paint all immigrants as a threat.

I was reminded of this on the Fourth of July when I started seeing social media postings praising President Obama’s White House naturalization ceremony, while implying that the 25 active-duty service members who were sworn in were not only noncitizens but also illegal immigrants.

Sure, it’s powerful and inspiring to hear the president pay tribute to immigrants’ contributions to this country even as so many others ignore their work while pressuring people to self-deport. But a few parts of the Hispanic blogosphere got carried away and saw the ceremony as a vindication of good, hardworking and patriotic illegal immigrants.

Now, I’m not here to further knock down the illegal immigrant population, but rather to point out the hazards of buying into blanket generalizations about immigrants, even those that paint them in a flattering light.

First, let’s not unnecessarily cast doubt on the 25 service members from 17 countries who became citizens on Independence Day — none of them was an illegal immigrant. As many news reports about the event correctly noted, residents here illegally cannot join the military.

There is a small, though untracked, number of active duty soldiers who, despite their nonlegal status, somehow managed to get past the military’s stringent background checks. They face the thorny process of trying to legalize their status, under a 1952 law that allows for such discretion, and can expect differing outcomes.

The unclear status of this group aptly illustrates the disparate nature of the umbrella term “immigrants” and how imprecise it is to herd them into blunt categories.

“The confusion with the military aspect has been troubling these last couple of weeks because so many people get it wrong. It really shows the need for education on how immigration rules really work,” said Michele Waslin, the senior policy analyst at the Washington, D.C.-based Immigration Policy Center.

Waslin listed a long list of temporary and permanent forms of being in the country legally and illegally, which sometimes overlap or morph from one to the other; everything from being in the country on work, study and vacation visas, to being in different stages of applying for a green card. Plus there are temporary protected statuses that can change on a moment’s notice and various legal-limbo modes, such as the recently reannounced “deferred action” that confers a status that’s neither legal nor illegal.

The problem is that blurring the lines between legal and illegal immigrants, even if only to humanize the most dehumanized population in America, brings all immigrants down instead of lifting them all up.

Esther Cepeda writes for the Washington Post Writers Group. Send email to estherjcepeda@washpost.com.

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/arti...overgeneralize

You can blame the liberal biased media and the illegal alien supporters for being the ones to intentionally BLUR the lines between LEGAL IMMIGRANTS and illegal aliens.

Our side always makes our distinction clear, while their side intentionally blurs the lines.

W

Yep, there is a huge difference between legal and illegal and no matter how they try to downplay 'illegal', we know what they are and so do they. We're not going to call an illegal an immigrant just to make them feel better.

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

In an environment where the illegal immigrant witch hunt is directly contributing to harassment and discrimination against anyone with a foreign accent or the indescribable look of not being a U.S.-born citizen,...

I've noticed this unfortunate tendency myself but I don't blame it on those who want to protect the USA against illegal aliens. I blame it on the illegal aliens themselves. This is not the first time in history the actions of bad people have caused others to be wary of all people of a certain ethnicity. After the 9/11 attacks Lebanese Christians in the USA had there property defaced because they were from the same part of the world as the 9/11 attackers. During the 2nd World War loyal Americans of German ancestry also had their property vandalized. But the blame for these things belongs not on the war on terror or the U.S. war with Germany but it belongs to those who committed the 9/11 attacks, the Nazis, and foolish Americans who acted on feeble knowledge. If there is a witch hunt going on its because there really are witches and people need be educated about the difference between witches and legitimate immigrants. Referring to illegal aliens as immigrants only exacerbates this problem.