Thread: Is immigration a human rights issue?

Is immigration a human rights issue?

Results so far:

Yes 51% 68 votes Total: 134 votes
No 49% 66 votes



You voted
on 02/28/10

by Eric Misener
"We hold these truths to be self-evident,that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness..."

The above excerpt is almost universally recognizable as having come from the U.S. Declaration of Independence. While the declaration is not a founding document of the nation (that is, it has no legal authority), it does raise an important question: what do we, as Americans, truly believe is important, and how does our government go about implementing those beliefs? The fact that those involved in the writing and publishing of the declaration excluded certain groups from this egalitarian ideal is well documented, of course, slaves and women being the two groups most commonly held up as examples. However, more than two hundred years of cultural evolution has changed how we interpret such phrases. If pressed, a majority of modern Americans would likely agree that they understand the words to envision a basic set of rights accorded to all humanity.

What, then, are we to make of a person who leaves the place of her birth, fleeing for her life, or seeking greater liberty or happiness? Can a government interfere with this individual's human rights? Perhaps, if they infringe on other people's basic rights. But, in general, American law recognizes that government interference with "fundamental rights" requires a strong showing of the compelling nature of the government's interest, and that such interference be the minimum required to fulfill such government interest. (Of course, as currently construed, this law is only sporadically applied to immigrants.) At what point does the interest become compelling? Is the reduction of comfort for those people already residing in a nation compelling enough for government to deny a person the chance to relocate in the pursuit of life, liberty or happiness? Does the influx of immigrants actually restrict the ability of "natives" to pursue their fundamental rights? How much evidence is required to make such a determination, and what types of evidence will suffice?

These are not easy questions, but how we answer them says much about how dearly we hold to the ideas that we espouse, both as a nation and as individuals. It does seem, however, that the movement of people from one place to another will always raise questions regarding the definition and extent of "human rights."

Many of those who answer "no" to this question ignore the question of immigration in general and instead focus on illegal immigration. Some even say "yes," but only insofar as it regards the rights of U.S. "natives." It is in vogue now, as it has been throughout American history to blame immigrants for problems with U.S. society. As usual, most of these complaints are simply bigoted, short sighted, and in most cases, factually in error. Take, for example, the charge that immigrants use medical services that would otherwise be available to citizens. The fact is, the U.S. Congress passed a law in 1996 that barred legal immigrants from utilizing medicare for five years, and stopped states from using Federal money to provide health services to those immigrants' children. Again, these are legal immigrants. This was in spite of the fact that research published in the May 1996 edition of the Quarterly Journal of Economics that immigrants were less likely to utilize public services than natural born citizens. There is not now, nor has there ever been, any real evidence that immigrants are a burden to American society.

Dealing with facts is difficult for some, but the fact is that immigrants legal or otherwise, are a net benefit to the U.S. economy regardless of the innuendos one hears on Fox News or in th opinions of uneducated writers. In 2001, the Social Security Administration concluded that undocumented (illegal) immigrants accounted for "a major portion" of the money paid into Social Security upon which they will never be able to draw. As of July 2003, this amount totaled $421.00 billion (see the public testimony of the Assistant Inspector General for Investigations, Social Security Administration, before the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Oversight, for more information). This means that illegal immigrants are paying taxes from which they will never see a benefit, but that will be used to support U.S. citizens.

So the next time someone tells you that immigration is a human rights issue not for immigrants, but only for U.S. citizens, ask for some real evidence, instead of an appeal to emotion that involves words like "bullet ridden immigrant gang-bangers."

Learn more about this author, Eric Misener.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.


==============================================




by Writer M


All immigration concerns are not human rights issues, however, when the consequences of deportation separates families (mothers, fathers, and children), immigration takes on a human rights agenda. People become sympathetic, sometimes missing the real issues!

In mid December 2006, several meat packing facilities were raided. People who were working at these companies under false identities and other suspicious documentations were arrested and detained. Many of these individuals were deported. There were groups screaming bloody murder as Immigration and Customs Enforcement did its jobs. People were deported back to their own countries. Some families were separated and left without financial support generating human rights concerns.

Even though the Constitution of the United States has guarantees that protect the rights of all people in the country, the laws in this case took precedent. Then, immigrants (most illegal) considered themselves targets, claiming discrimination and inhumane treatment. They consider America's current immigration laws unfair. Immigrants migrate here illegally, insisting that America's immigration policies are discriminatory because the laws don't fit their urgent need to be here right now, right away, by any means necessary. The players in this issue are lost in emotion that has lead to violence, unrest, and civil disobedience.

The true debate is more about illegal immigration than legal immigration. Sure, America's immigration process is slow and daunting, but it is a process that has worked since America's inception. The fundamental question that continues to haunt America is if its being fair and humane in the enforcement of current immigration laws when children, mothers, fathers, grandparents and other loved ones are being separated from their families, deported? When families are involved, immigration becomes a serious human rights issue.

What is missed is that the people who immigrated here illegally made the choice to do so! They placed themselves and their families in harms way, risking their own well being. When America is faced with budget woes and overcrowded schools, this doesn't appear to be at issue as illegal immigrants and supporters want to call foul and blame American policy and immigration procedure for their consequences - separated families. On both sides of this issue, feuding freedoms infringe and encroach upon the very meanings of the human rights of others. Guaranteed constitutional protections are debased by civil unrest, calculated actions, and subtle propaganda ploys contrived to frustrate the immigration debate.

There is power in numbers. More than 3 decades of illegal immigration coupled with legal immigration has created strong groups like the ACLU, MALDEF, and La Raza organizations that support changing immigration laws immediately to accommodate hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants working and living in America with no legal documentation. They insist, "no borders."

In their civil unrest and disobedience, these groups and their followers defy American immigration laws with terrorism and asymmetrical tactics used to twist constitutional rights to fit their personal goals. Asymmetric warfare most commonly refers to warfare between opponents not evenly matched where the smaller or weaker force must exploit geography, timing, surprise, or specific vulnerabilities of the larger and stronger force to achieve victory. With illegal immigration, what is asymmetrical in tactic is the fact that having large numbers of children - so called Anchor Babies - deeply roots illegal immigration - 30 plus years of illegal and legal immigration have created forces to be reckoned with that use asymmetrical tactics to force the issues.

Every person is connected in spirituality and in human element. Propaganda ploys work on the sympathies of the well being of people connected. The asymmetrical aspect in this debate is using broken families and children as human rights elements surely to generate sympathy and special consideration from America struggling with the immigration issue. As well, it gives illegal immigration activists power. Hence, the human rights elements of this great debate outweigh the illegalities and other problems associated with illegal immigration, and the crux of the problem.

America does not have a problem when individuals immigrate through prescribed laws of the land. There is no other country in the world wherein a people can just boldly cross the border, brazenly defy laws, act civilly disobedient, ignore warnings, and drain government, state, and city budgets, and still be accommodated based on constitutional freedoms offered. No place but America. How wonderful a country is America as it takes into every consideration any and every human rights issue its made to bare despite its current immigration laws, broken and disrespected by powers, principles, personal and political agendas.

Human rights and freedom of speech are not synonymous to terrorism, asymmetrical tactics, propaganda ploys, and social unrest. It is not about double standards that point fingers of blame in one direction (America), leaving several other fingers pointing back to the source - people who immigrate here illegally and suffer the consequences of their choice. In proportion, America is forced to handle this issue with "kid gloves" as it is a heated, emotional, and a divisive issue, clouded by human rights concerns.

America, "Let us not lose heart and grow weary and faint in acting nobly and doing right, for in due time and at the appointed season we shall reap, if we do not loosen and relax our courage and faint." Galatians 6:9; The Holy Bible and basis of the United States Constitution.




Learn more about this author, Writer M.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.



http://www.helium.com/debates/107330-is ... ide?page=1

This has absolutely nothing to do with human rights, as sometimes illegals incarcerated are treated better than they ever saw in their home countries. I am sure the pro-amensty groups would disagree vehemently.
Without laws defining life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, we would have to empty ever jail and prison in the country, including the mass murderers on death row.
Sure we believe in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but that does not necessarily mean that you are allowed to sneak across our borders in that pursuit, expecting us to forgive all sins and law violations, just because one was born somewhere in the world as a homo sapien.

Immigration is not a human rights issue at all. It's purely a legal issue, like a trespassing law and these fools that want to wail about human rights for people who aren't supposed to be in our country instead of the guaranteed rights o US citizens, are just traitors, nothing more, nothing less.

I found this while doing some digging.Now this is a new twist on things. Please read:

Want to Retire or Work in Mexico? You'd Better Read This!

Let me shoot straight from the hip. No fancy introductions to this article, no witty sayings, no clever expressions, no wildly used adjectives. Just plain talk about what you will find if you are planning your retirement in Mexico or if you are coming here to work.

You will find two basic groups of expatriates in Mexico. I am speaking experientially about central Mexico, although I do have more than a passing knowledge of other regions in this country through my research. You will also find lots of regional differences in the culture and personalities of the Mexicans in the place you choose to expatriate.

The First Group of Gringo Expatriates

Traditionally, Gringos have migrated to the Prime Living Locations in Mexico. A Prime Living Location is that which has the most well-defined and well-developed Gringo infrastructure. These are cities that have been forever altered to serve the needs of the Gringos. Everything that happens in that city is no longer for those born and bred there, but for the Gringo. Within these Prime Living Locations, you will find that the Gringos are not integrated into the culture or the language of Mexico. You will find the Gringo living in his own little mainly American enclaves, speaking nothing but English, shopping at the "American" stores, and socializing with other Gringos almost exclusively.

To put it into the words of Star Trek the Next Generation: The Americans (the Borg) came sweeping into the lives of the Mexican people (potential drones) with their huge financial resources (their superior technical abilities), bought up these towns (assimilated the locals into the Borg collective), and now the locals live to service the Gringos (Drones: You will be assimilated...existence as you know it is now over...resistance is futile!).

I actually received email from a guy from San Miguel de Allende who said that if there are any Mexicans in "his" town that don't like the fact that their existence is to serve the Americans, they can just leave the town.

These Gringos are not expatriates. They are Fakepatriates. They do nothing to break the apron stings to their home country (America). They typically do not learn Spanish, have little to do with a culture they hardly know, treat the locals contemptuously, and then will turn around when questioned and tell you: "Oh...but they love us here!"

A paper written by a researcher from the States had the following to say about this issue with special application to San Miguel de Allende:

Sheila Croucher, a professor of political science at Miami University in Ohio and author of "Globalization and Belonging: The Politics of Identity in a Changing World," made these observations about San Miguel de Allende:

1. San Miguel de Allende attracts one of the largest foreign populations in Mexico.

2. Most do not learn the local language and reside and socialize within an isolated cultural enclave. These immigrants practice their own cultural traditions and celebrate their national holidays. Grocery stores are stocked with locally-unfamiliar products that hail from their homeland.

3. American professionals largely work illegally in San Miguel and pay no taxes.

4. They typically do not pay their servants the Social Security taxes required by law.

5. The illegal businesses run by the American gringo community rips off the local San Miguel de Allende government in excess of more than four million pesos a year in unpaid taxes.

6. Some Americans are actually illegal aliens and do not bother with proper documentation.

7. Some are even involved in the Illegal Drug Trade and take drugs across the different Mexican state lines.

Now, this is not a pretty picture. I had actually written of this about 3 years before professor Croucher's article came out (http://dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=723). Yet, for my trouble, I got not just some who disagreed with my opinions, but I got those who threatened me with physical harm for my views. My views were more or less in line with Professor Croucher's and were garnered from talking with Mexicans, both in San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato, who were intimately acquainted with the situation in San Miguel de Allende.

Coincidentally, I spoke with a German tourist who has been in both San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato and who echoed my views on the situation there. His words about Americans in San Miguel de Allende were, "They are just rude to the Mexicans."

What you have are large groups of mostly Americans who form their own little microcosm of American life in the Prime Living Locations. These are Gringo enclaves ruled not by law, principle, ethics, or morality. It is very much a "Lord of the Flies" situation.

Now, if you are retiring or moving here, you have got to understand that if you are going to live in one of these enclaves, this is the environment in which you will be sucked into without hope of redress. What they've done, these Americans, is form not an enclave or a "Gringo Gulch", but an entire society, a miniature America without a constitution to govern their behavior. This American colony is called Gringolandia.

Let me caution you never to use this word with members of these Gringolandias because all hell will break loose and they will hurt you if they can.

Two More Points

First: Because these Gringolandians think they live in paradise (I've heard this word used more than once in their midst), they think that any criticism whatsoever is not only unwarranted but also out-of-line.

They will never, ever in a million years answer your arguments. They will never take the premises you put forth in speech or writing and try to offer counter arguments. They will curse you, exclude you, isolate you, send you threatening emails or even confront you on the street.

I received one of the many threats from this local American man which went like this: "I hope when I get up in the morning I will find the Gringos will have taken care of you."

Can it get any scarier?

In fact, it can!

About twenty-four hours after that threat, someone set a yet-to-be-investigated fire outside our bedroom window at 4:45am, June 3rd, 2007. Were it not for me being up early with an illness, I would not be here writing this now.

Second: I would guess that 99.9% of all the literature online and in print that speaks about how to expatriate to Mexico present the idea that there is a Fantasy Island Welcoming party waiting on you in the town you choose to live. You will be led to believe that moving to Mexico is one of the easiest things in the world you can do, you will be carried around on a pedestal by adoring Mexicans, and that all Mexicans without exception will be waiting to hug you about the knees while kissing your feet.

The Mexicans

The vast majority of Gringos, I am convinced, believe that Mexicans are all the same from Sea to Shining Sea in this country. The inhabitants of the Gringolandias will not admit, even under torture, that there exist different cultural variations on the main Mexican theme. They will not like it if you suggest that in different regions of Mexico, Gringos can be treated differently.

I have lost count of the Mexicans who have told me that the further north you go in Mexico (from the Central, i.e. Guanajuato), the "nicer" the Gringos are treated. I would add that the further west you go in this country, the more "approachable" Mexicans seem to be.

Look, to make this observation is not to hate the group I am making the observation about nor is it bitterness. Living in Guanajuato, for example, being right smack dab in the center of the country is different!

San Miguel de Allende is an anomaly in the center of this country. It is an artificial situation. You will find there, as in the other Prime Living Locations for Gringos, an easy life. You never have to speak Spanish. The Gringos have shaped the place into their American image and life will be a breeze. Living in the other Prime Gringo Cities, you will find the same thing. You will have little to no adjustment to the culture to experience because the town is no longer Mexican but some sort of hybrid (http://livingethnography.blogspot.com/).

But, if you want to live in a town where you can experience an authentic Mexican culture, you have to look elsewhere and then, you have to learn Spanish. The linguistic gig is not on the typical American Gringo's radar.

To put it as simply as possible: In the Prime Living Locations in Mexico, the Gringo will be treated and regarded much, much differently than in the non-Prime Living Locations. The reason is very simple.

In those towns in which the local economy is dependent upon the Gringolandian's wealth, the locals will treat them differently than in cities where the locals' livelihood has NOT been dependent upon the Gringolandian's money. And these Mexicans, the ones in the non-Prime Living Locations, can be rude, indifferent, or simply act as though you don't exist. Some will embrace you and call you friend. Most will not.

It is just that simple, and yet, have you ever in your life read this view in any of the online or print expatriate materials that are available? I am willing to bet you haven't!

The Second Group of Gringo Expatriates

They learn Spanish and integrate into the local Mexican community: End of story!

THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT LIVING IN MEXICO

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Douglas_Bower