Final Project…

In the United States, the idea to control immigration or the U.S. borders is one of the most challenging, mulit-faceted tasks we will ever have.  Trying to mentally grasp everything involving immigration is a headache in itself.  Immigration policy and reform is an extremely dense body of information.   The solution to the immigration problem seems simple; If we stop the employers, the immigrants won’t come to America. President Barack Obama hopes to crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants. Should the Department of Homeland Security crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants?  Through my research,  I’ve found that targeting the employers will not help the immigration problem in the United States.  To many American’s, immigration is a problem of economics.

First off, the history of the United States is very important.  The United States is a nation of immigrants.  This is the first road block for the government.  If we truly define illegal, most of us living in this country would fall into this category.  The Native Americans are the true legal citizens of the land we call America.  Many illegal immigrants will make this argument, and to their defense, there really is no counter-argument.  Through my research, most of the image sources I’ve found refer to this idea.  Implementing enforcement strategies is a laughable concept to illegal immigrants.  In my personal interview with an illegal alien,  he pointed out the fact that states bordering Mexico used to be part of Mexico.  He said that the Mexican’s will always believe that California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas are rightfully their lands in which they should have free access to.  Currently more than 12 million illegal immigrants reside in the United States.

When people look at the illegal immigrant workforce in the United States, many wonder how they are able to receive jobs.  People think that employers are the main problem.  However, employers being the problem is debatable. Through my research I’ve found that the real problem lies in errors in the Social Security Administration records system.  The government is trying to implement a electronic worker verification system known as E-Verify.  This program has a logical foundation.  The idea is to match potential employee social security numbers with current social security numbers in the Social Security Administration database.  This would filter out any undocumented worker.  However, the program isn’t ready for mandatory implementation.  Volunteer businesses have tried the program out.  In 2008, Intel Corporation reported a 12 % error rate.  The entire 12 % was later cleared to work, but it cost the business a lot of money.  If every business in the U.S. were required to use E-Verify, even a 1% error rate would affect 600,000 legal U.S. residents.

The problem with immigration is one of identity.  The immigrants provide fraudulent documents to their employers in order to get hired.  Does the government expect business owners and mangers to be experts in recognizing these fake or stolen documents?  This is a major problem with targeting employers who hire illegal aliens.  The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has designed a program called IMAGE, which stands for ICE Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers.  This program works with employers to establish an internal training program to detect fraudulent documents used by illegal aliens.  However, the problem with IMAGE is that the ICE requires the participating employers to also enroll in E-Verify.  In my personal interview with 2008 Business Administration graduate, Jason Waters, he said that the erroneous frequency of E-Verify would be enough to turn employers away from getting involved in IMAGE.  He said that it would be better for the government to fund college business programs and require an additional class for business majors that contain the same information in the IMAGE program.  The training for identifying fraudulent documents would be covered educationally before many entrepreneurs entered the business world.

Through my research, I’ve realized that targeting employers is not the solution to immigration problems in the United States.  Our immigration policy is extremely outdated and need serious reform.  Many immigrants who flood the United States seek lower-skilled occupations.  These jobs consist of hotel maintenance, construction, and landscape jobs.  Many American’s don’t want these types of jobs, therefore there is a need for people who want to fulfill them.  The United States only offers 5,000 visas a year to people who seek lower-skilled work in the U.S.  That number needs to substantially increase.  Most immigrants coming to America are not affluent, college graduates who seek professional work as scientists or educators.  There are over 12 million illegal aliens currently living in the United States.  Deporting all 12 million of them would be ridiculous and cost billions of dollars.  Evidence shows that deporting people cost a lot of money, and most immigrants come back anyway.  In March of 2008, 1,331 immigrants were charged with the crime of reentry of a deported alien.  This statistic proves that building a huge wall along the border and increasing enforcement is not stopping people from coming back to the U.S.   Workplace raids and deportation doesn’t help the image of the United States globally.  A large, 2008 workplace raid by the ICE in Postville, Iowa basically destroyed the small town.  People were handcuffed, removed from their families, businesses lost customers, and the entire community was crushed.  It turns into an issue of ethics and human rights. There needs to be avenues for the immigrants to gain their legal citizenship.  When I asked the illegal alien I interviewed if he’d pay a fine in order to gain his citizenship, he said “definitely.”  He agreed that most immigrants would pay a fine.

The answer to solving the immigration problem has no clear solution.  With American politics, there is no right answer.  Perhaps targeting employers would be necessary, but only if the government fixed our outdated immigration policy first.  The best solution for solving the immigration problem is to update our immigration policy through comprehensive immigration reform.

Source Notes #1 (Journalistic, Blog)

Source Notes#2 (Journalistic, Blog)

Source Notes #3 (Journalistic)

Source Notes #4 (Journalistic)

Source Notes #5 (Journalistic)

Source Notes #6 (Institutional)

Source Notes #7 (Institutional)

Source Notes #8 (Citizen, Interview)

Source Notes #9 (Institutional)

Source Notes #10 (Institutional)

Source Notes #11 (Academic Research)

Source Notes #12 (Academic Research)

Source Notes #13 (Academic Research)

Source Notes #14 (Institutional)

Source Notes #15 (Institutional)

Source Notes #16 (Academic Research, Multiple Images)

Source Notes #17 (Journalistic)

Source Notes #18 (Institutional)

Source Notes #19 (Institutional, Multimedia)

Source Notes #20 (Institutional)

Source Notes #21 (Journalistic, Image)

Source Notes #22 (Journalistic, Image)

Source Notes #23 (Journalistic, Multimedia)

Source Notes #24 (Citizen, Multimedia)

Source Notes #25 (Citizen, Image)

Source Notes #26 (Journalistic, Multimedia)

Source Notes #27 (Institutional, Multimedia)

Source Notes #28 (Citizen, Interview)

Source Notes #29 (Institutional, Image on Blog)

Source Notes #30 (Academic, Research)

Source Notes #30 (Academic Research)

Title: Why Don’t They Just Get In Line? The Real Story of Getting a “Green Card” and Coming to the U.S. Legally

Summary: This is a research article put out by the Immigration Policy Center that explains why illegal immigrants choose not to get in line for legal citizenship.  Most green cards require a certain level of professional background and higher education.  The U.S. only issues 5,000 green cards per year for lower-skilled  people, or people looking to work in landscape, construction, and hotel workers.

Topic: Should employers be held accountable by the Department of Homeland Security for hiring illegal immigrants?

Category: Academic Research

What is it? A immigration research document put out by the Immigration Policy Center.
Publication Information:  March, 2008
Author: Michele Waslin
Location: http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/images/File/factcheck/WhyDontTheyGetInLine03-08.pdf
Accessed: 3/11/09

Support:
Diversity Visa Program

The Diversity Visa Program in the U.S. makes 55,000 visas available to people  from countries of low rates of immigration through a lottery each year.  People from Mexico do not qualify for these.  Millions of people each year apply for these green cards, so the chances of winning are very low.

Audience and Agenda:
The Immigration Policy Center is the research branch of the American Immigration Law Foundation.  The IPC seeks out nationally recognized scholars as research sources and guest authors.  Their staff is often used to testify before Congress and serve as policy makers and immigration experts.  According to quantcast.com, 270,000 people visit the Immigration Policy Center website each month.

Usefulness:
This is a useful source of information because it shows why the legalization process for immigrants need serious reform.  Deporting 12 million people, who account for 6% of the U.S. workforce is totally irrational.  There needs to be legal avenues for the immigrants.  More visas need to become available for low-skilled workers.  Many employers need the immigrants to work because Americans won’t do the same jobs.  Targeting employers will not stop the immigration problems.  Economically, the immigrants do more good than harm.

Works cited:
Immigration Policy Center, Google, Quantcast.

Source Notes #29 (Institutional, Image on Blog)

Title: Largest Workplace Raid in History- Laurel, Mississippi

Summary: This is a photograph that shows the ICE  personnel detaining hundreds of working illegal immigrants in Laurel, Mississippi.  With roughly 12 million illegal immigrants working in the U.S., the process of enforcing huge raids would be extremely costly.  Also, the business in Laurel suffered from the raid, hurting the U.S. economically.  It’s hard to deport 12 million people.

Topic: Should employers be held accountable by the Department of Homeland Security for hiring illegal immigrants?

Category: Institutional

What is it? A picture of a workplace raid carried out by the ICE on a blog website called the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM).
Publication Information: Sept. 2, 2008
Author: FIRM

Location: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://fairimmigration.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/ms-raid.jpg&imgrefurl=http://fairimmigration.wordpress.com/tag/ice-raid/page/2/&usg=__Uc0jzY-u4nynyptKiU_eqAZzx2g=&h=359&w=600&sz=239&hl=en&start=7&um=1&tbnid=9ogYq15zDHW9JM:&tbnh=81&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3DICE%2Braid%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1

Accessed: 3/11/09

Support: Howard Industries, ICE,

Last year, Howard Industries in Laurel, Mississippi was raided by the ICE.  The ICE arrested nearly 600 unauthorized immigrant workers.  It was the largest workplace bust in U.S. history.

Audience and Agenda:
FIRM is a project of the Center for Community Change.  They are a national organization which seeks to improve the lives of low-income people and people of color.  They are led by a group of 30 organizations committed to immigrant rights from across the country called the Immigrant Organizing Committee.

Usefulness:

This is a useful image because it shows the complexity of detaining 600 people in a workplace raid.  It is a very costly process to deport 600 immigrants and it rattles the remaining community.  It is similar to the Postville, Iowa raid.  These raids also raise the issue of human rights.  From a global standpoint, it doesn’t help the image of the U.S. to handcuff and arrest 600 minorities for simply being illegal workers.  I’ve noticed that there never is any photos of the employers in these raids.  The argument for the employers in these cases is that the immigrants will do work that American’s don’t want to do themselves.

Works cited:
WordPress, FIRM, wikipedia, Google images

Source Notes #28 (Interview, Citizen)

Title: (Interview) Illegal alien, wanted to protect name.

Summary: I interviewed an illegal alien who works in the Eugene/Springfield area.  For the purpose of his protection, his name will remain anonymous.

Topic: Should employers be held accountable by the Department of Homeland Security for hiring illegal immigrants?

Category: Citizen

What is it? Live Interview
Location: undisclosed, Mar. 11, 2009 at 9.00 p.m.
Accessed: Mar. 11, 2009

Support: “Coyotes”, U.S. Customs and Border Control, Social Security, 9/11

” Coyotes” are a term that the immigrant referred to as people who accept cash in helping immigrants cross the U.S. borders.  With the aide of two “coyotes”, the first time the immigrant crossed the U.S. border in 1991, he and his family were stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Control.   They were later deported to Tijuana.  A second attempted at crossing proved successful.  The immigrant talked about fraudulent documents (social security) he and his family obtain to provide employers so they can get jobs in the U.S.  He also mentioned that since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11th, life as an illegal in the U.S. have become increasingly m0re difficult.

Audience and Agenda:
The immigrant came to the U.S. with his two older brothers and his mother from Mexico City when he was only 5 years old.  The immigrant in now nearly 24 years old and fears that he will be deported back to a place that really isn’t his home.  He works nearly every chance he can, usually over 12 hours a day.

Usefulness:

This was an extremely beneficial interview.  Only can you really grasp the struggle of an illegal immigrant after listening to his story.  When I asked him if immigrants would still flood to America if the Department of Homeland Security cracked down on employers, he said “yes”.  He said that Mexicans are a very determined people.  They will find a way to get a job in America, even if employers are closely monitored.  He talked about how he and his family obtained and use fake social security numbers in order to work in the U.S.  He said he would definitely pay a fine for breaking the law of illegal entrance in the U.S., as long as he could gain his citizenship.  He mentioned several times that the U.S. has always been a nation of immigrants.  He pointed out that the Southern United States used to be Mexico, and that that piece of land is of Mexican roots.  Overall, I learned a lot from this interview.
Works cited:
Jackson Mehl, anonymous immigrant

Source Notes #27 (Institutional, Multimedia)

Title: A Taste of Real American Justice for Sheriff Arpaio

Summary: A multimedia video put out by America’s Voice on a blog that seeks justice for Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who has been making arrests based on color of skin.  His idea is that if they look Mexican, then they are illegal and guilty until proven innocent.

Topic: Should employers be held accountable by the Department of Homeland Security for hiring illegal immigrants?

Category: Institutional

What is it? Video posted to a blog website, immigrationimpact.com
Publication Information: 3/11/09
Author: Seth Holy and America’s Voice
Location: http://immigrationimpact.com/2009/03/11/a-taste-of-real-american-justice-for-sheriff-arpaio/
Accessed: 3/11/09

Support: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Joe Arpaio, Bush Administration, U.S. department of Justice
Dr. Martin Luther King is quoited in the video saying, “Injustice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere.”  Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio is persecuting people based on the color of his/her skin.  He views anyone who looks Mexican as illegal until proven innocent.  He has lost touch with basic human rights because of the high concentration of immigrants in Arizona.  The video states that the Bush Administration encouraged Arpaio and his tactics.  America’s Voice want a petition to be sent to the Department of Justice for the removal of Arpaio from law enforcement.

Audience and Agenda:
Immigrationimpact.com is blog project of the Immigration Policy Center.  The project was launched to develop rational conversation on immigration on a nationwide level.  The goal is to debate and work toward comprehensive  immigration reform.

Usefulness:

This is a useful video because it shows how bad the U.S. needs comprehensive immigration reform.  If racial profiling is leading to arrests of people with dark skin, who are even legal U.S. citizens, then the system is incredibly flawed.  The idea that a dark skinned person is guilty until proven innocent is a huge human rights issue.  This video provides evidence that an “all-enforcing” immigration strategy will not help the immigration problem.  Simply cracking down on employers will not fix the problem either.  I’ve realized that a huge chunk of government funds would have to be used in order to really control immigration.  Think about the money being spent by Arizona police dealing with all the people who sheriff Arpaio is bringing into custody.

Works cited:
Google, Immigration Policy Center, American Immigration Law Foundation

Source Notes #26 (Journalistic, Multimedia)

Title: Targeting Illegal Immigrants Through ID Theft Laws

Summary: This is a radio news report on npr.com that talks about a case in which an immigrant used fraudulent I.D. documents at work and then used his real ID when filing taxes.  He is now paying the consequences through ID theft laws.

Topic: Should employers be held accountable by the Department of Homeland Security for hiring illegal immigrants?

Category: Journalistic

What is it? A National Public Radio broadcast on npr.com.  It covers the issue of  immigration and fraudulent documents.

Publication Information: Feb 24, 2009
Author: Megan Verlee

Location: http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=101092334&m=101092311

Accessed: 3/8/09

Support: IRS and (ITIN), U.S. Supreme Court, Jose Mendoza

The IRS  wants everyone to apply for an individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN).  This allows for everyone, regardless of immigration status, to file taxes even without a valid social security number.  This also allows for people to use fraudulent information at work, but real information when filing taxes.  The United States Supreme Court is hearing a case involving Jose Mendoza, who used the alias name Cesar Jimenez for his working documents.

Audience and Agenda:
National Public Radio serves an audience of nearly 26 million Americans each week.  NPR works in partnership with more than 860 independently operated radio stations.  NPR is privately supported, and not-for-profit.  According to quantcast.com, the NPR website reaches 2.4 million people a month.

Usefulness:
This is a useful broadcast because it shows that identity theft issues involving immigrants seem to be at the root of the problem.  A lot of immigrants use fake or stolen identities to land American jobs.  If employers knew how to identify these documents through specialized training, then immigrants would have less success working around taxes, and getting jobs in the first place.  It seems immigration and economics go hand-in-hand in U.S. politics.

Works cited:
NPR.com, Google, Quantcast

Source Notes #25 (Citizen, Image)

Title: Chicago Immigration Reform Protest-HR4437

Summary: This is an image posted on a flickr account that expresses a pro-immigration stance from a rally in Chicago.  There is an idea that immigrants use up American social services when they don’t pay taxes.  The truth is that immigrants do pay taxes and cannot claim social services because they are not legal citizens.

Topic: Should employers be held accountable by the Department of Homeland Security for hiring illegal immigrants?

Category: Citizen

What is it? Image of a flickr account.
Publication Information: May 1, 2006
Location: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chicagoceli/138852817/
Accessed: 3/7/09

Support: HR4437

HR4437 was a congress passed bill in 2005, which made it a felony for those who assist or employ illegal immigrants.  This protest rally in Chicago on May 1st, 2006, drew nearly 300,000 people taking a stance against the bill.

Audience and Agenda:
The image was posted on flickr. Flickr is an online photo posting and sharing website.  Its an easy way for people to organize his/her photos and to allow web surfers to check the photos out.  According tho quantcast.com, nearly 24.1 million people visit flcikr a month, ranking it #29 in the most viewed website category.

Usefulness:
This is a useful image because it speaks out against HR4437.  There is problem with targeting employers who hire illegal immigrants and making it a felony offense.  Often, the illegal immigrants maintain fraudulent identification documents.  Should the U.S. government assume that employers are going to be experts in identifying these?  It’s hard to hold an employer accountable if they were provided fake I.D. documents during the hiring process.  Even if an employer did knowingly hire an illegal immigrant, it would be hard to prove that in a court of law. The governments mediocre solution so far has been E-Verify, which is not the fix because of the high error return rate.

Works cited:
Google images, Flickr, Wikipedia, Quantcast

Source Notes #24 (Citizen, Multimedia)

Title: Immigration Documentary-Out of the Shadows

Summary: A short student made documentary video that gathers interviews of people regarding the topic of immigration and assimilation.

Topic: Should employers be held accountable by the Department of Homeland Security for hiring illegal immigrants?

Category: Citizen

What is it? A posted video on youtube.com that covers the current topic of immigration in the U.S.

Publication Information: Aug.3, 2007
Author: David Garcia Rojano
Location: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU_0SoQwVvY
Accessed: 3/7/09

Support: Series of people interviewed in documentary (names not included)

The last man interviewed walking down the street, offers some good insight to the problem and possible solution.  He says that Americans are part of the problem.  He says that if the employers don’t hire, then the immigrants won’t came to the U.S.  He says people are working hard, paying taxes, and deserve the right to live out of the shadows.

The opposing views is that the immigrants don’t want to assimilate, and they come to the U.S. illegally.

Audience and Agenda:
The video was posted on youtube.  David Garcia produced the video at the University of Texas at Arlington.  According to quantcast.com, youtube reaches 80.6 million people a month, ranking it #5 of most popular websites.   The University of Texas at Arlington was founded in 1895, and is a private, liberal arts institution with nearly 25,000 students.

Usefulness:
This is a useful video because it provides evidence that there is no correct method in dealing with immigration.  If employers don’t hire illegal immigrants, then the immigrants will not come to the U.S. This is true, but there is no way to control that.  Employers are given fake documents by the illegals.  Employers are not experts in filtering out fraudulent documents.  They cannot be held accountable.  The Department of Homeland security could possibly provide employer training through the IMAGE program, but not require the enrollment in the E-Verify program.  This would train employers to identify fake documents, without the burden of dealing with the error rates of E-Verify.

Works cited:
Google, Quantcast, Youtube, IMAGE, University of Texas at Arlington

Source Notes #23 (Journalistic, Multimedia)

Title: Postville, Iowa Struggles on After ICE Raid

Summary: Video that describes the after effects of an ICE workplace raid, which has wrecked the small town of Postville, Iowa.

Topic: Should employers be held accountable by the Department of Homeland Security for hiring illegal immigrants?

Category: Journalistic, video

What is it? Video that was made by the Associated Press after an ICE raid in Postville, Iowa.
Publication Information: Aug. 17, 2008
Author: Associated Press
Location: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYwG6Z6NvsA
Accessed: 3/4/09

Support:
Paul Rael-community leader, ICE, St. Bridget’s Catholic Church, Mary McCauley, Cesar Hochola-grocer. Rich Matthews-AP.

Paul Rael is a community leader who expresses his concern toward the immigrant families who have become seperated due to the raid.  He explains how their community is now broken and shattered from the ICE raid and how small businesses are suffering.  Mary McCauley of St. Bridget’s Catholic Church talks about the fears and uncertainity of the remaining members of the community, and that many have come to take shelter in the church. Cesar Hochola explains that is grocery business is now empty, with no customers.  These sources all explain the after effects of a worforce raid on community and family members.

Audience and Agenda:
The Associated Press was founded in 1846, and is the oldest and largest news orgainization in the world.  The AP is a non-profit organization  with over 4,000 working employees worldwide.  According to quantcast.com, 2.4 million people visit the AP website a month.  The AP is owned by it’s 1,500 daily newspaper members.  It has won 49 Pulitzer Prizes, and 30 of those have been for photography.

Usefulness:
This is useful to my research because it shows the shock wave of after effects from ICE raids on families and the community.  These raids seperate loved ones, and cause financial uncertainty to surrounding businesses.  There is no mention on what happened to the employers in this case.  If the ICE were to target employers, I’d imagine that raid like this would have to also take place.  From a human rights standpoint, it doesn’t uphold a good image for the U.S.  We need to ask the question, don these raids help or hurt the U.S. in the big picture?

Works cited:
Youtube, Google, Associated Press, Quantcast

Source Notes #22 (Journalistic, Image)

Title: States Crack Down on Employers

Summary: This is a New York Times article that shows a series of images of certain U.S. states who have recently imposed tougher laws against employers of illegal immigrants and laws against the immigrants themselves.

Topic: Should employers be held accountable by the Department of Homeland Security for hiring illegal immigrants?

Category: Journalistic

What is it? Series of images from the New York Times
Publication Information: July 6, 2008
Location: http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/07/06/us/06employerGR.ready.html
Accessed: 2/28/09

Support:
ImmigrationWorks USA

ImmigrationWorks USA provides information to the New York Times for their images.  ImmigrationWorks USA is a pro-immigration organization who support immigration reform by educating the public about the benefits of immigration.

Audience and Agenda:
The New York Times is the largest metropolitan newspaper in the U.S.   It was founded in 1861, and it has won more Pulitzer Prizes than any other newspaper according to Wikipedia.  According to Quantcast.com, the New York Times websites receives 13.3 million visits a month.

Usefulness:  These images are useful to my research because they show the states who have imposed tough employer laws.  It also lists the states who enforce the use of E-Verify.  The Department of Homeland Security should monitor these states to see the effects of the laws and how well they are working.  If the results are promising, then Congress should push for further implementation of the laws in other states.

Works cited:
NY Times, Wikipedia, Quantcast, Google