Essay On Latin American Immigration

Taha Topiwala

Path to achieve the dream

Latin American immigration is a difficult political, economic and social issue today. It has brought about lot of thinking minds to questions its importance and significance to the immigrants immigrating to the United States.This paper focuses on the recent actions that have been taking place over the past decade concerning immigration and the uprising of social movements regarding immigration near the US-Mexico border and in certain areas in the United States including the Dream Act and its benefits.

What brings these Latin American people to the United States? The majority of the motivating factor include are the lack of resources in their native lands and the opportunity for having a better life in the United States and achieving the American Dream. Is the American dream a myth or a reality? But to realize that

these immigrants after arrival have to work a long way up to attain the American dream and it is not that easy for them.
The security of attaining identity for minors is promised by the DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) ACT that was introduced in the senate on August 1, 2001 by Dick Durbin and Orrin Hatch. It’s over a decade old but the essence of this bill still brings about restlessness in people because the people are concerned about the law and when they don't get any assure answers or actions they get distressed. The Dream Act hasn't yet been passed in the house of the senate but multiple states such as California, Utah, New York have made their own version of the Dream Act, which allows immigrant children to achieve financial educational aid for universities. The Dream Act works on the basic principle of giving the immigrants a permanent residency to certain people who have maintained a good moral character throughout their stay in the United States and have graduated from a U.S. high school and they should have arrived into the United States as minors and lived their entire life in the U.S.
The Dream Act obviously possesses a lot of benefits for immigrants coming into the United States but also invites and may encourage and be a magnet for fraud just like many immigrants would claim that they entered the United States as children or were under the age of 30 and the government would have no way to check weather the claim is correct or a lie to attain citizenship. Giving an example of a fraud that took place in the year of 1986 for illegal immigrants who claimed that they were agricultural workers but studies showed that two thirds of the filed applications were a fraudulent (2012). Hence, saving a lot of illegal activists and people from being deported out of the country but on the other hand brings about a lot of benefits for the immigrants as it strengthens the political foundation for the Latinos as there would be more and more eligible voters and capitalizing on immigration would give them a voice in the politics giving them the key to the future of their political stand.
The Dream Act does give the allowance for people who have lived their lives throughout in the United States to get citizenship but the Act also gives the right to deportation of undocumented people.

One such example that was written about in the New Orlean Chronicle is a story about Rios and Roceal de Leon. One day when Rios and his friend Roceal were walking to the grocery store with his son 4 years old riding a tricycle beside him were pulled over by the cops who drove past them in a SUV. The police officer got out and told them not to move and remain silent while he checked who they were. The law enforcement officer pushed the child away and kicked his tricycle. When Rios tried to explain by saying that he was a citizen and that they were legally staying the agent responded by saying, “shut the fuck up; you’re going to make it worse for yourself.” When Rois and Roceal were asked to be fingerprinted in the SUV the officer found out that Rios indeed of a citizen and Roceal was deported back in a few months. This incident left the child traumatized and leaving him scared of law enforcement officials

(2013).
That is an example of one alarming incident among many others. In November, the Latino Civil Rights Community in New Orleans protested and fought back to the oppression by the government and blocked streets from which 22 people were arrested. As a result of these incidents, in many places in the United States people are part of communities that demonstrate and protest against oppression on immigration issues. One such protest took place in Tuscan, Arizona where immigration rights activists chained them selves with two busses that were filled with undocumented workers in from of the Federal Court house on October 11, 2013 to protest against the streamline operation which called for deportation hearings frequently (2013).
There are multiple reasons as to why these activists are protesting against the lack of immigration reforms and the oppression they experience. Many immigration activists protest immigrants often pay more taxes to the government and still are deprived of Social Security benefits. Americans believe that illegal immigrants should be denied of all social service benefits because they do not pay federal taxes and are a drain on government services and the economy (2006). However, Porter explains the opposite. Social Service is one such benefit for these immigrants but there are also many more benefits such as a stable income and education for the family and the children.

References
Porter, E. (2005). Not on the radar: Illegal immigrants are bolstering social security. Generations, 29(1), 100-102.
Smith, Rep. Lamar. "The Truth about the DREAM Act." Fox News. FOX News Network, 20 Mar. 2012. Web. 09 Apr. 2015.
The Stream Team, trans. "Immigration Rights Activists in Tucson Block Deportation Buses | Al Jazeera America." Aljazeera. Aljazeera, 11 Oct. 2013. Web. 08 Apr. 2015.