Illegal Immigrant Children Research Paper

Franklin D. Roosevelt once said “Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you, I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.” It is important to remember that once upon a time ancestors came from a different country, or continent making us as individual’s immigrants. However, the individuals who suffer most from immigration and immigration policies are children. The article I read opened my eyes to see that children of illegal immigration suffer from many types of neglect. For example, illegal immigrants who are children are seen by the law as adults, and are made to stand up for themselves in some cases even to fend for themselves.

In the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth century a mass migration of immigrants including numerous European groups, migrated to the United States. Amongst the individuals who migrated over, millions were children. Even though they were children many contributed to the labor and economy. It is crazy to think children helped in constructing the back bone of the labor force. However, during this time illegal immigrants were considered supplemental laborers. It is interesting to compare the lifestyle of children in the past to present. Back in those times children would work alongside their parents letting

education slip. In correlation, to the present education is the number one priority, and influence in a child’s life.
I have seen in the news, and personally have talked to individulas who have migrated to the United States in times of war, and economic collapse. In the late twentieth century, civil wars forced those who resided in Central America to migrate/flee to the U.S. Hundreds upon thousands came here for a better life, and to escape. However, not all were fortunate in this journey, many had to go into battle. In present time, the refugee crisis the U.S faces with Syria is where there has been a large quantity of immigrants to relocate to due war. It is devastating to see millions of individuals displaced of their homes or worse have lost their lives because of war, more than half of these individuals are children. Time, and time again I have heard many say that “The children are our future, they are the ones to help in creating a better future”.
Many children are not given the chance to a better life or education. There are those who live in poverty, and war torn countries. Therefore, influencing many to migrate in most cases children and parents do not have the option to come here legally; resulting in illegal immigration. Reading through the article I saw that in many cases children are often times migrating without a parent. Therefore, facing neglect in the process of an immigration law. For example, there is a visa called the Special Immigrant Juvenile Visa; allowing unaccompanied children in the United States legally. Most cases children or young adults go to juvenile court and face this grueling process in order to receive a legal visa; the court does not address their basic needs often times leaving children to care of themselves. A reason for this is the court sees the children as an adult or the equivalent to a young adult.
The article THE NEGLECT OF THE IMMIGRANT CHILD: MAKING THE CASE FOR A CHILD-CENTERED APPROACH TO UNITED STATES IMMIGRATION POLICY is up to date it was published in the Winter of 2016.

The article was well balanced between showing statistical information, and opinions. I was more interested in reading the article when I saw that the author had included information on history. For example,” In post-war America, President Harry Truman signed into law the Displaced Persons Act of 1948, an emergency measure that responded to the influx of refugees searching for stability in the aftermath of World War II.” (Padilla-Rodriguez 14). This information was interesting to come across because it was new information to

me.
The author Ivon Padilla-Rodriguez is a Scholar and Ph.D. student at Columbia University’s department of history. She researches information regarding twentieth century immigration policies and histories of childhood. Also, she has co-published the award winning story The Country I Call Home. Her target audience is for professionals, students and those who would like to learn more about immigration. When reading this article, I found the purpose of the article was to inform. Throughout I did not feel like she was trying to sell or promote a certain product it was nice to read an article without having an ad thrown towards me.
Altogether, the article was enjoyable to read, originally I was going to do my final paper on the immigration policy. However, when coming across this article in particular I found information on the effects of immigration on children. After reading this article my focus for writing my final paper has shifted to show the effects of the immigration policy. Although, I will not be using this in particular article for my research in my finale paper. The reason being that I would like to find more information so I could have more details to go by.