Should undocumented immigrants have
'a shot at the American Dream'?

 

By Alan Shapiro

 

To the Teacher:

In March and April, 2006, illegal immigration, mostly Hispanic, became a major national issue as Congress debated immigration legislation and well over 1 million demonstrators took to the streets of American cities seeking a path toward citizenship for undocumented migrants.

The first reading deals with undocumented immigrants and the debate about what should be done about and/or for them. The second provides some basic statistical information about undocumented immigrants. The third invites students to examine and discuss major Congressional proposals on immigration. The fourth is a concise overview of the immigration debate. Discussion questions follow the readings. The unit also includes suggestions for further inquiry and an outline that might help the class fashion its own immigration legislation.

You might find an earlier set of materials on immigration helpful: "Illegal Immigrants: Why do they come? What should the U.S. do about them?"


 

Student Reading 1:
Undocumented migrants and the immigration debate


Part One

His skin breaks out in hives. He stays in the house when rumors fly about immigration raids in Homestead, Florida, where he lives. He gets frantic when his driver's license expires. New rules mean that he has to show proof that he lives in Homestead. "I try not to think about it at all," said Raymundo, 28. Raymundo's wife Isela, 26, is now a legal immigrant, although as a child she too was undocumented. "He's going to get stopped sooner or later," she says of her husband. Isela says she worries all the time that she will lose her husbandóand that their daughter Adriana will lose her father. (Newsweek, 4/10/06)

Christina, 46, came to Boca Raton, Florida, from Sao Paulo, Brazil, in January 2005, on a tourist visa. She is a single mother of an 8-year-old as well as two grown children who remain in Brazil. In Sao Paulo, Christina was an architect, then a co-founder of a spa. "There's just too many professionals and not enough jobs," Christina said. Now she cleans homes and offices and sleeps on a couch in a friend's apartment. "This is my life," she said. "But I still prefer America to Brazil. I have to think about a future for my child."

Jesus, 58, comes from Guerrero, Mexico, where he has a home and an 11-year-old daughter he has never seen. He can't go home to Mexico because he would be turned back at the border if he tried to return to the U.S.. He walked across the bridge at Tijuana 12 years ago, using a fake green card. He does lawn work, painting, and construction and rents a house with two roommates in Lake Worth, Florida. He sends money to Guerrero to pay for his house. "I don't think they will ever remove us," Jesus said. "We contribute a lot to this country. Who's going to rent these houses if we leave? Who's going to shop at that grocery?" he said, pointing to an ethnic market. (www.palmbeachpost.com, 4/5/06).

These three people are among 500,000 to 1 million undocumented migrants in Florida. All together, there are about 12 million undocumented migrants in the U.S., according to the Pew Hispanic Center (www.pewhispanic.org). Sometimes they are called illegal immigrants, or undocumented aliens, or illegals. Whatever they are called, they are not U.S. citizens or "documented workers" from other countries with "green cards." A green card grants a foreigner the right to live and work permanently in the U.S., but is available only under certain conditionsófor example, having a close relative who is an American citizen or a guarantee of work from an employer who successfully petitions the U.S. Immigration Service.

Part Two

Undocumented migrants have become the center of debate in Congress, where Senator Chuck Hagel (R, NB) said, "It encompasses societal, economic, security issues that are all woven into one fabric." Undocumented migrants have also become the center of action in the streets. In March and April demonstrators across the countryómore than a half million each in Los Angeles and Dallas, 300,000 in Chicago, tens of thousands in New York, Milwaukee, Denver, Phoenix, Atlantaómade headlines. What brought them out in such huge numbers, especially Mexican-Americans and other Latinos, was legislation passed in the House of Representatives that defined all illegal immigrants as felons and made aiding them in any way a crime.

"It's outrageous," said Angela Sanbrano, executive director of the Central American Resource Center of Los Angeles. "We needed to send a strong and clear message to Congress and to President Bush that the immigrant community will not allow the criminalization of our peopleÖ."(New York Times, 3/27/06) "We're sending a strong message that we are people of dignity," said Jaime Contreras, the president of a coalition of immigrant advocacy groups. "All that we want is to have a shot at the American dream." (New York Times, 4/11/06)

But Representative Tom Tancredo (R, CO) sees illegal immigration as a terrorist threat: "Yes," he said, "many who come across the border are workers. But among them are people coming to kill me and you and your children." Representative John Boehner (R, OH), the House majority leader, said, "Illegal immigration is just that, illegal, and Americans expect us to do something about illegal immigration." Many of those who want to crack down on undocumented immigrants argue that these immigrants are taking jobs that American citizens need and driving down wages. Brit Hume, the Fox News anchor, described the marchers, especially those carrying Mexican flags, as "a repellent spectacle."

On the other hand, Representative Jeff Flake (R, AZ) warned fellow Republicans to "be honest" and face economic realities. "As Republicans we need to recognize that we need foreign workers. That we need them now and that we're going to need them in the future," he said. "We're either gonna have them here legally or illegally. We have to make it possible for them to get here legally." (The Nation, 4/3/06)

"The stakes are enormous," a New York Times article pointed out, "because Hispanics now account for one of every eight United States residents, and for about half the recent growth in the country's population. Although Hispanics cast just 6 percent of the votes in the 2004 elections, birth rates promise an imminent explosion in the number of eligible voters." (3/30/06)

In some Western schools, the immigration issue has caused tensions. After students in Longmont, Colorado, waved the US flag in the faces of Mexican students in a hostile way, the principal temporarily banned any displays of American or Mexican flags. In Apache Junction, Arizona, the superintendent banned displays of flags on clothing after a dispute between students about flying the US and Mexican flags from a school flagpole. He lifted the ban after parents complained.

The strict immigration bill passed by the House is now stalled. After developing a compromise bill that would eventually enable many immigrants to become legal, the Senate was unable to pass it. Senator John Cornyn (R, TX) was one of those who voted against the bill because it "would repeat the mistakes of the past, but on a much larger scale because 12 million illegal immigrants would still be placed on an easier path to citizenship." The Senate will meet again in late April. Will it pass a compromise bill this time? If so, how will House and Senate members resolve their two very different bills? In the meantime, people like Angel Espinoza wait and worry.

Angel Espinoza, an undocumented migrant from Mexico, came to Chicago some years ago, got a job as a dishwasher making less than $4 an hour, became a cook and worked up to $15 an hour, then took a job driving a street-cleaning truck that now pays him $17 an hour before taxes and Social Security. He married Anita, an American-born descendant of Mexicans, and applied to become a legal resident. He was rejected because he had once been caught at the border and ordered not to return. But he had returned, and this meant he was eligible not for a green card but for deportation. Three years ago Angel and Anita had saved enough to buy a $200,000 house in a suburb where their 4-year-old daughter, an American citizen, is speaking English at her pre-school.

New York Times columnist John Tierney wrote that Angel Espinoza's story is very like that of his own grandfather, who came to Chicago from Ireland in 1911, worked his way up to better-paying jobs, bought a home with his wife and became an American citizen. And that of course is the big difference. In 1911 there weren't quotas on most immigrants "even though, relative to the population, there were more immigrants arriving and living here than there are today. If American could absorb my grandfather, why keep out Espinoza?" ("Angels in America," New York Times, 4/8/06)


For Discussion

1. What questions do students have about the reading? How might they be answered?

2. What is your reaction to the four brief stories about undocumented migrantsóRaymundo? Christina? Jesus? Angel Espinoza?

3. How do you answer Tierney's question? ("If American could absorb my grandfather, why keep out Espinoza?")

4. The presence of undocumented migrants pose societal, economic, security and political issues. In each case, why?

5. How would you explain the behavior of Colorado and Arizona students?

6. Why do you suppose Senator Cornyn and others in the Senate and the House oppose "an easier path to citizenship" for undocumented migrants? What do you think of such a path and why?



Student Reading 2:
Background information about undocumented migrants

1. How many immigrants enter the U.S. every year?

Legal immigrants: About 800,000
Illegal immigrants: About 500,000

2. Where do the undocumented migrants come from?

Mexico: 56%
Latin America: 22%
Asia: 13%
Canada, Europe: 6%
Africa, Othe: 3%

3. What do they do when they get here?

About 66% get jobs, usually at low wages; 16% are children; the rest are unemployed..

4. Where do they work?

JOB % Illegal Immigrants % Citizens or Legal Residents
Farming, fishing, forestry*
24%
76%
Cleaning
17%
83%
Construction
14%
86%
Food Preparation
12%
88%
Manufacturing
9%
91%
Transport
7%
93%
Other
2%
98%

(Sources: Pew Hispanic Center; Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement; Dr. Gordon Hanson, University of California, San Diego and in the New York Times, 4/2/06)

* "According to farmers' own estimates, about 70 percent of the 1.2 million workers tilling fields and picking crops are illegal immigrants." (New York Times, 3/23/06)

5. How many employers who hire illegal immigrants are fined for violating the law prohibiting such hiring?

In 2004 three letters of intent were issued to fine such employers.

(Source: Congressional General Accounting Office)

6. What is the effect on the wages of the poorest native-born workers as a result of immigrants entering the work force, legally and illegally (from 1980 to 2000)? According to one study, their wages have gone down, mainly because there is more intense competition for low-wage jobs.

For Asian workers: -3.1%
For White workers: -3.5%
For Black workers: -4.5%
For Hispanic workers: -5.0%

(Source: Professors George Borjas and Lawrence Katz of Harvard University)

But the professors acknowledge that their numbers do not consider other economic forces, for example that "certain businesses would not exist in the United States without cheap immigrant labor." One example: "the availability of foreign workers at low wages in the Nebraska poultry industry made companies realize they had the personnel to expand. So they invested in new equipment, generating jobs that would not otherwise be there." Such developments indicate that the effects of immigrant labor on pay for low-wage jobs is much less than Professors Borjas and Katz report. (Eduardo Porter, "Economic View," New York Times, 4/16/06) Statistics, even when accurate, can be misleading.

7. How many immigrants, both legal and illegal, have become citizens and can vote?

33%

(Source: Urban Institute)

8. What has been the effect of a 519% increase in funding and a 221% increase in border patrol staffing over the past 20 years to prevent undocumented immigrants entering the U.S.?

During the past 20 years the number of undocumented immigrants has risen from 4 million to over 11 million.

(Source: Migration Policy Institute, www.migrationpolicy.org reporting on a study prepared by former U.S. government officials, elected representatives and experts.

9. In 2005, how many people were caught along the U.S. border with Mexico?

1.2 million

(Source: Newsweek, 4/3/06)

10. What percentage of U.S. workers and low-wage workers were immigrants as of 2002?

14% of U.S. workers and 20% of low-wage workers are immigrants.

(Source: Urban Institute) "Only a third of these immigrant workers were naturalized citizens. So we already have a large disenfranchised work force, and it's growing rapidly." (Paul Krugman, New York Times, 3/31/06)


For discussion

1. What questions are raised for students about the information in this reading? How might they be answered?

2. What does the number of employers fined for hiring undocumented workers tell you about the enforcement of the law? How would you explain such limited enforcement?

3. It is often said that so many illegal workers are in the U.S. because they get hired to do work that other Americans won't do. What does item #6 tell you about that common view?

4. What do items #8 and #9 tell you about the effect of increased spending on border protection?

5. Item #10 reveals that only one-third of immigrant workers are citizens and able to vote, which means, of course, that the two-thirds who are not citizens cannot vote and that their numbers are "growing rapidly." Why is this a problem for a democratic country?


 

Create a just immigration law

1. Exercise: Dialogue in Pairs

This is a simple technique to get everyone engaged in conversation at the same time. Have students pair up in two's facing each other. Ask them to bring their own knowledge, opinions and experiences to the following question: What do you think are the most important measures that Congress should include in any legislation affecting the 12 million undocumented migrants in the U.S.?

Each student should have a minute or two to speak while his or her partner focuses complete attention on the speaker and what is being said. Next, have them briefly respond to their partner's views. Then, invite class discussion, listing on the chalkboard a good sampling of proposals.


2. Reading: Congressional Proposals

Here are some proposals that various members of the House of Representatives and the Senate have proposed:

1. Make undocumented migration into the U.S. a felony.

2. Build a 700-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexican border to keep illegal immigrants out of the U.S. Include unmanned aerial vehicles and infrared sensors as well as a substantially enlarged patrol force.

3. Make it a criminal offense to provide aid of any kind to undocumented migrants.

4. Penalize state and local governments that do not enforce immigration laws effectively.

5. Make employers hiring undocumented workers subject to a sentence of one year in prison.

6. Provide an opportunity for almost all undocumented workers to become citizens.

7. Allow up to 400,000 undocumented migrants to receive temporary permits to enter the U.S. to work if their employers can prove they cannot find Americans to hire.

8. Allow those undocumented migrants who have lived in the country at least five years (about 7 million people) to be put on a path for guaranteed citizenship provided that:

- they have jobs and remained employed
- they paid fines for coming to the U.S. illegally and paid back taxes
- they learned English

9. Require those who have lived in the U.S. for two to five years (about 3 million
people) to leave the country briefly before reporting to an American port of entry,
where they would be classified as temporary workers. These temporary workers would be allowed to apply for citizenship but would have no guarantee of obtaining it. If they were unsuccessful they would have to leave after being in the temporary worker program for six years.

10. Require those who have lived in the U.S. less than two years to leave. They could apply for temporary worker status but would not be guaranteed it.


3. Exercise: Fish Bowl

A "fish bowl" is one way to engage the entire class in one small group dialogue and is especially useful when students bring vastly different perceptions to a controversial topic. Invite five to seven students to begin the conversation. Ask them to make a circle with their chairs in the center of the room. Try to ensure that this group reflects diverse points of view on the issue.

Ask everyone else to make a circle of chairs around the fish bowl (so you will have a smaller circle within a larger circle). Only people in the fish bowl can speak; the others should listen in a focused and sustained way.

Begin by asking students in the fish bowl first to discuss concisely one congressional proposal on the immigration issue that they think most important. Each student speaks in a "go-around" without being interrupted. Next, allow a specific amount of time for clarifying questions and further comments.

After the allotted amount of time, invite students from the larger circle to participate in the fish bowl conversation by tapping a fish bowl student on the shoulder and moving into that student's seat.

Continue using this same procedure with different discussion issues and questions. For example: What is one congressional proposal you would definitely not include in any bill? Why? Or: What proposal, other than those offered by representatives and senators, would you include? Why?

Note: On October 26, 2006, President Bush signed into law a bill to seal 700 miles along the Southwestern border of the U.S. to keep out illegal immigrants. Most Republicans in the House supported the bill, but it was not what the president and a majority of Senate Republicans and Democrats originally favored.

The Senate's version of the billówhich was not adoptedóprovided for greater border security but also for a guest worker program, the possibility of citizenship for many of the estimated 12 million undocumented migrants in the country, and tougher penalties for illegal hiring. But these provisions were not included in the version of the bill that the President signed in October. According to the New York Times (10/27/06): "Eventually the president realized that a broad approach was dead for this election year, and he bowed to political reality and embraced the House concept, at least for the time being."

The "political reality" was that all House members who wished to continue as representatives were up for reelection at a time of rising hostility toward undocumented migrants and demands for greater border security. Any who supported the Senate bill were open to charges (even if they were not accurate) that they favored amnesty for the millions of immigrants already here illegally.

The newly passed law authorizes $1.2 billion for roads, vehicle barriers, electronic sensors, and other advanced technology to improve border security. There are already additional National Guard troops at portions of the border.

But the border runs for 2,000 miles. How many migrants will attempt to cross where security is non-existent? According to an advisor to the president-elect of Mexico, the U.S. law will only be good for smugglers, who will now charge illegal migrants more to get them across the border. A New York Times editorial (10/30/06) asked: What about the "40 percent of illegal immigrants who enter legally and overstay their visas"? And what about the 12 million who are already in the country?

The new law says nothing about these issues. What, if anything, will a new Congress do about them after the 2006 mid-term elections?




Student Reading 3:
Overview of immigration, immigration policies & attitudes toward immigrants

Part One

Undocumented migrants are nothing new in America. A cartoon shows a group of Pilgrims rowing ashore from their ship to Plymouth Rock. An Indian says to his wife and two kids, "Well, they look pretty undocumented to me." (New Yorker, 4/10/06)

On Thanksgiving Day, 1795, President George Washington called upon Americans to pray for their new nation to become "more and more a safe and propitious asylum for the unfortunate of other countries." The U.S. population at the time was somewhere between 4 and 5 million people. But not long after the president's call at least one Congressman argued that the U.S. was fully populated and needed to control immigration. Three years later Congress passed the Alien Acts. They increased the residence requirement for citizenship from five to fourteen years and gave President Adams the power to deport foreigners.

Right from the beginning of U.S. history Americans expressed conflicting attitudes toward immigrants and immigration. Through the decades, many people have felt proud that their country has offered a haven for people seeking freedom and opportunity; others have feared what they believe is ignorance or radical ideas among new immigrants. Many have welcomed hard-working people who build roads, canals, and buildings; others have resisted the presence of those who might take their jobs. Many have celebrated the melting pot, others have exhibited bigotry based on religion, social standing and skin color that has at times turned violent.

Around 1840 the word "nativism" was coined. The word is used to describe the views of those who consider themselves "native" who are opposed to the growing number of new immigrants. The arrival of many poor German and Irish immigrants in the 1820s led to "nativists" organizing Native American parties, as they described themselves.

Ads like this one appeared in newspapers: "WANTED, A Cook, Washer, and Ironer; who perfectly understands her business; any color or country except Irish." Most of the Irish immigrants were Catholic. Nativist Protestants came to believe that the pope planned to flood the U.S. with Catholics and destroy American freedoms. In 1834 a mob burned a convent in Charlestown, Massachusetts. In 1844 Philadelphia rioters burned several Catholic churches and killed and injured many Irish Catholics.

The Native American parties gradually merged into the "Know-Nothing" movement of the 1850s. The story goes that when a member was asked about the group, he replied, "I know nothing about it." A Know-Nothing journal of 1855, described its philosophy as Americanism. "The grand work of the American party is the principle of nationalityÖwe must do something to protect and vindicate it. If we do not it will be destroyed." Opponents of the Know-Nothings described their philosophy as bigotry.

In the 1870s and 1880s a rising labor movement was demanding an eight-hour day. On May 4, 1886, what began as a peaceful rally of workers in Haymarket Square, Chicago, turned violent after police moved in to break up the gathering. Someone threw a bomb, killing seven policemen. Dozens of workers were injured in the rioting that followed. Newspaper reaction was strong: "These people are not Americans, but the very scum and offal of EuropeÖ.long-haired, wild-eyes, bad-smelling atheistic, reckless foreign wretchesÖ.Our National existence, and, as well, our National and social institutions are at stake." (Quoted in John Higham's Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860-1925)

Part Two

Italian and Jewish immigrants, the latter mostly from Russia, along with others from Southern and Eastern Europe, began arriving in large numbers in the 1880s and 1890s. Most were poor, dressing differently and with different customs from the immigrants of Northern EuropeóBritons, Scandinavians, Germans. A New York newspaper expressed distaste for "Hebrew immigrants who lounge about Battery Park, obstructing the walks and sitting on the chains. Their filthy condition has caused many of the people who are accustomed to go to the park to seek a little recreation and fresh air to give up this practice." (John Higham, Strangers in the Land)

In Colorado, three Italians were dragged from jail and hanged. In New Orleans,11 were lynched. Workers at a New Jersey glass factory rioted when 14 Russian Jews were hired. In Mississippi, farmhouses belonging to Jewish landlords were burned.

Tens of thousands of Asian immigrants in California, especially the Chinese, suffered from the racism of white supremacist ideas about a "Yellow Peril." In the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Congress, for the first time, banned an entire national group from entering the country. And in 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt made an agreement with the Japanese government, which pledged to prevent any more Japanese from leaving Japan for America.

But there was also strong support for immigrant labor among business groups and associations. "Tremendous technological advances mechanized many industries so extensively that inexperienced foreigners could tend semi-automatic machines without understanding them, writes John Higham in Strangers in the Land. The Wall Street Journal and other business publications "rejoiced over the immigrants. America, they chorused, is still a growing place full of opportunity for an expanding population." As late as 1910, Higham notes, "a new Colorado Board of Immigration was enticing Italian farmers to the state." Prosperous cotton farmers in the South tried to attract immigrants, as did owners of expanding Southern railroads. In the North the demand was for factory labor.

But before and immediately after World War I, as immigrants from Southeastern Europe continued to pour into the country, labor groups like the American Federation of Labor and nativists began campaigning for significant immigration restriction. Union leaders worried about unemployment after American soldiers began coming home from Europe. Nativists stressed their belief that it would be impossible to assimilate and Americanize so many foreigners and expressed fear of foreign radicals. Meanwhile, immigration supporters emphasized America as the home of the oppressed, and the Knights of Columbus sponsored books on "immigrant gifts" to the country.

In 1921 and again in 1924, persuaded that the time had come for immigration restrictions, Congress passed quota laws. The National Origins Act of 1924 set immigration quotas by nationality based on the 1890 census. The result was that no more than 100 people could come from any African country or China; 125 could come from Lithuania but 51,227 were allowed from nearby Germany; 2,248 from Russia; 3,845 from Italy; and 34,007 from England. (Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States) And in 1929 total immigration was limited to 150,000 persons a year.

The U.S. Depression of the 1930s pumped up anti-immigrant sentiment. During a 1930s anti-immigrant campaign, according to USA Today, "Tens of thousands and possibly more than 400,000 Mexicans and Mexican-Americans were pressured-through raids and job denials-to leave the USAÖ.Many, mostly children, were U.S. citizens."

At the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, about 110,000 people of Japanese background lived on the West Coast. Seventy thousand were in their late teens and early twenties. Born in the U.S., they were American citizens. The other 40,000 were older people and not citizens because U.S. law did not permit them to be. Early in 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the removal of all these people of Japanese descent.

They had to leave their homes and places of business with few belongings and were housed in desert areas of California and other Western states. The last of these "relocation centers" was not closed until 1946. It took a struggle of more than 40 years for these Japanese-Americans to receive an apology from the U.S. government (in 1988) and $20,000 in reparations for loss of liberty and property.

Not until 1965 did a new law abolish national origin and race quota systems. Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens were allowed to enter the country and become citizens. In 1986 the Immigration Reform and Control Act granted amnesty to 2.7 million illegal immigrants, allowing them to become citizens. The measure also imposed fines on employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers.

Today there are 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. Many work in temporary jobs and are open to exploitation and mistreatment because they are here illegally. Employers can make them work harder than citizens and pay them less (and in some cases, cheat them out of their earnings altogether). As illegals, they have virtually no chance at organizing and/or joining unions.

Today there is a new turn in the centuries-old immigration debate, as thousands and thousands of demonstrators across the country demand that all immigrants have "a shot at the American dream."


For Discussion

1. What questions do students have about the reading? How might they be answered?

2. What seem to be major reasons for support for immigration? for hostility to immigrants?

3. How do you explain the exclusion of Chinese and Japanese immigrants? The demand for quota laws after World War I?

4. Support for immigration from at least some business leaders has been strong at various periods in American history. For example, why would support for immigrants be strong at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20thóas well as today?

 



For Inquiry

1. What conditions in the U.S. produced:

  • the Alien Act?
  • Anti-Catholicism?
  • Fears of the "Yellow Peril"?
  • The "Red Scare" and the Palmer raids of the 1920s?
  • Pressures on Mexican and Mexican-Americans to leave the U.S. during the 1930s?
  • The forced removal of Japanese-Americans and those of Japanese descent to "relocation camps" during the 1940s?
  • Demands for greater border security today?

2. Why do the numbers of undocumented migrants from Latin American countries, especially Mexico, continue to grow?

3. Many immigrants come for better-paying jobs and greater opportunities. But why can't they get such jobs and opportunities where they come from? What are the underlying forces that drive such immigration?



You Are A Member of Congress

Invite students to become members of Congress to formulate and pass a bill on undocumented immigrants.

1. Work with the class to organize two or more political parties.

2. Provide time for the parties to discuss and formulate a bill.

3. Have a speaker from each party present its bill for consideration.

4. Invite debate on each bill in turn.

5. Take a preliminary vote on each bill.

6. If no bill receives a majority vote, suggest small-group inter-party meetings to work out compromises.

7. Invite further discussion on each compromise bill.

8. Take another vote to see if there is now a majority decision.

9. Assuming that the class can reach such a decision, send a copy with an explanation to your U.S. Representative and Senators.



For writing

Policies toward undocumented immigrants are controversial. Frame a carefully-worded question about some aspect of this issue, then write a well-developed paper of 300-500 words in which you answer your own question.

 

This lesson was written for TeachableMoment.Org, a project of Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility. We welcome your comments. Please email author Alan Shapiro at: ashapiro7@comcast.net.

 


Back to top


 


© Morningside Center
475 Riverside Drive, Suite 550
New York, New York 10115
212.870.3318 | fax: 212.870.2464
info@morningsidecenter.org