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Presidential
Election 2008:
Our Broken Immigration System
By
Alan Shapiro
To
the Teacher
Lawmakers
seem unable to produce a comprehensive immigration reform policy
or to discuss one rationally and compassionately. Though the issue
is of major concern to many voters, it's not easy to discuss.
This became evident in the recent uproar over whether illegal
immigrants should be able to obtain driver's licenses.
An
introductory class exercise on the driver's license issue precedes
three student readings. The first reading details the driver's
license issue and the kinds of "debate" it evoked from
the presidential candidates. The second reading reports on recent
factual findings about immigration, legal and illegal. The third
reading offers an historical commentary. Discussion questions
and a suggested inquiry study on a new immigration policy follow.
Three
other sets of materials about immigration are available on this
website:
A
question and an introductory discussion
Should
an illegal immigrant be issued a driver's license?
The
2008 Democratic presidential candidates were asked this question
during a debate in Nevada. An estimated 200,000 illegal, or undocumented,
immigrants live that state.
YOU
ARE A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE. At a debate the moderator asks you:
Should an illegal immigrant be issued a driver's license?
Divide
the class into groups of four to six students. Each student has
90 seconds to give a yes/no response and brief explanation to
the group. The group is to discuss the answers given and select
the one it regards as best.
The originator of the best answer from each group should then
to present his or her view to the class. Then conduct a discussion
about the responses from the groups. The class might return to
this subject and their views about it at the conclusion of their
work on immigration.
Student
Reading 1:
Illegal
Immigrants, driver's licenses & the presidential candidates
Yes,
said New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, illegal immigrants should
have driver's licenses. Why? Since the U.S. Congress has been
unable to produce a new immigration policy, he said, it makes
sense to be certain that behind every wheel in New York is an
insured driver who has passed a state test. The Spitzer proposal
provided that the license could not be used as an ID for boarding
planes or crossing borders. Similar plans exist in Maryland, Oregon,
and six other states.
The
reaction was swift and loaded with accusations. Lou Dobbs on CNN
described the Democratic governor's proposal as wonderful for
9/11 terrorists. Republican New York State Assembly minority leader
James Tedesco declared that "somewhere in a cave with his
den of thieves and terrorists," Osama bin Laden was celebrating
with champagne. Monroe County, NY, Republicans distributed a flier
of a turbaned man with an assault rifle under the headline "Democrat
County legislators want to make it easier for illegals and terrorists
to get driver's licenses!" (The Nation, 12/10/07)
Governor
Spitzer responded. "It's better to know who they [the undocumented
immigrants] are than pretend they don't exist. I knew there would
be opposition. I don't think anyone predicted quite this level
of venom." (www.usatoday.com,
11/12/07)
The
uproar over the governor's proposals led debate moderator Tim
Russert to ask the Democratic presidential candidates if it made
"a lot of sense to give an illegal immigrant a driver's license."
The question made it almost inevitable that combat over driver's
licenses would make it impossible to discuss the complexities
of immigration reform.
Hillary
Clinton answered: "We know in New York we have several million
at any one time who are in New York illegally. They are undocumented
workers. They are driving on our roads. The possibility of them
having an accident that harms themselves or other is just a matter
of the odds. It's probability. So what Governor Spitzer is trying
to do is to fill the vacuum. There needs to be federal action
on immigration reform."
Senator
Christopher Dodd disagreed. "Look, I'm as forthright and
progressive on immigration policy as anyone here," he said,
"but we're dealing with a serious problem here, we need to
have people come forward. The idea that we're going to extend
this privilege here of a driver's license, I think, is troublesome."
Clinton
responded, "I just want to add, I did not say that it should
be done, but I certainly recognize why Governor Spitzer is trying
to do it."
John
Edwards attacked. "Unless I missed something, Senator Clinton
said two different things in the course of about two minutes just
a few minutes ago, and I think this is a real issue for the country."
Barack
Obama added: "I was confused on Senator Clinton's answer.
I can't tell whether she was for it or against it, and I do think
that is important."
The
Republican National Committee issued a statement fifteen minutes
after the debate: "Immigration is yet another issue where
Hillary Clinton does not have a clear stance. When asked whether
illegal immigrants should not receive a driver's license, Hillary
did not raise her hand. Then when presented with a question concerning
Spitzer's plan, she would not take a stand."
The
next day Republican presidential campaigns of candidates Mitt
Romney and Rudolph Giuliani commented. A Romney spokesman said
Clinton was "dismissive of efforts to enforce our nation's
immigration laws and entirely unwilling to offer a straight answer
to a very direct question." A Giuliani spokeswoman agreed:
"The American people can't afford half-baked ideas that undermine
their safety and security."
The
controversy was heated but didn't last long. Governor Spitzer
gave up. "I have concluded that New York State cannot address
this problem on its own," he said. "The federal government
has lost control of its borders. It has allowed millions of undocumented
immigrants to enter our country and now has no solution to deal
with it. When the federal abdicates its responsibilities, states,
cities, towns and villages have to deal with the practical reality
of that failure. And we face that reality everyday in our schools,
in our hospitals and on our roads."
Representative
Jose Serrano, a Bronx Democrat, said "The governor was not
defeated by anything other than hate in this country toward immigrants
right now." (www.foxnews.com,
11/14/07)
In
a November 28 debate, the Republican candidates also sparred on
immigration. Romney accused Giuliani, while mayor of New York
City, of ignoring the law and welcoming illegal immigrants to
his "sanctuary city." Giuliani attacked Romney for hiring
illegal immigrants to work on the lawn at his "sanctuary
mansion." Fred Thompson declared that while governor of Massachusetts,
Romney did nothing about several cities in that state with immigration
policies similar to those in New York and accused Romney of flip-flopping
on immigration.
Romney
argued that Mike Huckabee as governor of Arkansas was wrong to
provide a tuition break for the children of illegal immigrants
going to college. Huckabee responded, "In all due respect,
we're a better country than to punish children for what their
parents did."
Senator
John McCain struck another humane note. "We need to sit down
as Americans and recognize these are God's children as well, and
they need some protections under the law, and they need some of
our love and compassion."
In
neither debate did the moderator direct the presidential candidates
to discuss why immigration reform seems so difficult to accomplish
and how this difficulty might be overcome.
For discussion
1.
What questions do you have about the reading? How might they
be answered?
2. How do you evaluate Governor Spitzer's proposal? The
reactions to it?
3.
If you were a governor, would you want to adopt his plan? Why
or why not?
4.
Why do you think the immigration issue arouses such emotional
responses?
5.
How would you explain why most of the presidential candidates
seem more interested in making other candidates look bad than
in dealing with the substance of an issue? What role does the
moderator seem to play in this behavior? How do you explain his
behavior?
6.
Do you think that Representative Serrano's opinion is accurate?
Why or why not?
Student
Reading 2:
Facts about immigrants and immigration
Whether the issue is driver's licenses, schooling or aid of any
kind to undocumented immigrants, the presidential candidates as
well as congressional candidates are easily caught up in a game
the media call "Gotcha!" One object is to make a candidate
look bad by being caught in conflicting positions or shown as
a flip-flopper. Another is to provide entertainment for the public.
A serious,
factual consideration of serious immigration questions and issues
complicate the subject. The Center for Immigration Studies (www.cis.org),
an advocate of reduced immigration, analyzing U.S. Census data
as of March 2007, concluded the following:
1.
More immigrants--10.3 million--entered the U.S. in the past seven
years than in any other seven-year period in American history.
2.
More than half of these people are illegal immigrants who
come from Mexico and Central America.
3.
An estimated 11.3 million undocumented immigrants are in the
U.S.
4.
Most recent immigrants, both legal and illegal, are low-skilled,
low-paid workers.
5.
About one-third of all immigrants and their children lack
health insurance, compared with 13 percent of native-born Americans.
6.
About one-third of immigrants have not finished high school compared
with 8.4 percent of American citizens.
7.
About one-third of immigrant families receive some public
assistance, mainly food stamps and Medicaid associated with care
for their children.
8.
A majority of the children of immigrants were born in the
United States and are therefore American citizens even if their
parents are undocumented.
But
other analysts say that these Center for Immigration Studies findings
distort the reality. "This is a one-eyed portrait,"
said Dowell Myers, a demographer at the University of Southern
California. "It is a profile of immigrants' dependency without
any profile of their contributions." His research shows that
California immigrants "moved up quickly to steadier jobs
with more benefits, and the rates of uninsured immigrants dropped
sharply."
The
implication that illegal immigrants use a disproportionate share
of public services is "misleading," said Wayne Cornelius,
a political science professor at the University of California,
San Diego. Illegal immigrants "are less likely to have health
insurance, but they are also less likely to seek medical attention."
He says the CIS study also "obscures the very significant
progress that immigrants' children and their grandchildren typically
make." (New York Times, 11/29/07)
The
private Fiscal Policy Institute (www.fiscalpolicy.org)
studied immigrants, both legal and illegal, in New York State,
as well as foreign-born New Yorkers who have been in the country
for many years. It found the following:
1.
In the New York State there are 4.1 million immigrants, about
3 million of whom live in New York City. Most speak English.
2.
About one of every six of these immigrants is here illegally.
3.
Immigrants produce nearly one-fourth of the economic output of
the state.
4.
In the New York City suburbs, about 4 of every 10 doctors and
more that one-fourth of college professors were foreign-born.
5.
In upstate New York, 5 percent of residents are foreign-born but
make up one-fifth of the professors and more than one-third of
the doctors.
6.
Statewide, immigrants make up 21 percent of all residents and
contribute 22.4 percent of the gross domestic product of the state.
7.
In New York City, immigrants make up 37 percent of the population
and earn 37 percent of all wages and salaries. Many are taxi drivers,
housekeepers and home health aides but one-fourth of the city's
chief executives are immigrants too.
8.
"Without them, the report suggested, the city's revival over
the last 25 years might never have taken place." (New
York Times, 11/26/07)
A new
report released by the Pew
Hispanic Center in Washington, a nonpartisan research organization,
said that "Most children of Hispanic immigrants in the United
States learn to speak English well by the time they are adults,
even though three-quarters of their parents speak mainly Spanish
and do not have a command of English." The report also found
that "Hispanics are generally eager to master English, believing
it is 'necessary for success in the United States.'" (New
York Times, 11/30/07)
Facts
are often boring, but responsible decision-making on immigration
means knowledge and accurate use of them.
For
discussion
1.
What questions do you have about the reading? How might they be
answered?
2.
Were there any surprises for you in this reading? Why?
3.
How do you explain the significant increase in immigration over
the past seven years? If you can't, how might you find out?
4.
Why do you suppose that lawmakers have been unable to decide
what to do about the 11.3 million undocumented immigrants in the
country?
5.
What does the information from the Fiscal Policy Institute suggest
to you about why immigrants have made such a significant contribution
to New York City's revival over the past quarter century?
Student Reading 3:
A commentary on immigration
In 1882, embracing racist and white supremacist ideas about a
"Yellow Peril," the U.S. Congress passed the Chinese
Exclusion Act.
Just
four years later an inscription on the Statue of Liberty declared,
"give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning
to breathe free."
It
seems that Americans' mixed feelings about immigrants must date
to at least May 14, 1607. On that day 103 Englishmen landed in
Virginia. Native Americans soon learned that these illegal immigrants
had arrived and were constructing a fort on land that did not
belong to them. During the following years, contacts between native
Americans were at times pleasant, but more often produced savage
warfare.
On
Thanksgiving Day, 1795, President George Washington urged Americans
to pray for the U.S. to become "a safe…asylum for the
unfortunate of other countries." But by the 1830s and 1840s
nativist American rioters were burning Catholic churches in Massachusetts
and Philadelphia and forming organizations to oppose the growing
number of German and Irish immigrants arriving in the U.S. ("Nativists"
are those who regard themselves as native, or original, Americans,
and who give preference to "natives" over newer immigrants.)
Groups like the Know-Nothings of the mid-19th century organized
around negative stereotypes of immigrants and promoted anti-immigrant
policies.
More
than 98 percent of Americans are immigrants or are descended from
them, and most Americans are quite aware of this. But while Americans
frequently celebrate their diversity, they have also reacted negatively
when people who look a little different from themselves arrive
in their neighborhood, speak English poorly or not at all, eat
foods that look peculiar to them, and have customs that seem strange
(because the foods and customs are different from theirs).
There
are several common reasons for this negativity or even active
animosity:
Economic:
Newcomers in the 19th century took away from citizens jobs
on roads and canals and other hard labor work because, out of
necessity, they were willing to work for less pay. Today, undocumented
immigrants continue to do very hard jobs for very low pay (such
as farm work and meatpacking). But business groups and employers
then and now have welcomed this cheap labor. Studies have found
that immigrants' low wages don't affect other workers' wages as
much as some people believe. (See, for instance, the following
article in the New York Times, 4/16/06: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/16/business/yourmoney/16view.html)
Religious:
Most of the earliest settlers were Protestants. The later
arrival, for example, of Catholics led nativist Protestants to
believe that the pope intended to flood the country with his co-religionists
and destroy American freedoms. This ignorant belief only helped
breed more bigotry.
Political:
When large numbers of immigrants have entered the U.S., they
have gradually become a threat to politicians who have position,
power, and influence and fear they will lose it to the newcomers.
Skin
color: In America, whites ruled, blacks were enslaved, dark
or yellow-skinned people of any background likely to be exploited,
viewed as inferior and subject to stereotyping.
This
summer, Congress failed to pass an immigration reform bill proposed
by President Bush. (The bill got more support from Democrats than
from Republicans, but did not get enough support from either party
to pass.) The measure would have:
- given
most illegal immigrants a chance to become citizens over a period
of years.
- created
a system for family members and others to get visas
- created
a temporary worker program
- required
that employers determine the legal status of all job applicants
However,
Congress was able to muster the votes to pass measures aimed at
keeping Mexican and Central Americans out of the U.S.
Today
most Americans can probably agree that the U.S. system of immigration
law has not been enforced and is broken. They would also probably
agree that despite various proposals to fix the system, elected
officials have been unable to agree upon anything other than to
create a 700-mile barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border that includes
aerial surveillance, sensors, and a beefed up patrol force. (Despite
all this, illegal immigrants keep getting in anyway, even if in
smaller numbers.) Some proponents of these measures say that they
are necessary to prevent terrorists from entering the country.
But nobody has suggested a similar barrier on the 4,000-mile U.S.-Canada
land border.
For discussion
1.
What questions do you have about the reading? How might they be
answered? Consider, in particular, the reasons given for negative
feelings toward immigrants in American history. Can you offer
any other reasons for this anti-immigrant feeling?
2.
You are probably an immigrant or a descendant of immigrants. What
do you know about your family's immigration history?
For
small group discussion
1.
Debates
During
the primary presidential campaign debates, a candidate has 90
seconds to answer a question and 30 seconds for response to another
candidate's remarks. Contrast that with the rules for a series
of Lincoln-Douglas senatorial debates in 1858 as described by
Doris Kearns Goodwin in her Team of Rivals: The Political Genius
of Abraham Lincoln:
"Each
debate followed the same rules. The first contestant spoke for
an hour, followed by a one-and-a-half-hour response, after which
the man who had gone first would deliver a half-hour rebuttal.
The huge crowds were riveted for the full three hours, often interjecting
comments, cheering for their champion, bemoaning the jabs of his
opponent. Newspaper stenographers worked diligently to take down
every word, and their transcripts were swiftly dispatched throughout
the country."
Of
course these were debates between two candidates, not seven or
eight. However, when the two parties select their nominees and
there are only two candidates debating, they are still allotted
only short periods of time in which to present and rebut.
How
would you explain the differences in debates then and now? Which
seems superior? Why?
2. Drivers Licenses
Revisit
the driver's license issue with students. Organize them into the
same discussion groups that began an examination of legal and
illegal immigration. Have any students changed their minds? If
so, how and why? If not, why not? A recorder in each group should
present a summary report of the discussion to the class. Class
discussion might follow.
For inquiry
A. Encourage students to answer the questions below with
fact-based, thoughtful, compassionate, and politically smart answers
that will help them consider comprehensive immigration reform.
1.
What are some reasons why so many people, especially from Mexico
and Central America, risk illegal entrance into the U.S.? What
changes in U.S. immigration policy might take such reasons into
consideration?
2.
What should the U.S. government do about the 11.3 million people
who are in the country illegally? Why? How?
3.
Who hires illegal immigrants? Where? Why?
4.
What should the U.S. government do about employers who hire illegal
immigrants? Why? How?
5.
Should the U.S. government do anything about those who provide
aid of any kind to an illegal immigrant? Why? If so, what?
6.
Should illegal immigrants be issued drivers' licenses? What consequences
are likely to follow from a yes answer? A no?
7.
What effects do immigrants have on the U.S. economy and on
other workers?
8.
Why didn't the most recent attempt at immigration reform become
law? How do you explain the passionate opposition of many Americans
to it? What do your answers suggest about the politics of making
another attempt?
Organize
students for independent and small group inquiries into the immigration
situation. What questions are on their minds? See "Thinking
Is Questioning" on this website for detailed suggestions
for helping students ask worthwhile questions and conduct productive
inquiries.
B.
After students have completed their inquiries, organize them
in small groups to fashion a class immigration policy.
For
citizenship
See
"Teaching Social Responsibility"
for a number of suggestions about class projects that might address
the immigration issue. Consider one that involves a school-wide
approach to the controversial and vital issue of immigration reform.
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.
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