The Framing Of Immigration By George Lakoff And Sam Ferguson

In order to dehumanize a group of people, there must first be a clear separation between who is the “us” and “them.” The conservative documentary Border War: The Battle Over Illegal Immigration (2006), takes the viewer into the lives of several people who are impacted by the growing issue of undocumented Mexican immigrants crossing the The Mexico–United States border. This film creates a one-dimensional or single conception of undocumented immigrants through the use of language, such as “illegal” or “alien” and various other combinations. Another method is through the imagery it showed while there was dialogue being said. Most of the imagery in this film creates a narrative that undocumented Mexican immigrants are violent and a threat to Americans. Additionally, the sympathizers and protesters against border reform were portrayed as anti-American radicals. The production of this documentary was not only used to direct our view of undocumented immigrants to a single account, but also to establish false truths that turn undocumented immigrants into a “them.”

5) and has actually made concessions that play into the labeling of community members as good-immigrant and bad-immigrant. The labels of good and bad immigrant only helps to further normalize the criminalization and dehumanization of people based on their migrant status. “The logical consequence of adopting a good-immigrant and a bad-immigrant binary is agreement that the undocumented are criminals and thus the natural and race neutral solution must be to punish and deport the undocumented for their reputed transgression–not to challenge the underlying structural reason people migrate.” (Gonzales, p. 151) This leads to the fragmentation of the migrant population and often leads to the splitting of families. The short term victories in immigration reform with the onset of bills such as DACA (Deferred Action for Children Act) playing on the depiction of parents forcing illegal migration on their children and the institutional recognition of it not being the child’s fault that their parent were criminals continues to deny the larger societal structures that continue to only perpetuate deferred consequence under the guise of progress.

Immigration has been a hot button topic in the United States since as early as the 1800s. With the arrival of Europeans from nations such as Ireland or Poland, so also came many prejudices against these people. In the United States today a similar story unfolds down along the Southern border. People of Latino decent continue to cross the border into the US seeking a better life and the American dream. However not all of the individuals are joining the ranks of US citizens by legal means causing many social strains on the public image of immigration. Because of those that enter illegally, policymakers demonize all immigrants and enforce strict immigration and deportation laws. They cite immigration as the reason for crime rates and the dissolution of American values. This harsh rhetoric casts a negative image on all immigrants and is a bigger problem than immigration is.

In the article, “Media can Broaden the Immigration Debate by Putting a Human Face on Immigrant Experiences” by Richard Pineda not only simplifies immigration as a whole, but essentially lacks the sufficient amount of information that would effectively validate why the economic impact of immigration in America is so eminent. Because immigration is such a broad topic, authors like Pineda have essentially focused on only one aspect to examine and analyze; however, the evidence provided in this particular article does not clarify any of the existing ambiguity of the issue. In this case, Pineda asserts that, “the United States will always have economic enticements and global economic pressure requiring workforces to move into a place much more

Yee, V., Davis, K., & Patel, J. (2017, March 06). Here’s the Reality About Illegal Immigrants in the United States. Retrieved November 10, 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/03/06/us/politics/undocumented-illegal-immigrants.html

Criminality in our country is often assigned to you at birth determined by trivial categories such as race, class, gender, immigration status, religion, and the list can continue forever. Life outcomes can be predetermined when taking all of these identities into account, making someone more susceptible to the reach of the mass incarceration system. However, I will be focusing on undocumented immigrants and how being seen as “illegal” is part of their daily lived experiences and how there are very strong parallels between the immigration detention centers and prisons in the United States. Undocumented people experience similar forms of social and political disenfranchisement that people affected by the criminal justice system also have to

According to Thompson, the language which is used to construct the representation of immigrants is describing people as “illegal” or “alien” versus describing them as “undocumented” or “unauthorized.” (p.491) However, politics has become more upset and the media organizations are trying to codify language to make it neutral. Somehow, the government are exasperating immigrants as a host of negative connotation, meaning labeling them as criminals. The language that is being justified as inequality and oppression is how people mistreat all people of color especially, Latinos, which she talks about the most in this article. For example, she mentions immigrants has been called wet backs, aliens and wet backs. Those words have a powerful meaning upon them. In other words, people claim they are only neutral. Based on the influences of perception about public

The reforming of America?s immigration policy is something that can no longer be avoided and must be dealt with as soon as possible. Years of neglect by governmental agencies and policies makers have now made this issue one of the biggest in American politics. First of it must be understood that immigration does no only effect curtain areas of the country and curtain aspect of public life but rather all of American life. Both legal and illegal immigration affect major issues such as jobs availability for all citizens, wages, education in public schools system and in general, health care issues, and the homeland security.

A couple of facts that counters the image of illegal immigrants as criminals include, “The anti-immigrant forces draw, for example, on the ‘2006 (first quarter) INS [immigration and Naturalization service/FBI statistical report on undocumented Immigrants’ with its array of alarming statistics about illegal immigrants and crime to make their case that undocumented immigrants not only break the law entering the country but also break the laws, with a proclivity to violent crimes, once they make their homes here.” And, “One of the most disturbing findings of the IPC study was that immigrant children and immigrants with many years in the country are more likely to become criminals than first-generation immigrants or those with less than 15

When immigration policy is discussed, typically, it is discussed within the confines of egalitarian notions and sentiments, and inside the boundaries and parameters set by generally Marxist-influenced social democracy. Characteristically, it is not discussed pertaining to the concept of a social order built on the rights of property owners, sharers, and contributors to and of the common stock- which at their discretion- may exclude bad apples, lazy contributors, rotten characters, trespassers, and terrorists. Once egalitarian sentiments and notions are rejected full-scale- (only giving credence to those that have empirical weight or logical consistency) more proper, more substantive interdisciplinary analyses may reveal that the current investigative techniques employed by current mainstream political theorists are- in the context of reality, incorrect, superficial and quite shallow.

In recent discussion s of illegal immigration, a controversial issue has been whether or not to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants in the U.S. On the one hand, some argue that amnesty shouldn’t be granted to illegal criminals. From this perspective, there are downfalls that many ignore and is unjust and stereotypical that all illegals are dangerous criminals. On the other hand, however, others argue that amnesty should be granted to illegal immigrants and how all of us are immigrants. In the words of one of this view’s main supporters,” Our country is strong because of generation after generation of immigrants… were all immigrants” (We Are All Immigrants.). According to this view, Obama’s saying immigrants have a huge impact economically within the U.S that makes it stronger and how we are all immigrants in this country. In sum, then the issue is whether amnesty should be dismissed and deportation take place or pardon illegals with amnesty and recognizes basic, simple fact that immigrants are a benefit to the U.S. My own view is that Amnesty should be passed. Though I concede that many are against this and there are some illegals that are criminals escaping into the U.S. I still maintain that amnesty should be given because it’s what keeps the United States strong and should apply to what the United States stands for and how we are all immigrants.

The long-term effects of immigration policy, such as DACA, can only be speculated. Recent activity from the Trump administration has suggested the dismantling of DACA while proposing stricter immigration policy such as the merit-based immigration policy known as Reforming American Immigrants for Strong Employment (RAISE) Act (Gelatt, 2017). Therefore, continuously studying immigration policy is essential to understanding the potential impact on the United States. This capstone will examine social-disorganization theory and how it perpetuates the stigma associated with immigrants and criminal behavior, specifically as it relates to DACA and the future of immigration policy.

In the report “The Criminalization of Immigration in the United States” written for the American Immigration Council, Walter Ewing, Daniel E. Martínez and Rubén G. Rumbaut analyze how immigrants are often stigmatized as criminals, even though the statistics show otherwise. The paper studies the criminalization of immigrants in great detail by using several highly-credible sources such as National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) and National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) and conclude that Fears that immigration will lead to an escalation of crime and delinquency are unfounded.

A nation’s identity is reflected in claims regarding the ethnic origin of its citizens, the immigrants fail to assimilate into the original population, and replace its culture with their own. They often isolate themselves into micro level communities and refuse to learn the local language, there self attempts to segregate does not coincide with their claims for equal rights. Anti-Immigration groups also argue that illegal immigrants place economic strains on the country by stealing

Systematic policies primed the political arena in the United States to pass the Immigration Act of 1924, which solidified the term “illegal aliens”. That 1924 Act solidified the term “illegal aliens” by outline means to criminalized these groups. The terms “illegal aliens/alien” are used to defined those subjects are deemed unfit or American society. “Illegal aliens” are perceived as undesirable because they erode American society. American society can historically be interpreted being white American values and practice. They lack the ability to assimilate to “American society” (Ngai 57). Immigration statutes from 1921 and 1924 did not clearly outlines which groups are undesirable to