Illegal Immigration

Grant: What Celia has experienced is similar  to what is currently happening to Mexicans are experiences today. As we now Mexico is a dangerous, violent place. Mexicans want to live in safer more secure place. Most will choose to try the United States of America. Would-be immigrants trying to enter America for Mexico face some of the strictest immigration laws in the world. After being turned around some will try to immigrate, illegally. There are many ways of doing this, popular ones being hiding inside a vehicle, swimming across the border and so on. Almost everyone attempting this will hire a “coyote.” These people know the ins and outs of the US Mexico border. Often these “coyotes” work with the US government and hand the would-be illegal aliens over to US border patrol. Like in the novel the United States is cracking down on illegal “aliens.” They have very strict and, from personal experiences, scary border guards.  Farmer must have modeled the farm patrol after the United Sates border guards. Similar she also featured the use of coyotes in her novel. Currently the United States is creating new very strict laws against illegal immigrates. The will “make life difficult for illegals aliens.” This new law stops aliens from being able to get IDs or public assistance. It also gives police the right to check the immigration status of anyone they arrest.  This is a key step in stopping the flow of illegal immigrants from the southern states to the northern states. Something similar happens in opium. Any illegal immigrant in opium is turned into and eejit. This is very extreme but effective. I believe that US border patrol can learn something from El Patron. Instead of sending the aliens back you can put then to work. We could keep them in a controlled prison style factory. This is something the United States does already. Convicts can be put to work assembling or making things inside the prison.

http://articles.cnn.com/2007-11-02/us/oklahoma.immigration_1_illegal-immigrants-immigration-law-immigration-status?_s=PM:US

Curtis: Right now the process for people crossing the border seems to be fair to me. If someone can’t get across the border legally it is probably for a good reason they can’t. I do think that calling them aliens is going to far though. Even if people don’t want them there they are still people and calling them aliens is just to mean. They still deserve rights and they are probably immigrating because of a problem in their home country like in Celia’s story. I can see why they would decide to leave if they all they where doing was working all the time and doing nothing else. And if you were going to leave it would make sense to get a professional aka coyote to help instead of trying to escape on your own but you are taking a risk when doing that. If the coyote leads you right to the police like in Celia’s story then you are caught and at a risk of being deported or worse as you can in Celia’s case. I think that doing what El Patron was doing was unnecessary and maybe instead of turning them into eejits he could of sent them back and if they were caught again then they become eejits. This is because they probably have a reason to leave and should be given a second chance. I think that the steps they are taking in this newspaper article are needed to stop illegal immigration but I still think that they should just be sent back and given another chance. If they still try and come back again hen they should be punished further.

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2012/03/15/mississippi-lawmakers-pass-anti-illegal-immigration-law/

Evan:

In Celia's story, we read about her attempt to escape from her home town in what used to be Mexico.  It tells us that she was working in a factory. Celia told Matt, that all day she sat on an assembly line and put tiny squares into tiny holes with a pair of tweezers. (page 141) Celia then became a cook because she knew how to, and met a 'coyote' who would take her across the border into the United States.  Coyotes are people who take people across the boarder and most of the time they just scam the people by taking their money and leaving them.This was the case in the book because the coyote abandoned her and left her and the others to die in the desert. The group was found by the 'farm patrol which are pretty much the boarder patrol of opium. At that moment Celia was an illegal immigrant.  There are two basic ways for people to cross the boarder illegally. One of the biggest ways (and the way most people do) of illegal immigration is through a visitors visa. A visitors visa gives a person a certain amount of time in a country before they must return to their home country. Often people stay long after their visa is expired.  So The second way to cross the border. People get someone like a 'coyote' or someone related to drug trafficking to guide you across the border through like a tunnel or like a boat.

http://roygermano.wordpress.com/2011/08/09/how-do-people-immigrate-illegally/


Akash:

Immigrant: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43499929/ns/us_news-life/t/pulitzer-winning-journalist-admits-hes-illegal-immigrant/ - .T2OWIWbv538

This article is about a reporter who had come to America illegally when he was a young child. He became a journalist with fake documents and no one had noticed, until he had finally spoken out that he was done with running from being a illegal immigrant. He had worked hard and achieved many things while working, however he was not allowed to become a citizen even with these many achievements. This story really shows the human part of illegal immigration as opposed to the legal side.  I believe the reason why people immigrate from a country is mainly because they want to be successful, or live a safer, or better life than they would be able to in their country. This is why I think Celia tried to escape Aztlan and go to America, she describes Aztlan as a dangerous, and very poor country and that it was not safe for her. I believe that the reason why immigrant’s like Celia would rely on a “coyote” to bring them across the border is because they believe that the risk of doing this is not as great as the reward, sot hey think that if they get across they will be very successful. Although as we saw with the story from the article that this is a very hard thing to do. When you are illegally in a country you don’t have many opportunities as someone who is legally there, also they are in danger of being deported if their documents are fake.