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The Vanderbilt Hustler

The official student newspaper of Vanderbilt University.
Since 1888
The official student newspaper of Vanderbilt University

The Vanderbilt Hustler

The official student newspaper of Vanderbilt University.
The official student newspaper of Vanderbilt University

The Vanderbilt Hustler

The official student newspaper of Vanderbilt University.

Across the Borders: Busting the Myths of “Illegal” Immigration

Emily+You
Across the Borders

A common image that comes to mind of an “illegal” immigrant is someone from Mexico trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border on the top of a train or hidden in a car. Thanks to the seemingly unending discussion of immigration in modern politics, this is the image that the U.S. government has ingrained into our heads. Both the current administration and media have made it seem as if there are masses of Mexican immigrants trying to cross the border every day- the increasing and growing issue of Mexican immigrants.

Disclaimer: For the rest of this article, I will be using the term “unauthorized” instead of “illegal” since the latter is both inaccurate and dehumanizing.

In reality, however, there are actually more Mexican immigrants leaving the U.S. than coming in. Overall, there has been a decrease in the number of unauthorized immigrants according to the Pew Research Center. Quite the opposite of the story that is told by the Trump administration and the media.

Have I started to alter your image of “illegal” immigration yet?

Depending on what type of visas you are including in the data, anywhere from 35 to 50 percent of unauthorized immigrants are people who came into the U.S. legally and overstayed their visas. In fact, overstaying one’s visa is not a criminal offense. This brings more nuance to the perception of immigration and shows the inaccuracy of the moniker “illegal.” It is the trap of a monolith; we assume that unauthorized immigrants are a uniform mass while at the same time, dehumanizing them.

Here is the final correction to this image of “illegal” immigration. Asian immigrants have and continue to outnumber Hispanic immigrants. They are projected to become the largest immigrant group in the U.S. by 2055.

Why such the focus on Mexican immigrants then? Partly because of the model minority myth. According to this theory, Asian-Americans have long been touted as “model minorities” because they educate themselves and work hard to move up in society. Therefore, other people of color are disparaged and deprived of assistance because they “should just work hard.” Never mind the fact that privilege is not acknowledged in this point of view. This is problematic because it focuses on individual ability and largely ignores the structural factors that prevent other POC such as blacks and hispanics from economic and social mobility. People simply do not care about the influx of Asian immigrants because they are more positively viewed in the U.S.

Now when you think of an “illegal” immigrant, what image comes to mind? Hopefully it is not the same one that was mentioned at the beginning of this article. In shattering misheld perceptions, I hope that you are piecing back together an image of immigration that reflects the diversity and nuance of humankind, not the monolith that many would like you to believe. Let us not forget that in the end, no qualifier such as “illegal” or “alien” can take away the humanity of people in the hopes of a brighter future.

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About the Contributor
Emily You, Former Author

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The Vanderbilt Hustler welcomes and encourages readers to engage with content and express opinions through the comment sections on our website and social media platforms. The Hustler reserves the right to remove comments that contain vulgarity, hate speech, personal attacks or that appear to be spam, commercial promotion or impersonation. The comment sections are moderated by our Editor-in-Chief, Rachael Perrotta, and our Social Media Director, Chloe Postlewaite. You can reach them at [email protected] and [email protected].
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C
Common Sense
6 years ago

They’re illegal because they’re breaking the law. Race really doesn’t have anything to do with it.
Aliens not being authorized (unauthorized) means that they don’t have a legal status. Without a legal status, they are breaking the law. Breaking the law means that they are illegal.
And if we just forgive illegal aliens, why would anyone bother go through the legal means? What other laws shouldn’t we enforce? Illegal shoplifting should be called unauthorized consumption because, after all, they were just hoping for a better future
We’re a nation of laws, and those laws give great benefits to those in the society.

C
Common Sense
6 years ago

They’re illegal because they’re breaking the law. Race really doesn’t have anything to do with it.
Aliens not being authorized (unauthorized) means that they don’t have a legal status. Without a legal status, they are breaking the law. Breaking the law means that they are illegal.
And if we just forgive illegal aliens, why would anyone bother go through the legal means? What other laws shouldn’t we enforce? Illegal shoplifting should be called unauthorized consumption because, after all, they were just hoping for a better future.
We’re a nation of laws, and those laws happen to create benefits for everyone in the society.

J
Jonathan Smith
6 years ago

I agree that the nuance is frequently left out of this discussion in favor of “sound-bites”.
Also, I would also agree that over staying a visa is quite different someone furtively crossing the border.
(this is a similar moral situation between someone driving with an expired license versus having no license, one is a violation of the concept of licensure the other is likely a paperwork or clerical problem)

The US, as well as any nation, must have regulations on how it allows people to enter it’s borders. It cannot be a “free-for-all”.

There are two major issues:

1) the immorality of the people illegally cross the border thus “jumping the line” in front of others who have been waiting; I have yet to hear why a Mexican national is more important, and should be allowed to cut the line in front of , say, a Congolese woman who has been waiting for years…

2) The larger issue is that the US CANNOT allow everyone in, we do NOT have infinite resources, there are not infinite schools, or desks, or books, or teachers (Our classrooms are already overcrowded). There are not infinite doctors, nurses or hospital beds (our wait times are already too long and healthcare already costs too much). There is not infinite electricity (California already has rolling blackouts). There is not infinite housing (there are housing shortages in many metropolitan areas already), etc, etc,

If we cannot let everyone in, then, logically, we must have some sort of rules or regulations to allow us to select who is allowed in out of the larger set of “everyone”.

If we allow these rules or regulations to be ignored, then we are back to allowing “everyone” which, as stated above, we cannot do.