Journal #9: Response to Devin Spencer

I agree with most of what Devin is saying about how today we are hostile towards Mexicans as in the past we were hostile towards the Chinese. I especially agree with the fact that we as Americans want to have a unifying culture and language like all other countries, but the fact is, is that we aren’t like other countries. All other countries had one people that grew up there as a whole, but here in America, we come from everywhere. We stand for something different then other countries. We stand for equality no matter what ethnicity you are. We are the only country that is so diverse that people nowadays find it hard to trace back to where our ancestors came from.

I agree with this notion however, I do believe there is another difference between now and then. My question is was there such a thing as illegal immigrants? Was there such a thing as having to do something to become a legal US Citizen or could someone just walk right on to US soil and just say “Ok, I’m a US citizen now,”? If this is the case and there was no such thing as an illegal immigrant then we have to think about now is that we have illegal immigrants and that is why we are so hostile towards them because we all go by the rules and it’s unfair for someone to get the same things as us by cheating. In this country, we are all about Equality for everyone and that means in opportunity and in punishment. If one of us were to cheat to get something we are likely to go to jail, but if an illegal immigrant cheats, well one you won’t know it, because you don’t even know that they are an illegal immigrant and two they’ll probably get off somehow because of somebody somewhere who pities them.

Anyway back then and now are very different when you look at immigration. Back then, there were no rules, but now there are probably too many. I agree we do need to be a bit less hostile towards immigrants, but as for illegal immigrants, I am not so sure.