The Hypocrisy of America’s View of Immigrants

This is one of my papers that made an A grade on my English class in making an argument based on the cartoon that I picked to deal with. I choosed about immigration since I am an immigrant in this country. I just think that it is more easy for me to form some ideas based on my personal points of view.

Here is the link of the cartoon that I was interpreting for my argument. It is a copyrighted photo. I won’t be able to copy it to my blog. So, I am attaching the link here to view in case you care to look at it, so you would get what I am talking about. Here it is: http://www.cartoonistgroup.com//store/add.php?iid=23932

America has always prided itself as being a refuge for poor people from around the world. From the very beginning, it has been a country made up entirely of immigrants-even the original people that the Europeans discovered in the New World had themselves migrated from Asia thousands of years before.

America have always been sensitive to the plight of people who live in countries where there is little chance of advancement, and has opened its arms to these less fortunate than themselves.

But, does America have it’s limits? Has the overwhelming rush of poor people who have bypassed all rules and laws illegally sneaked across the border in search of the American dream caused Americans to turn their backs on these people in need? Has the over-12 million illegal immigrants over stayed their welcome, becoming a drain on social services and causing Americans to lose their jobs, and causing the once-generous American public to harden it’s heart?

Having immigrated (legally) to America myself, I know completely how it feels to be very poor. Compared to where I am from (the Philippines), there is no such thing as a “poor American”. Imagine a life in which you do not have a car, or a washing machine or drier, no refrigerator, no indoor plumbing, and a public water system that turns your water on for two hours per day. There is no public assistance, no charity hospitals, no WIC programs, no food stamps. If you get sick and have no money, you either survive it , or you die- the hospital’s won’t let you in. If you are educated, you might get a job as a school teacher, making perhaps $300-per month! It is not unusual to see people working 12 to 16 hrs. per day for less than $150 per month. So , is it any wonder why people risk their lives to come to the Land of the Free?

Mr. Bennett has depicted his view of America’s changing viewpoint in his drawing of two would-be illegal immigrants, who represents the millions of people who have entered the United States illegally, with no regard to the laws of the United States, in an attempt to benefit from the riches they perceived to be found there.

Our subjects stand in the dessert, which is both figurative and actual; it represents the hardships the illegal aliens encounter on their journey to the America. Those hardships might be the actual desserts of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California where man of these illegal aliens have died a horrible, painful death from dehydration in the unforgiving dessert heat. It is also figurative of other illegal aliens who have risked their lives, as they crossed the Gulf of Mexico on homemade boats from Cuba, tramped through the snow across the Canadian border, or huddled in the bottoms of cargo ships from Asia.

There is a quarter-moon in the night sky, which does not give much light, but can still be used for navigation. This indicates that these people feel the need to travel under the cover of darkness to avoid being detected. This might also represent to those who use other forms of deceit, such as fake documents and passports.

They are carrying their belongings, of which all they have is two bags between them, a flashlight, and the clothes on their backs. These people are obviously poor, and if they owned any thing more than they are now carrying, they had to leave it behind. They are using the flashlight to read a sign that reads,” Land of the Free” and other sign below it that reads, ” No Trespassing”. It is assumed that this particular pair of illegal aliens can read English , and they are actually concerned that the Americans might not want them to enter America illegally. It is as if this couple might decided to not cross the border after all, now that they have read the sign that contemplating the apparent contradictory message of the two signs.

The immigrant laws, or, rather, the enforcement of these laws, in reality has been much more than fair for illegal aliens from Latin American countries. As a matter of fact, it borders on the insane. Having migrated from the Philippines myself, I would venture to say that America policy is usually much more hypocritical in the way it deals with LEGAL immigrants( although I have never experienced hypocrisy from any individual American concerning coming to this country, as the cartoon seems to imply).

The cartoonist, Mr. Clay Bennet, is wrong to imply that U.S sentiments are hypocritical concerning illegal immigrants. He has used his cartoon to falsely accuse the people of the United States of being hypocrites in proclaiming their country “The land of the Free” and then proclaiming “No Trespassing”. In reality, Americans are very kind and generous to all people, and have made their country made up entirely of immigrants-even the original people the Europeans “discovered” here, had themselves migrated from Asia thousand of years before.

America had to set limits on the numbers of immigrants, because even America, in all it’s greatness, can only support a finite number of people. America welcomes those who want to come here to make this a better country, and seeks to keep out to those who would do us harm. Illegal immigrants overload the system in America, and make it much harder for those who seek to come here legally. Clay Bennett apparently hates America, in that he uses lies and false pretense to try to make Americans look like heartless cads.

(originally written: May 24th, 2009)