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Struggle for Fair immigration & Humane treatment– Quintessentially an American Thing
Jaewon Lee
3/15/06
There is no such thing as illegal immigrants just illegal institutions and laws. It is ironic that much of the history of this “Nation of Immigrants” reflects hostility toward immigrants. From the Nationality Act of 1790 which made citizenship available to only free white persons to 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred immigration of Chinese laborers for ten years to our failure to accept refugees from Hitler's Germany to Executive Order 9066 which relocated Japanese Americans into concentration camps during World War II to Operation Wetback in 1950s—all these laws and activities are shameful in retrospect.
In the same breath, America has also shown redemption by striking down many of its former anti-immigrant laws as unconstitutional. In essence, Americaand Americans have clearly demonstrated that xenophobia and nativism are chiefly un-American values.
Which is why what’s happening in the halls of Washington, D.C. are out of step with the rest of America. Immigrants are now again in period of crisis. Activists and community minded people are calling for more equitable and humane immigration reform amidst anti-American congressional immigration reform packages.
For instance, the House of Representatives recently passed H.R. 4437, the "Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act” co-authored by House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Homeland Security Chairman Peter King (R-NY). , Many are labeling HR 4437 the most repressive immigration bill in decades because it would deprive immigrants of due process, separate families, and criminalize the 11 million undocumented immigrants who live within the U.S.
