Though many Civil Rights issues exist today, immigration rights stand out to me. From my perspective, the two views of immigration rights are the acceptance of immigrants in America and the disapproval of immigrants in America. My position on the issue is on the side of accepting immigrants. Accepting immigrants is along the lines of the allowing of immigrants and non-citizens. Unlike acceptance, the disapproval of immigrants is commonly rooted to discrimination of a group or groups. In relation to the disapproval of immigrants and non-citizens, occurrences such as the Chinese Exclusion Act and responses to the incident on 9/11 show that discrimination against a group is unfair, therefore revealing that the disapproval of immigrants is very wrong. On the other angle, acceptance of immigrants has been shown by the recent protests by Hispanics that are fighting for rights. As constant discrimination is being done, it is hard to say that immigrants will ever achieve their full rights.
The Chinese Exclusion Act was done in 1882 and was one of the first acts that dealt with immigration. As I have said, the disapproval of immigrants is rooted by discrimination and the Chinese Exclusion Act heavily involves such racism. The discrimination became so intense, that the Chinese were no longer allowed to immigrate into America. When you really think about the act, you will realize how unfair it was to not allow a person into America just because of their nationality. In the Exclusion Act, it states that tensions began with the Chinese because they occupied jobs and created competition on the job market. Blatantly speaking, that is just dumb. The result of the Chinese's achievements causes them to be banished from the country? It's not what the Chinese are doing, but what the non-Chinese aren't doing. The Chinese immigrated into America to obtain a better life and by doing so, they must work hard to get their jobs. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the non-Chinese can't just slack off and get a job as opposed to the Chinese who work hard to get their job. It's not the Chinese's fault! Although the Chinese Exclusion Act was over 100 years ago, discrimination continues over the years, again striking unfairness.
After the horrific day on 9/11, the lives of many people have not been the same. Though I share sympathy for the victims and their families, I am not referring to them. I am talking about Muslims. Despite the attacks on the Twin Towers to be done by “Muslims,” many people have seized this observation to blame terrorism on all Muslims, even though they have done nothing wrong. An example of this discrimination would be in the article on immigrants,l in which a Muslim man is harassed by his coworkers for being Muslim. It does not state in the article that the harassment was caused by the anger from 9/11, but I am willing to believe that that is the precise reason why the Muslim man was harassed in addition to being an Afghan immigrant. The Muslim man's coworkers showed cruelty and racism by making offensive comments, such as saying that the parents of the Muslim man are Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden. This is only one account of discrimination that Muslims have faced and the unfairness that they are treated lead to be a challenge in further immigration into America.
The great unfairness shown by many people towards immigrants is pure hatred and why I want immigrants to be allowed into America. The immigrants can show the cruel people that they are not bad like discriminatory comments make them to be. Relating to the last statement, Hispanics have recently protested a bill that would give undocumented immigrants five years to leave. The protest showed the courage of immigrants and that they would fight for their rights to be in America, something that is worthy of respect. The Latinos know that they are being discriminated against and from the article here, they say that they are not crimes, they're immigrants. If the government views immigrants as crimes, then they are practically calling themselves crimes, too, considering that everyone is basically an immigrant besides Native Americans. Though the Latinos protesting may seem biased to only Hispanic immigrants, the bill is for illegal immigrants, meaning all immigrants that are undocumented. As you can see, immigrants should be accepted since it is unfair to not let them into America and so many people have the same belief in the acceptance of immigrants, judging by their recent actions.
