Homework Questions
Please respond to the Forum questions listed below. You are expected to give complete answers referring to what you have read in the “Lessons”(reading & resources). Reference to, or the use of critical thinking, analysis, what you have learned in previous courses, the media, and in your professional lives is also expected. Define the subject; make references to what you have read, what you have learned elsewhere, and then form a response.
Instructions: Your initial post should be at least 350 words. Please respond to a least 2 other students. Response should be a minimum of 150 words and include direct questions. When addressing the topic questions, you are to state the question followed by your response. Do this for each question posed. Make sure all sources are properly cited including in-text quotations.
1) Discuss the action that prompted the “border control offensive” and made the issue of illegal immigration a priority.
2) With regard to border enforcement, describe who is the enemy and discuss public health and safety concerns.
Articles for this week:
Cruz, J., Landa, M., & Garcia, M. (2016). Trump, Cruz, and the neighborhood. Washington: The Council on Hemispheric Affairs.
De León, J., Gokee, C., & Schubert, A. (2015). “By the time I get to Arizona”: Citizenship, materiality, and contested identities along the US-Mexico border. Anthropological Quarterly, 88(2), 445-479.
Ewing, W. A. (2014). “Enemy territory”: Immigration enforcement in the US-Mexico borderlands. Journal on Migration and Human Security, 2(3), 198-222.
Mexican border wall. (2017). Congressional Digest, 96(2), 10.
President Trump’s Executive Order. (2017). President Trump issues executive order for border security, immigration enforcement improvements. Targeted News Service.
President Trump’s Executive Order. (2017). Enhancing public safety in the interior of the United States. (2017). Lanham: Federal Information & News Dispatch, Inc.
Slack, J., Martínez, D.,E., Lee, A. E., & Whiteford, S. (2016). The geography of border militarization: Violence, death and health in Mexico and the United States. Journal of Latin American Geography, 15(1), 7-32.
Wilensky, G. R. (2017). How will public health fare in a trump administration? American Journal of Public Health, 107(2), 235-237.
Note this requirement – respond to at least two of your classmate’s posts.
Student # 1 Lindsey
Hello class
Before I get to the fun stuff, I would like to wish everybody a safe and happy new year!
This week we looked at what started the big fight against illegal immigration and what set the United States in motion to fight to stop illegal immigration. They also discussed the “real enemies” that our border patrol and customs agents are fighting against everyday, and why it is so important to the United States that the Department of Homeland Security does everything in their power to protect us from illegal immigration.
1) Discuss the action that prompted the “border control offensive” and made the issue of illegal immigration a priority.
The United States Border Patrol and Customs agents have been protecting the United States border from illegal immigrants migrating across the border forever. There has always been security checkpoints and agents patrolling the border to ensure people are not sneaking across the border, but the terrorist attack on the United States on September 11th was what opened the eyes of the federal government and made them realize that the United States needs to secure their borders better.
2) With regard to border enforcement, describe who is the enemy and discuss public health and safety concerns.
Describing who the enemy is when talking about border enforcement was kind of hard for me to see in this week’s lesson. Terrorists and different criminal organizations are always considered the enemy when looking at the law enforcement perspective, but regarding border enforcement the enemy is the illegal Alien looking to cross the border. It is hard to think of families migrating across the border illegally to give their children a better life, but they are crossing into the United States taking jobs away from U.S citizens. Yes, a majority of the jobs they are taking are jobs that most people would never take, but it is still employment that people are getting passed up on because illegal Aliens will not care how little they are paid. Another major concern about illegal immigration is the safety of the public and the overall public health. The first concern is that when people cross into the United States legally, they have proper documentation and proper medical care. A majority has been vaccinated and are not traveling with some kind of illness. When they cross in illegally, they are not checked and could have any kind of illness or infection that can be passed into the public. The other concern is when counterfeit medications or medication not approved by the FDA has been smuggled in. Anybody can buy it on the street to avoid paying doctor bills and pharmacy costs, and these medications could make things worse or even cause death because it was not properly dosed out and inspected. There are many threats to the United States by having illegal immigrants migrating across the U.S border and that is why the Department of Homeland Security has been working so hard to stop the threat of illegal migration into the United States.
Ewing, W. A. (2014). “Enemy Territory: Immigration Enforcement in the U.S-Mexico Borderlands. Journal of Migration and Human Security. 2(3), 198-222.
Slack, J., D. Martinez, A.E Lee, and S. Whiteford. (2016). The geography of border militarization: Violence, Death, and Health in Mexico and the United States. Journal of Latin American Geography. 15(1). 7-32
Student# 2 Gerritt
1) Discuss the action that prompted the “border control offensive” and made the issue of illegal immigration a priority.
While border control had been a topic of discussion and concern for decades in the United States, the attacks of 9/11 put a whole new face on the issue. In the decade preceding 9/11 President Clinton and his advisors placed “considerable” emphasis on border security (The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, 2004), but his concerns were with drug trafficking, organized crime, and illegal immigration (Clinton, 1997). Surprisingly, President Bush made no reference to border security in his 2002 National Security Strategy. However, he did propose the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security which was created by Congress through the Homeland Security Act in November 2002 (Department of Homeland Security, 2015). President Bush’s proposal would allow “a single government entity to manage entry into the United State”, in essence creating more control and better information sharing between those agencies tasked with protection the Nation’s borders (Bush, 2002). At this point the primary goal, or concern, was members of foreign terrorist organizations entering the United States through an illegal border crossing in order to carry out clandestine attacks on United States Soil. Originally, President Bush had wanted create borders that were open to “orderly migration” of workers in both directions at the Mexican border, but over the course of six years, those ideas changed to the point that he signed a bill to build a fence along the southern border (Gamboa, 2006). This series of events demonstrates the change in our cultural concerns, as well as political parties’ alignments to the issue in question, so much so that at the end of last millennium and the beginning of this one, Democrats saw illegal immigration as a fiscal burden (Beinart, 2017), while Republicans championed an increasing the number of legal aliens admitted annually (Goldberg, 2018).
2) With regard to border enforcement, describe who is the enemy and discuss public health and safety concerns.
As discussed in the first question, through the decades the enemy, or the perceived enemy, has changed based on the world events. At one point, the enemy seemed to be “bad actors” from hostile states, or foreign terrorist organizations who sought illegal entry into the United States. That enemy has shifted in the last decade and a half to be all immigrants seeking to enter the United States regardless if their intent is nefarious or simply to find a better job. So, if according to majority opinion, the current enemy is all illegal immigrants, then public health and safety most be discussed in those terms. First, immigrants and refugees entering through legal means are medically evaluated prior to entering the country. However, those entering illegally may never receive such screening and according to at least one Border Patrol Agent, they are seeing cases of “scabies, chicken pox, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections, and different viruses” (Southern Medical Association, 2015). The safety of those illegal migrants is concern that is dividing in nature. There is data and anecdotal evidence supporting the life-threatening dangers faced by illegal migrants as they trek across the desert seeking entry into the United States. Reports include migrants running out of food and water, as well as being abandoned by their “coyote” in the desert (Slack, 2016). Whether or not it is the United States’ responsibility to save them seems to be open to some debate. Given my experience in the Army, I can tell you it is far easier to talk about someone’s death, either by our actions or inactions, than it is to be a part of it.
Gerrit
Beinart, P. (2017). How the Democrats lost their way on immigration. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/07/the-democrats-immigration-mistake/528678/
Bush, G.W. (2002). Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved from https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/book_0.pdf
Clinton, W. (1997). A National Security Strategy for a New Century. Retrieved from http://nssarchive.us/
Department of Homeland Security. (2015). Creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved from https://www.dhs.gov/creation-department-homeland-security
Gamboa, S. (2006). Bush signs U.S.-Mexico border fence bill. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/26/AR2006102601094.html?noredirect=on
Goldberg, J. (2018). Remember when Republicans liked immigration, and Democrats didn’t? The LA Times. Retrieved from https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-goldberg-guns-immigration-20180226-story.html
Slack, J., Martínez, D.,E., Lee, A. E., & Whiteford, S. (2016). The geography of border militarization: Violence, death and health in Mexico and the United States. Journal of Latin American Geography, 15(1), 7-
Southern Medical Association. (2015). Illegal immigration and the threat of infectious disease. SMA Pulse. Retrieved from https://sma.org/illegal-immigration-and-the-threat-of-infectious-disease/
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. (2004) The 9-11 Commission Report, Executive Summary (pp. 1-26). Retrieved fromhttp://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/report/911Report_Exec.pdf
