Inda's Values

While reading Inda's Value of Immigrant Life I was struck very early on by an argument made on the first page, about the struggle of government against illegal immigrants--police on the border and denying prenatal care in California. Inda argued that because of this, it meant that the government meant that immigrant life is less of value than that of regular citizens. I did not initially buy that argument. It was not in Inda's idea, but rather the presentation of it. Believe me, when I read that prenatal care was being denied to illegal immigrants I was shocked. The care is not denied to the immigrants, but the the children themselves. On that issue, I do buy the argument that the value of life for these children is decreasing in the government's eyes. Humanitarian aid should not be given out as a reward. It should be standard. Being such a controversial subject, I would had hoped that Inda would have expressed that one point with more power than it holds.

It's always interesting to read articles and listen to opinions about immigration reform/problems/arguments/life. I believe the best way to tackle it is to read everything I get my hands on. Being from the East Coast the immigration I knew was the German and Irish immigrations from the 1800's and that history. The hatred, the eventual assimilation, and now the "melting pot" that is the US, that is the East Coast. I knew that story. I did not know the borderland story. The most recent immigration wave to my coast was the Cuban and Puetro Rican immigration influence, but at best I grew up with 1st and 2nd generation Puerto Rican-Americans. So it is interesting to read the different points and counterpoints of the issue of illegal immigration. However, I did remember this dispute: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=2057207&page=1, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,198757,00.html about Geno's Steaks (the most famous cheesesteak place, besides Pat's, in all of Philly, owned by the descendant of Italian immigrants). The owner had a personal history of his grandparents being immigrants from Italy and "struggling to learn English," which he used as a point that if his family had to do it, wanted to do it, and struggled to do it, to become "American" (I remember that part from an onair interview) so should other people seeking ways into America. Nowadays, I feel like that one view is becoming a regular point in conservative/anti-illegal immigration talk. I found this to be a very interesting dynamic--how two waves of immigration were similar and yet so different. This was the first real insight into this particular issue (from my end) that was looming across the nation. I would actually like to do more reading into why this immigration wave is different to the nation, when other waves in the past have been struggled against, this one, the issue of the border, is being tackled by gates, guns, and discriminatory aid--and the lack thereof.
Jennie Ziegler