"Is Racism Fueling the Immigration Debate"

The article is about immigration and statistics that have been found about the issue. Mr. John Gibson of Fox News stated some information that was not necessarily true. Mr. Gibson states how minorities are having more babies and soon they will make up a greater population than American citizens. He was wrong in stating this information according to the Census Bureau. The census bureau states that “in 2030 the Hispanic population of the U.S. will be about 20.1 %. Fifty years from now, the majority of Americans will still be white and 24.4 % will be Hispanic (Census Bureau)”. It is stated that the political parties need to give this topic more attention. The article then goes on to speak about how they are sending more National Guard troops down to the border of Mexico to help secure the fence. Yet some are wondering why this action is not being taken at the border of Canada, where Ahmed Ressam tried to enter with a car full of explosives to take out the Los Angeles airport. The article also states that "19 of the 9-11 terrorists entered our Country legally(Calabresi)". This to me seems senseless to build such a wall when terrorists can just walk into the Country legally. They should be least worried about illegal immigrants entering the Country and more worried about people entering to harm us. Massimo Calabresi says that lawmakers should be focusing more on how many immigrants should be allowed into the U.S. each year. A professor at Harvard, Mr. Samuel P. Huntington stated that this has been seen through history with every group of immigrants. This issue to me seems that it will just pass over with the rest of the immigration issues because having these immigrants here is not affecting the economy so much as the waste of money to build a fence to keep them out. All that the fence does is make getting into the U.S. a little harder yet still manageable for these immigrants. Overall, I believe that people make untrue statements about the issue in fear of being over-run by another race of people. Also, we are putting too much money into something that barely keeps illegal immigrants out of the Country. To me they are causing no harm and carrying out jobs that some Americans do not want to do for such a low cost. I believe that this issue should be evaluated in more depth in this years’ election in hopes of finding a better solution to the problem.

Wednesday, May 17 2006 TIME
Article By: Massimo Calabresi