Category Archives: Civics

Immigration Reform

For the past semester I’ve been talking about immigration reform, different aspects on it, so that everyone can learn to look at it from different angles.

It’s known that Immigration has been a continuous problem within the U.S.. The Government’s inability to deal with this issue shines light over how grossly out of date the immigration system is.  How unable it is to keep up with the demands of a growing and changing U.S. economy and to reflect the needs and values of our diverse nation.

So for this weeks blog, I’m going to explain how hard it is for anyone to obtain a visa, so they can travel inside the U.S..

What types of Visas

Their are a myriad of different type of visas, the whole alphabet A, B-1, B-2, J, F, each of them represent something else.

If one wishes to enter the U.S. for a short period of time, they must apply for a U.S. visitor visa (type B). Normally when one applies or a visa they have to do so well in advance, otherwise the chances of getting rejected increase (not that they aren’t already high enough).

B-1 visas are intended for individuals traveling for short-term business needs such as meetings, seminars, conferences, trade shows, negotiations, fact-finding trips, and market research for no longer than a few months. Individuals cannot legally work in the United States under a B-1 visa. Working in the United States is a much different process that requires an employment-based visa or green card (which is even harder to obtain)

B-2 visitor visas are issued for the purpose of tourism: amusement, visiting friends and family, or receiving medical treatment.

Given that it has happened before, visitor visas are the hardest to obtain since the U.S. government operates under the assumption that the applicant will attempt to stay permanently in the U.S.

The following are reasons Visas get denied:

 

  • The applicant misrepresented themselves on the B visa application
  • The applicant did not effectively establish a case that their visit would be temporary or that they were not going to immigrate permanently to the U.S.
  • The applicant has a criminal history with incidents of drug use, serious crimes, or multiple convictions with jail time
  • The applicant could not demonstrate ability to support themselves financially during the trip
  • The applicant has previous immigration issues or violations on record

Rejection

With the above reasons in mind, several nationalities have been stereotyped, and are rejected more frequently than others.

World-Map-B-Visa

the war-torn country of Afghanistan had a B visa rejection rate of 59%, while the relatively stable countries of Argentina and Chile both had rejection rates around 2%. African countries tend to have some of the highest U.S. visitor visa rejection rates with the exception of South Africa (3% rejected.) Djibouti, Ghana, Mauritania, Mali, Sierra Leone, Somalia, and The Gambia all had at least 50% of their U.S. visitor visa requests rejected. Asian countries have some of the most widely varied rejection rates, with countries like Laos (60% refusal), Nepal (49%), the Philippines (24%), India (24%), Indonesia (12%), mainland China (9%), United Arab Emirates (9%), Malaysia (5%), Qatar (2%), and Taiwan (1%.)

American visa rejection is all around the world, people tend to associate Illegal Immigration with Mexico. Most of the immigration has come from Mexico, but it doesn’t mean that it has just to do with them.

procuring a visa, green card, etc. is  generally limited to four different routes:

  1. Employment
  2. Certain family ties
  3. Refugee or asylee processing
  4. The diversity lottery

Each of these groups includes specific paths, which in turn are subject to specific limitations (e.g., number of visas available and eligibility requirements) and obstacles (e.g., limits by country). Some of the supposedly available routes are in fact unfeasible.

People migrate to the states illegally, not for lack of trying to do it through the legal routes, but because it’s the only choice they have left.

There’s a fence, two sides, you’re on the wrong side and wish to got to the other. You can hear the dogs barking, people running, they’re getting close. No way to get home, if you look back you’re dead, if you go back, you’re dead. There is a fence in front of you, my question is, what would you do?

 

 

 

Life as Legal (Illegal) Immigrant

People from other countries mainly from Latin America and Mexico live in fear with the circumstances they have within their country. ImmigrationA main example would be that of Venezuela, Venezuela is in such a rough patch that everybody with enough money to leave does, and most have migrated to the U.S. with the hopes of acquiring their American Dream. Illegal Immigration is a prominent problem in the U.S., but on this post I’d like to focus on the legal side of immigration, and would like to describe how life in the states has impacted hispanic families fleeing from their country, my focus will be on Venezuela.

Why leave in the first place?

People just hear about Venezuela in the news but they don’t live it, so they are unable to comprehend what it is that Venezuelans are going through. I’d like to point out that for someone to leave their routes, their home, their family behind, the circumstances have to be grave. venezuela-protests-handsThe inflation is of the roof, their is no food, no toilet paper, and a murder rate the keeps sky rocketing. So, it doesn’t matter how much money you make in Venezuela, with the kidnapping the robberies that are always taking place money doesn’t really account for much.

People would turn to robbery, and committing felonies if they have nothing to lose. I’m not trying to dignify these criminals, but if you have mouths to feed, money that is worth nothing, scarce resources, who wouldn’t turn to the dark side?

I’m from a country where a right of passage is to get kidnapped, where the death of a family member is dreaded but not unusual. So with circumstances so dire, who wouldn’t want to leave?

Migrating to the States

Some people might go about migrating to the states Legally, but the process is tediously expensive and long, so they attempt to short cut it by just migrating illegally. I’m not condoning Illegal Immigration whatsoever, I would just like for us to put ourselves in these peoples shoes an think about what they’ve been through to migrate to the States.

Illegal Immigrants have most come from Mexico, It’s interesting to see how creative these people have become by crossing the border, from hiding in the most inconspicuous of places, attempting to cross it through another not so guarded part of the border.

Meanwhile Legal Immigrants, have it hard, much more in unstable countries, since just visiting the U.S. embassy is a hassle. Only people with money are able to migrate legally, because they have the resources to acquire their Visas.

Life in the States

Immigrating in the States Legally or Illegally isn’t the hardest part, the hardest part would be to live in the states without encountering any hardships.

VENEZUELA-POLITICS-OPPOSITION-DEMO-CLASHESMost of the Immigrants traveling to the U.S. aren’t allowed to work, no work means no income, no income equals no livelihood. Which then leads to these people working for meager wages, even though they might’ve had the highest degree within their field, In the states depending on their Visa they wouldn’t be allowed to work.

Meanwhile Illegal Immigrants, now have to face the repercussions of migrating to the States Illegally, since not only can’t they get a legal job, or legal minimum wage, but they can’t do anything that might call attention upon them from the authorities, or they will deported back to the country they escaped in the first place.

The U.S. has many problems to deal with and unfortunately immigration is one of them. I wanted to spread awareness on some of the circumstances immigrants might be running from. I believe that even though people shouldn’t migrate illegally to the states, they also shouldn’t be deported back to their country not if they have family here, their was a reason they left their country in the first place. On my next civics issue I’d like to talk about the Pros and and the 140528-obama-west-point-mn-1155_a321bf5f75359e045403b1c5436f31aaCons of Illegal and Legal immigration. I wanted to write about this aspect of immigration because of the things that are currently happening in Venezuela, I wanted to spread awareness on things currently happening in other countries. How it has come to such a point that Obama has even declared Venezuela to be a national security threat. With a country like that, who wouldn’t want to leave?

Equality ensured? (The standardization of Education in The United States)

I actually went to the deliberation before mine! It started at four and ended at six. Before I start I just wanted to say that the great part about the deliberation was that i was about education! Same topic as mine, so I learned a lot of information, information I used afterwards for my deliberation.

So unlike us they presented themselves and they also named their major, but unfortunately they didn’t really go on the audience just themselves.

Intro

imagesI like how before giving away information before saying anything about the inequality of children in america, they started by saying why they chose this topic, and not just the people the introduced the subject, but everyone! So every single person part of their group not the audience  said why they wanted to talk about education and how it has impacted their lives negatively.

Pro

I like how they delivered it, the speakers were confident loud, and you could hear them really well, we were the only group in the room so it was substantially easier. They described the three topics well and their personal stake so it was good

Cons

When they introduced themselves, they didn’t really let the audience do it, so I was a little confused.

Approach One

Was about funding and the inequality of the system (that’s my approach as well!). I was invested on this approach because maybe I could learn something new that I didn’t know before, and I could incorporate that in my deliberation.

Pros

They talked well, they addressed every single point, and invited the audience to speak, so I liked that. They talked about their concerns with the approach, examples of what they could do and finally the disadvantage of those examples

Cons

When they presented they were mainly talking to the adults not he other side, so their faces were always tilted.

Approach TwoEDUCATION-text

Approach two was SAT/ACT testing (which told me that unlike us, they didn’t just do primary education, they made it a little more broad).

Pros

I liked how they talked about SAT/ACT testing because Its not something I had researched given we were only talking about the inequality of primary education. So I learned a lot, and I learned what everyone around me thought about the topic. They talked about what was wrong with the test, but also how the test helped. They talked about the advantages and disadvantages.

Cons

I feel the SAT/ACT is a tough topic to break, because in itself, it’s a contradiction, they talked about  giving all students the same materials, and not giving anybody special treatment, but the parents themselves were bound to give said child special treatment, because we are in an individualistic society,  where all we think about it ourselves, and our family.

Approach Three

Approach three talked about Common Core, something I’m no really knowledgable with, I didn’t even know what was Common Core before they started talking about it.

Pros

I like how they described what common core was, it gave me insight on what we were going to talk about, and I liked that because I was on unknown territory.  They talked about concern, what they could do, their opinions about common core and the Disadvantages.

Conclusioneducation_sign_resized

So, something I really liked about the conclusion, was that they recorded everything. Their wasn’t a recorder and a moderator for every approach, one group did it all, and I feel that is a little more organized. They wrote everything down, and then afterwards when they delivered their conclusion they went back and used what they wrote down as reference. I thought that was the best part of the deliberation because they used what the audience, everyone said, to prove their point.

Great deliberation It was really interesting.

 

Spreading Awareness… Immigration Reform

Hello everyone! How has your week been so far? So I guess this week is Red bloggers week. It’s been a real long week, with one test after the other, but luckily today is Friday, and besides the task of reading the fabulous blogs of everyone out there we also get to read about issues happening now a days. So as I said about two weeks ago my topic is immigration, and unlike last week, this time I’m not talking about Adoption. It still has to do with Immigration given that is my main topic, but as I did before I like the idea of branching out, teaching everyone something, while at the same time making it interesting and entertaining.

With that in mind, I was sitting (more like laying) on my bed, watching one of my favorite TV shows when the idea came to me, technology has taken an important role within our lives since our generation has to do a lot with it. But teenager, kids, even adults! are more bound to watch TV, check out gossip, than actual news about what’s happening in other countries. I’m sure none of those would be you, so I decided I would spread a little knowledge or give everyone a lesson with the help of entertainment.MV5BNjMwOTM5OTgzMl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNTQ4OTM1MjE@._V1_

So for those of you who haven’t ever heard of the show “Jane the Virgin,” then I wholeheartedly recommend it. Its a fictitious show (no vampires, werewolves or mythical creatures people) about a latino family, and the youngest family member gets pregnant, about a month ago I was watching the show and something that happened within it left me thinking, the fact that the show touched Immigration reform, made me real happy, I feel entertainment, is a way to raise consciousness.

One of the characters in the series was to be deported even though they’d suffered a heavy brain injury, why? because they’d illegally come inside the country. At first, I couldn’t believe that would happen, so I started surfing the internet, so that I’d become more knowledgable on the subject, and I stepped upon an article. The News report was written by The Atlanticand it talks about immigration reform and how Obama has developed, and amended it.  There is a DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) in which parents of legalized u.s. children, who are actual citizens are allowed to stay for three years. I believe the U.S. is taking baby steps towards immigration reform, and little by little it’s changing for the better.

An example may be the Dream Act, introduced in August 2001, where it states that illegal minors, who came to the states before the turned eighteen, have attended American High-schools  and are exemplary citizens should be allowed to stay. Please bare in mind that for someone to leave their home country, it must be for drastic reasons, their home country is in their blood, they’d be leaving everything behind, so the only reason they’d even consider do it is if the situation in their neighborhood is drastic.borders

I understand that some of the people that do immigrate illegally to the states may be of bad character, but I don’t believe everybody should be punished for their race, the mistakes they’ve made, much less if they’ve made them keeping their families in mind. this is America, the land of the free, the land of american dreams, the land of second chances, and I believe that people who’ve been through enough hardships in life should get a little break.

As a Hispanic immigrant (legally), I believe in the not just the Dream act but in everything that helps people not just from my home country, but from every country around the world to move to the states, so I’d like reiterate that I was really happy when the show Jane the virgin breached upon the topic of Immigration Reform, because raising awareness in a way I haven’t seen any other show except for maybe Ugly Betty. Thank you for those who read my civics post, I hope it didn’t sound preachy, i just wanted to state what I believe in, so if you have any comments don’t hesitate to do so below!

p.s. What Jane the Virgin (It’s actually quite funny)

 

 

 

CIVICS BLOG: ADOPTION

So we were asked to start writing a civics blog. The teacher was talking about how it would be divided into two different groups, I was hoping to be part of the group that would get to write second but… well, as you can see (read) I didn’t. As I heard more and more about the civics blog I couldn’t help but get even more worried I mean, we have to write a blog with a whopping number of seven hundred words. So last time we were asked to write about two ideas the would go with civics issue, and I was thinking on the lines of immigration. I do like the idea, but I feel I’d like to transition, I’d still keep talking about something related to politics given it is my major, but I also want to get a little personal because otherwise my blog is going to be preachy, and that isn’t what I’m striving for. So what I will talk about for my post today won’t be Immigration per say, but something relatively similar. What? you might ask yourselves? Well today I’m going to talk about the practice of taking in a child from a foreign country (An immigrant), and having that child become part of your family. I will talk about all the rules that comes when you adopt a child, the pro’s and the con’s of said rules, and about the different countries the states adopts from. photo-adopt-04

Adoption

So I’ve decided to talk about some things you should know parents have to go through, or things about adoption that have happened in the past years.

1. Before actually getting your child, the whole house has to be full proof.

Pro’s

– It’s good that the U.S. takes into consideration the lifestyle these children will have, and how the government makes sure that their future alongside their parents will be a good one.

– If the house is full proof then the child will be safe, and there is less of a chance for the child to get hurt.

Con’sroad_to_fostering-adoption

-They ask this of the parents seeking an adoption, but not of parents getting pregnant. So they think of foreign babies… but what of the domestic ones?

-It costs a lot of money, money that a family that really wants a child might not have. Don’t get me wrong, the house should be full proof, but should a couple not be given an opportunity to adopt a child and love the child like its own because of their house?

2. It takes around three years before you actually get your baby, and it costs around 30,000 dollars

Pro’s

– Without all the regulations, how can the country, institution, or anybody make sure that the baby will be well taken care of? It’s a baby’s life after all that we are talking about.

– It takes money to raise a child, it also takes money to bring a child from another country. It just proves how committed a family can be

Cons’s

-The three years before you get your child? Isn’t that a little too long?

-Their might be some families just as capable of raising a child, but without enough resources, why can’t they be given a chance?

-It takes a lot of money to bring a child from a foreign country so that they could have a great life, but what about the kids in foster care?

Haiti-adoption-programThroughout the years, the number of adoptions has dropped increasingly, to the point where there are not that many adoptions per year. There are countless of children without a home around the world, yet these rules keep them from meeting with their respective families. I just gave two, but there are many more. Each country has its own set of rules added with that of the U.S. For example in some Asian countries you are not allowed to adopt if you’re single, much less gay. Russia itself has stopped letting the U.S. adopt orphans from their country for political reasons. They say they keep the children’s welfare in mind, yet isn’t a child’s happiness a necessity? I’m not saying they aren’t happy in the orphanage, but my question is, wouldn’t they be happier with a family? So I would like for you to ask yourselves, do we need so many rules, before a family can adopt a child?