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The immigration debate is explained well in the Arizona law. The debate emerged because of massive-scale illegal immigration, which has been happening in the United States of America for more than past 15 years ago. This debate has faced several challenges due to increased support for border security.
Another challenge was the introduction of a costly visa and legalization process (Sterba, 2004). This was followed by a very bitter reaction from the immigrants and their supporters. According to this law, it is stated that it is a crime for any foreigner to exist in Arizona without carrying legal documents required by the government.
The laws concerning the people who shelter, employ, and encourage foreigners in the country. The legal follow-ups should be taken on the individuals who contribute towards encouraging strangers in the country. This law concerning the immigration debate has faced both critics and support on the other hand (Isbister, 2008).
Those people who criticized the Arizona law of immigration claim that the law encourages racial profiling, while the other party that supports the law says that, it is only enforcement to the already existing government law. Major protests of the Arizona law has been experienced in over 70 U.S cities, whereby citizens have gone to an extent of calling for a boycott of Arizona. Through several polling done, the law has managed a majority vote, and hence a strong support countrywide and in Arizona.
In 2008 campaign, the issue of immigration was very common. There was a great attempt of solving the problems of all the foreigners without legal documents to permit them in the country.
This act was done in favor of the presidential candidate to take advantage of acquiring many votes from the anti-immigrant attitudes. Currently, the immigration issue is in the point of allowing the aliens to pay fine as well as the taxes, to learn the formal language that is English, and have an initiative of utilizing the available opportunity of acquiring full citizenship.
The two theories of justice that would be discussed in relation to the status of immigration in US are utilitarianism and libertarianism. The theory of utilitarianism is meant to encourage and promote the freedom and happiness of the people involved. The utilitarian’s approach issue is indirectly to fulfill this promise of making its members happy (Miller, 2007).
The major challenge with this theory is that there is no point when people can meet and decide the type of life that can be termed as happy. Different people have different perceptions on what a happy life is. What is a happy life to someone may not be the same case with another person.
It is always hard for anyone to decide what is good for his people and what they would require to remain happy. For any human being to fulfill his or her happiness, the basic needs should be provided, failure to which the person may suffer both mentally and physically.
Anyone has the right to have the basic needs such as food, shelter, healthy medical services, and security to ensure there is protection (Barry, 2006). To some extent, the current American Immigration System is against provision of some of the basic needs to the aliens, which is a violation of utilitarianism theory of justice that claims the provision of all the basic needs to ensure happiness of the members.
The utilitarian theory works widely to provide the overall happiness of its members through an increased employment rate, increased income, well distributed wealth and equal opportunities for expansion, freedom to enjoy their leisure time, and good education among others.
The current American immigration system does not provide the aliens with such opportunities especially in income and distribution of wealth. Several aspects that constitute to the aliens happiness in US are provided in limitation such as the freedom to enjoying their leisure time in entertainment bays (Barry, 2006).
The freedom to express their needs and requirements in some of the United States cities is limited, as they are not treated as equal human beings like other citizens. It is the wish of utilitarianism for the just society to be organized in all its bodies such as the government, the laws governing people, and even the economy part of the society. Through a just society, the members would have all the available means and opportunities to enjoy their happy and a desirable life.
There are some things that the utilitarian theory have given the priority for many years to ensure that people are happy and satisfied with the type of life they lead. Some of the things that have given the first priority by this justice theory are the public education for all people supported by public funds from the people’s taxes (McDonald, 2009). Another aspect is the provision of a competitive free market economy, and later the provision of a socialist economy was proposed, which is quite different from a mixed economy.
For the current American immigration system, such important aspects are not open freely for aliens, as they are not considered as part of the nation due to lack of legal documentations to prove that they are real citizens in the United States. This justice theory as well claims for protection, which is contained in the bill of right in the American constitution.
Democracy in the government is also considered as a very important move towards making the people happy within a given society. However, the way foreigners are treated in the current American immigration system does not show any democracy practiced to these people.
The second justice theory is libertarianism, which concentrates mainly on individual liberty as the most important concern of social justice. According to this justice theory, a just society should offer liberty and freedom to the people in the society.
This freedom is meant to assist people reach to the desired destination (McDonald, 2009). The libertarian views are to make people in the society to be rational end choosers, without interference from any other party. Other non-party members should not decide the people’s destination as the future should be left in their own hands.
Any person should be given freedom to guide his or her destiny. People may misinterpret the idea of libertarianism by thinking that, this theory support people to do whatever they would like, but this is not the view of this theory. The major view of this theory is to allow freedom for each individual to pursue his or her destiny, and on the other hand, to restrict people from interfering with the efforts of others to achieve whatever they deserve.
According to this theory, every individual is associated with a certain type of freedom and liberty. Everyone is the sole owner of his or her life. No one should be a master to the other, and on the other hand, nobody should act as a slave to anyone. The idea of people disposing other people’s lives is not permitted by this theory; the respect of one another’s lives should be a daily exercise for all people in the society.
This theory criticizes the current American immigration system, as there are much practice of masters and slaves (Sterba, 2004). The people without a full citizenship in the United States are limited as far as liberty and freedom are concerned. At times, the liberty for the aliens to choose and pursue their destination is very limited, as they are supposed to be guided by the decisions of other people.
The real citizens must preconceive the destination of the alien, and their efforts to reach that destinations depends on other peoples views. To some extent, this justice theory does not fully apply to the current American immigration system as liberty and freedom is not provided to all especially the foreigners. The kind of jobs that the foreigners engage with for survival, does not guarantee them the full liberty and freedom that they may deserve.
Another right that is recognized by libertarian is regard to property. This theory introduces a scheme whereby every individual is given a chance that is unrestricted to acquire a property, through full capitalism.
As far as an individual has a liberty to choose his or her destiny, he or she should have a right to own a property such as real estate, car, personal clothing etc. The right of property does not imply someone just taking properties from others, but rather having the right to work for that property, to be in a position to offer money or services in exchange of a particular property (Isbister, 2008).
The idea of just taking a property from any person, might violates their rights of ownership to their properties. There are great limitations to the foreigners in acquiring the ownership of the properties in their alien countries. For instance, in the current system of immigration in the United States, the aliens are not entitled fully to that right of full ownership of some properties. For an alien to own some valuable properties some legal processes are followed for them to own that property fully.
However, the issue of denying people the right to own a property is another way of depriving them their freedom way of life. Without this freedom, a citizen is confused on the right path through which he or she can follow to pursue his future dreams.
Property rights are a go ahead of every individual in planning what to do in future. If a person cannot own a property, it would be hard for him to plan for the life ahead. Before the aliens acquire a full citizenship in the United States, they lead a life full of challenges, whereby they do not enjoy freedom like other citizens in the country. Almost all justice theories are violated by the American immigration system.
The immigration debate of America has been facilitated by several key people like Roy Beck, who is the executive director of a certain non-partisan organization that fought for reduced immigration.
At one point, Beck said that their main theme in that organization was the immigration policy to assist the United States get back to its normal position (Sterba, 2004). This nonpartisan group made use of internet to spread their views. Another key contributor to this immigration debate is Lou Dobbs, who is a former CNN new anchor. Lou was known to be very harsh about the Mexican immigrants, to an extent that it was claimed that his critics was challenging the integrity news networks.
Lou insisted on the border security saying that it would be hard to reform immigration law before controlling immigration through guarding the borders and the ports. William Gheen is another key person in immigration debate; he is the president for legal immigration in America since the year 2004.
The group led by William concentrates on the comprehensive enforcement of immigration laws. The areas that this group insisted on included strict border security, penalties to those people who employ illegal aliens, eradication of tax benefits for illegal foreigners, and the most important of all the police force to be involved in enforcing the immigration laws (Sterba, 2004). According to Luis Gutierrez, the introduction of legislation in 2009 was a great step of opening a path to legal status for dealing with the undocumented immigrants.
Luis, who is a democratic lawmaker, claimed that the immigration is a form of crisis to both human and civil rights, to the country’s economy especially the workforce hence imposing a threat to the national security. Luis insisted that for the aliens to acquire legal status, they were supposed to produce an employment history, be ready to pay a fine of $500, and be conversant with English language. Another test for Luis proposed the aliens were to undergo a criminal thorough check.
The executive director of the center for immigration, Mr. Mark conducts research based on the impacts of immigration. According to his research, it is a prove that the increased levels of immigration in united states, hardens the efforts of achieving goals in public sectors like education, and the environmental effects.
The history of United States immigration dates back to over four centuries ago, whereby millions of immigrants settled in the United States to start up new lives. To some extent, it is through the hard work of immigrants that made US what it is today. Their work has benefitted greatly this country, as well as themselves (McDonald, 2009).
Globally, there are many people of all ages, who have decided to settle and start new lives in the United States. Before United States acquired independence, it relied heavily on the immigrants to come from other countries to come and occupy the unsettled lands.
Through the work of the immigrants on these virgin lands, the country started benefitting economically. During those early days, America had enough land and capital, but the limitation was lack of enough people to work on their lands. There was need to do farming, mining, and other economic activities, but the human labor was the problem (Isbister, 2008).
Through this act, many people were encouraged to move from their countries to come and settle in the United States, until now when they realized the threat of these immigrants. Moreover, as the numbers of the immigrants continue increasing, the more the key actors on this issue come up with ideas of reforming.
In conclusion, the process of acquiring full citizenship by the immigrants in the United States should be made cheap and easy to achieve (McDonald, 2009). Despite the fact that, someone may not have acquired the legal documentation, he or she should not be denied the necessary human rights, and should be treated in a just manner like other citizens.
The above-discussed theory of justice should be applied to ensure there is no discrimination acts done to the immigrants, as they are equal human beings. However, it is the responsibility of the immigrants to put extra efforts to achieve the full citizenship of the United States. This step would be an added advantage to them as the government would treat them as other citizens, and enjoy other benefits offered to the citizens.
Reference List
Barry, B. (2006). Theories of Justice. California: University of California.
Isbister, J. (2008). The immigration debate: remarking. Michigan: Kumarian Press.
McDonald, W. (2009). Immigration, crime and justice. New York: Emerald Group Publishing.
Miller, C. (2007). Debating immigration. New York: Cengage Learning.
Sterba, J. (2004). Justice: Alternative political perspective. New York: Wadsworth Pub.
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