Matt Taibbi’s “The Divide” uses extensive research to attempt to contradict the understanding of our nonpartisan justice system. According to Taibbi, while poverty has increased, crime has decreased, and the jail population has increased 600% since 1991 (page xvi). He states while individuals are being prosecuted based on race and financial status. In which Taibbi argues that other offenders are not being prosecuted compared to minority groups.
Because the arrest and drug conviction were not challenged in the federal removal proceedings, the Court in Moncrieffe v. Holder did not have before it the full set of facts surrounding the state criminal prosecution of Adrian Moncrieffe. However, examination of the facts surrounding the criminal case offers important lessons about how the criminal justice system works in combination with the modern immigration removal machinery to disparately impact communities of color. By all appearances, the traffic stop that led to Moncrieffe’s arrest is a textbook example of racial profiling.3 Over the last few decades, the modern immigration enforcement system has evolved into a criminal immigration removal system, with the U.S. government frequently
Mary Romero’s article explained the criminality and the images that Latino/a youth have before knowing the individual. We see a lot of crimes and murders that were made by officers towards people of color, specifically, in this case, Latino/a. In the Latinx community, we have a lot of disadvantages. Not only based on the color of our skin but also the fact that majority of Latinos in this country are immigrants. According to Romero, Latino youth was always seen and described as criminals since WWII.
This continued nuisance is even very present and notable within our laws and law enforcement departments, an issue largely due to the “failure to address structural racism and [building] on the compromises of the 1960s civil rights pacts” (Bazian 43). Unsurprisingly, Trump was not the first president to use racist and negative rhetoric when referring to a minority; President Reagan’s attacked African American “welfare mothers.” A more liberal president, Clinton, then adopted this sentiment. These sentiments were translated into policies that affected African American, thus showing the deep presence of racism within our political and governmental structure. Overall, Professor Bazian explored the issues that rise when people (i.e. African Americans and Muslims) are seen as out of the ordinary vis-à-vis the European
The article, “Immigrant Crimes: Cultural Defense--a Legal Tactic” by Myrna Oliver is published in the Los Angeles Times. The author’s purpose was to evaluate the use of cultural defense on actions that we, as American believed that it’s morally wrong. Oliver uses different examples and testimonies to display the effective use of culture defense to justified behaviors that violates American laws. The article argues that cultural defense is popular among immigrants to get lighter punishments since they have different values and beliefs in their hometown.
Richard Rodriguez makes several great points in how America plays the victim. America contains millions of illegal immigrants and I believe that America should grant them citizenship. Mexicans, unlike Americans are willing to work for low wages, and fill in jobs that Americans are unwilling to do. Most Americans have a stereotype of most gardeners, being Mexicans unlike the typical American who chooses to stay inside and watch his or hers Smartphone hour hours at a time. Mexicans work out in the heat cutting grass, racking leaves, and tending gardens.
Seth Holmes argument is correct when he says class, race, ethnicity, gender and citizenship are all implicated in the system of structural violence experienced by migrants in the United States, it is seen with the numerous examples that are given in the text. Social inequality is something immense in this book and it is seen through Holmes experiences, how identity factor into the lives of farm workers in Washington State. Structural violence and social injustice can be split into three different topics which are race, class, and ethnicity. Theses migrants who are in a lower class are treated poorly by those who have power over them and this causes much of their injuries and health issues that the face. Holmes explains how the people that
A study by the California Judicial Council Advisory Committee on Racial and Ethnic Bias in the Courts found that the justice system gives little attention or resources to investigating crimes against minorities and that minority defendants receive harsh treatment compared to white defendants in similar circumstances. The study also found that black-on-black crime or Latino-on-Latino crime is not taken as seriously as crimes against whites. Judges seem to believe that violence is more "acceptable" to black women because they are viewed as coming from violent communities. Minorities were judged by white, middle-class values in family law matters, and were the victims of racial and cultural stereotypes, which affects the courts '
Article Summary For many decades, politicians, and lawmakers have been bothered by undocumented immigrant’s presence in the United States of America. Factors such as poverty, diverse forms of persecution, and unemployment of many foreign lands motivating some groups to seek entry into the U.S. Many undocumented immigrants fled to the U.S. legally with a temporary visa, and failed to leave. Some due come to America one way or another, by boat, or cross the borders.) According to Wallace, undocumented immigrants are individual who are leaving in America illegally (Wallace et al., 2012).
There are millions of undocumented immigrants that are living along side with the 300 million Americans in the United States. In the article, The Framing of Immigration, by George Lakoff and Sam Ferguson, undocumented immigrants are negatively framed or labeled as “illegals” because of their status. They believe that they should not be labeled as “illegal,” rather they claim that undocumented immigrants should be not framed as “illegal” and be treated equally just as American citizens. The undocumented are not criminals nor terrorist, they are humans and they deserve a chance. Lakoff and Ferguson also emphasize that America should not solve the immigration problem on its own.
We live in a society where ethnic minorities are target for every minimal action and/or crimes, which is a cause to be sentenced up to 50 years in jail. African Americans and Latinos are the ethnic minorities with highest policing crimes. In chapter two of Michelle Alexander’s book, The Lockdown, we are exposed to the different “crimes” that affects African American and Latino minorities. The criminal justice system is a topic discussed in this chapter that argues the inequality that people of color as well as other Americans are exposed to not knowing their rights. Incarceration rates, unreasonable suspicions, and pre-texts used by officers are things that play a huge role in encountering the criminal justice system, which affects the way
The media’s perspective of minority immigrants are usually seen in society’s viewpoint, and vice versa. Today, America is struggling with their take on immigration of Hispanic migrants into our country. With this, the idea that the general population has of Hispanic immigrants comes from the media, whose depiction of certain races and actual differences between the races are overgeneralized and usually negative. For example, today, Americans are divided on their feelings of Hispanic migrants through Mexico’s border, but negative portrayals of Hispanics in the media can sway society’s take on such issues. This is seen clearly when media presentations of Hispanic minorities are shown as violent criminals, low income labor workers, or uneducated
IMMIGRATION vs. ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS Immigration is a topic that has been at the center of debate for many decades. The majority of those residing in the United States today are immigrants. These immigrants are often classified within two categories; immigrants and illegal immigrants. An immigrant is a person who migrated to another country usually for permanent residence.
Green’s (2016) findings were quite astonishing. Most criminal activities were found to not be committed by immigrant populations, and undocumented immigrants had committed criminal activities at an even lesser rate. In fact, Green (2016) noted that there had been no statistically significant relationship between immigration populations, violent crime, or drug-related crime. Poverty, here, however, did appear to have a strong relationship with violent crime compared to drug crime offenses. There was a weak positive relationship with undocumented immigrants and drug arrest rates, including sales and possession.
Racial inequality is an American tradition. Relative to whites, blacks earn twenty-four percent less, live five fewer years, and are six times more likely to be incarcerated on a given day. Hispanics earn twenty-five percent less than whites and are three times more likely to incarcerated.1 At the end of the 1990s, there were one-third more black men under the jurisdiction of the corrections system than there were enrolled in colleges or universities (Ziedenberg and Schiraldi,
