Date: 28 September 2013 To: ENG 1311 Peers and Instructor From: Alexandria Brown RE: Immigration The

topic of immigration, more specifically what is happening with illegal immigrants that are already residing in the United States, is one of great importance. The Department of Homeland Security, more specifically the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement division, ties in directly with the topic of Immigration and legality of citizens. This organization exists to provide national border security by enforcing the removal of illegal persons in the States and to insure national security. This is extremely relevant to my community here in El Paso, nearly every day I pass by the border and observe US officials patrolling the US/Mexico border. Furthermore, there are many illegal immigrants in El Paso, being that Mexico is within walking distance. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency communicates through numerous facets, including radio stations, Internet, television commercials, and even billboards. An ordinary citizen can hear The United States Immigration and Customs values and mission statement can be heard on commercials run nationally, on billboards across the state, official government newsletters, press releases, brochures in DMV offices, and their government website. One of the drawbacks to this organization also happens to a strong point, there is no stated author of the website they have under the government domain. The organization is very large and is a part of the government so it isnt exactly clear who is making the material we see on the website, it is applauded that there are potentially many people working as authors of the cite to better inform the public of what exactly they do. The audience this organization is trying to target is all citizens of the United States; the organization wants to make ordinary citizens aware of what they are doing and intent to continue to do to maintain national security. The issues the government organization is addressing include and are not limited to, investigations of potential illegal resident threats to national security, the reasons why illegal immigrants can be potentially very dangerous (crimes that illegals have been convicted of before), and enforcement and levels of punishment for crimes that are committed against the United States. These discourse practices seem to be very effective in the sense that the average American citizen that sees this collective information becomes scared and secure at the same time, they are presented with a lot of information that would usually evoke fear, a problematic issue, then immediately presented with a solution that is currently being carried out, making the average American citizen feel safer and secure. The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is largely part of every US citizens national civic discourse communities. It could also be argued that this agency could affect personal discourse communities around the United States because many families, especially along the national borders, have mixed legal and illegal families. There are many challenges that this agency can run into, what about the illegal hard working residence? How should an illegal resident running away from their homeland due to life or death issues be handled? Should these immigrants be handled in the same way as other illegal immigrants? The list of potential issues that could arise continues. There also many advantages this organization has, firstly, it is a government organization and has enormous resources to tap into.

This agency and topic of immigration is extremely relevant to everyone in this English class and living in El Paso because the issue directly affects us, not only are we living nearly as close to a border as possible, but most of us know or are related to illegal immigrants. This agency can be reached locally here in El Paso by the following information, El Paso Field Office Area of Responsibility: West Texas, New Mexico 1545 Hawkins Blvd El Paso, TX 79925 Phone: (915) 225-1901/1941 http://www.ice.gov/best/. All the best, Alexandria Brown Lexy Brown