Darrah Perryman Draft 2 WRD 104 The Faces Behind the Masked Villian Ha sido muy doloroso para

todos nosotros, para sus hermanos, sus padres, para m. Pero quizs los que estn sufriendo los ms en este momento son nuestros hijos. Mis hijos me preguntan todo el tiempo: 'Por qu mataron a mi pap? Qu pas con mi pap?Y es una pregunta que yo mismo, no tienen respuestas, porque no s por qu le hizo esto. ---- Mara Puga, the widow of Alejandro Hernndez Rojas in an interview by Amy Goodman, from PBS.
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The piercing, fiery screams of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas were real. They stripped the night of its beauty and burnt holes into the hearts of witnesses who stood helpless at the California-Mexico border in May 2010. His cries of Ayudeme! Por favor! left embers of pain across both sides of the border as bystanders caught the deplorable moment on video tape. U.S. Border Patrol officers ferociously beat the life out of Rojas after they caught him crossing the border illegally. Rojas had lived in the United States for 25 years and had five U.S. born children with wife, Maria Puga. After leaving the United States for some time, he was coming back to reunite with his family- until corruption at the border altered his fate. According to Border officers, Rojas was hostile and belligerent, leaving them with no other choice but to tazer him, which ultimately lead to his death. However, video footage was finally released to the press in April of 2012 and proves Rojas innocence. The only thing belligerent about Rojas was the sound of his death. Rojas lay helpless on the cold ground as his wrenched pleas for mercy shook the trees and tainted the land with a new culture that is quickly spreading throughout the border. (PBS Need To Know, April 2012)

The death of Rojas is a sign to us all that the battle on the border needs to end. Granted, Rojas broke the law, but did he deserve to be beaten to death because of it? In 2011,1 the U.S. Bureau of Statistics showed a report that out of thereported that of the 11 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States, 6.8 million are from Mexico. This should tell us thatT the lives of the citizens in Mexico must be heinous for so many people to pick up leave their home, their families and their children to cross over illegally and risk deathrisk an encounter like Rojas.. However, instead of understanding the lives of Mexicans, our culture is focused on one glaring issue: keeping them out. For years Congress had debated about the possibility of a border wall to keep Mexicans from entering our country illegally. In 2010, the wall was completed in three areas: Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California. But Though, the wall cannot possibly keep all of them out; it merely just slows th it can slow them down so that Border Patrols can catch the immigrants once they are spotted. The wall soars to kiss the sky, accented with 14 feet of eccentric, hard stadium light that competes for the nights attention, as young souls dash over the welded steel and race across the sand in a game of luck that could end in new life or death. Getting over the fence is a game of luck that three out of four illegal immigrants are able to do, but the dream ends for the one out of the four who is caught (Great Wall of Mexico).em down while the government flirts with new technology and security to better track them. Meanwhile, the United States is confronted with detrimental consequences of the border wall such as corruption, ethnocentrism and the environment effects of a massive wall in three significant places. The wall slashes through the beautiful land filled with rich cultural roots on both sides of the border, plants the seeds of corruption into the minds of officials on both sides of the sides of
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the border. But most importantly, the border wall destroys the human morals that Americans fought so hard to uphold. The border wall has pushed this country to the point of denying the fundamental rights to human beings who only dream of attaining The American Dream. If we succeed in keeping them all out, will we be happy with the faces that paint our country people we have fostered in the process? Before we dive into the repercussions of outlawing immigration, we must briefly understand the process of becoming a United States citizen. Mexico residents hope to come to the United States to have a better life, to find a better job and have the freedoms and opportunities that encompass the American Dream. However, the U.S. citizenship process is very extensive and demanding, taking anywhere from 2-7 years-if there are no complications or special circumstances in a case. The eleven million illegal immigrants living in the United States in 2011 prove the difficulty of becoming U. S. citizen. To be a legal U.S. citizen, the applicant must find out if they are even eligible to apply. Some of the requirements are: to be able to read and write in English, good moral character, and to be able to prove a period of continuous residency in the United States. Next, they must pay a non refundable fee of 675 dollars and send in the N400 Naturalization Application Form. The questions on this form can be difficult to understand, but it is essential that the applicant answer all the questions correctly because the in person interview is derived off the questions from this application. After the documents and paper work are sorted, the applicant must wait for the government to contact them. After their papers and documents have been accepted, the applicant is then qualified to have an interview; however if an applicant cannot answer a question or answers dishonestly they will be dismissed due to lack of moral character. The applicant then must wait for their decision; this time period

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will vary depending on an individuals case and their eligibility. Once they are accepted, the applicant takes their pictures and takes a United States Civic Test and English test scoring 60 percent or better. (US Citizen Apply Guide) (tighten this paragraph) In retrospect, the requirements dont seem that grueling, but the reality is, becoming a U.S. citizen isnt as black and white as it seems. There are a lot of grey cases and additionally steps that a person has to go through to prove they can be a U.S. citizen. A lot of times families are left waiting for years and years. Or, in other cases families are denied. One American mother, Ellie Lavi, who is now living in Israel, was denied U.S. Citizenship for her two twin daughters who were conceived in Israel through a donor sperm and egg clinic.They are my kids, I carried them for nine months, but they cant be American, Lavi said. U.S. policy is not keeping up with the technology. Thats essentially what the issue is, (quoted by Martin Fletcher and Steven Stump, The Today Show). Because there is no way to prove that the sperm donor or the egg donor are American, the children are children without a country. Since there is no biological connection, the only option for Lavi is to live in the United States for six months and file the paperwork there. New title Ethnocentrism In the1860s, the United States was divided from the north and the south or the Unions versus the Confederates. Each side thought their views were superior to the other; the Unions wanted to end slavery, while the Confederates wanted slavery to stay intact. This ethnocentric mind of a superior race and a superior ideology drove our country to fight in The Civil War, which to this day is still one of the most bloodthirsty wars that America has ever fought. A century and a half later, we are still immersed in an ethnocentric way of life by building an eighteen to thirty foot tall wall towering over the border line. The Great Wall of China was built
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as a symbol of power and to keep the uncivilized out. The Berlin Wall was built to separate East Berlin from West Berlin or to keep the fascists out. Each side believed their ideologies to be better than the others. (Langerbein) So what does the U.S.- Mexico wall say about us? More importantly, what kind of message are we sending to the people on the other side of the wall? Now, the anti-immigration theorists would say that the only difference between The Great Wall of China, the Wall of Berlin and The U.S-Mexico wall is that Berlin and China were one nation, while the U.S.-Mexico wall separates two different countries. While this is true, the reality is that the two cultures and ways of life have already been intertwined across the border. So where does the line between the two states start? This doesnt flow The laws that we implement are another reflection of the ethnocentrism that we feel toward Mexico. Combined with the wall, we are sending one bold gesture to the outside world. One law in particular steals the dignity and pride away from all Latinos residing in Arizona. The Arizona Senate Bill 1070 was established in 2010 and allows officers to request to see the identification papers of Hispanics if the police are skeptical about their citizenship in the United States. This law opens up doors to racial profiling and according to Mexican President Felipe Caldern, The law opens the door to intolerance, hate, discrimination and abuse in law enforcement, (quoted by Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian). There has been several suites filed against this law and the Supreme Court is expected to rule their final decision in 2012 with the Arizona versus The United States hearing. The government claims that the law doesnt allow discrimination or racial profiling, but how are the officials suppose to identify an illegal citizen? The law itself is the single most prevailing thing Americans can do to Hispanics. Anyone who looks, speaks or is suspected to be Latino is at risk to be questioned or even arrested without a warrant if the police have probable cause; that probable cause being that they are Hispanic. The
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Rev Al Sharpton, an advocate of African-American rights, said in New York that he would organize freedom walkers, just as the civil rights movement had organized freedom riders to board segregated buses in the 1960s. We will go to Arizona when this bill goes into effect and walk the streets with people who refuse to give identification and force arrest, Sharpton said [in 2010 after the bill was purposed].(MacAskill)This law sends the message that the white race is superior, it may not be intentionally by the government, but you wont see a white male walking down the streets of Phoenix being stopped by the police to see his U.S. citizenship papers. There are so many efforts that are being made by the government to prevent immigration, but the United States has issues within their country that are being ignored. There is an opportunity cost for everything the government does. Time that is spent on illegal immigration is time not spent on other issues within our country. What is the government doing while a single mother is left abandoned after the babys father skips town, never paying her a cent for child support? Or when a father comes home to tell his children that there will be no Christmas presents this year because he got laid off from work? What were they doing in that moment in time, when the baby blue in your sisters eyes was washed away after she was diagnosed with breast cancer? Oh yes, the government was spending 2.6 billion dollars to build a fence, plus another 75 million U.S. dollars (annually) for maintenance and immigration security to keep Mexicans from entering and living in the United States. (Cross Over: The New US-Mexico Border Strategy).

Although we have a country that we should be proud of, nothing is perfect. There are still a plethora of troubling issues that lie in the heart of our nation and in the eyes of our people. We should be focusing our attention on other issues; the environment, health care, the economy and

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most importantly our future. It is time that as a nation, we put the issue of immigration to bed and open the borders to allow new voices to help paint the vision of Americas future. (Where does this go????) Unfortunately, that grueling sentence you just read will most likely spike anger and frustration among anti-immigration theorists. Many believe that America is something that cannot be shared with the outsiders. America is something that our ancestors built, but that doesnt mean that we are done building. We were all immigrants at one point; so how can we not give others the same chance and opportunity that someone gave us? One man has a strong sense of nationality after fighting for his country when he was seventeen-years old. Britt Craig is a Minuteman (an American volunteer who sits at the border and calls in any suspicious persons trying to cross over illegally) in Campo California. I feel an obligation to Americans. America is something that is worth breaking into because it is a fine thing. It was built from wilderness. It was built by people. [Our ancestors] left their lifes work to their children, who left it to their children, who left it to their children. It is ours, it is not theirs. Its as simple as that, says Craig (The Border Stories Mosiac Documentary). The fear that is behind Craigs ideology is the idea that if we open the borders, then people will swarm in like water from a tsunami and take what is ours. There is no doubt that they are coming in but they are taking the jobs that many Americans dont want: the low paying, hard labor jobs. And to be an illegal immigrant they are getting paid less than minimum wage which is still more than what they would make in Mexico. In this perspective, Hispanics are not taking anything away from us, they are helping us. Although, coming up with a universal idea/concept of immigration is a daunting idea, it must be done for the survival of all nations (Murphy and Salazar). (MOVE THIS)
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Slithering through the land like a poisonous snake, diseases exchange skin and spread like fire across both sides of the border. One disease in particular attaches itself to the brain and grows into a ruthless animal that it is: malfeasance. With each day that is spent on the border patrol, is another day that your perception of moral dignity disintegrates. Seora, you must forgive us. We deal with death so often in here that we forget. We forget, you see. Were indelicate. If you dont work here, death still means something to you.'" (quoted by secretary in Tuscon consultant office, Urrea, 220). Who knows what spiked the Border Patrols to kill Rojas, but what is known is the world that the U.S. Border are immersed in on the border line. This quote from Urrea captivates the truth behind working on the border. Death is something that has lost its meaning. In Urreas book, The Devils Highway, 26 men attempt to cross the Mexico border with the help of Jesus Antonio Lopez Ramosk or Mendez, is paid to smuggle Mexicans to the United States. However, some coyotes as they are called, rob, rape or beat their clients before parting to the United States. In the book, Mendez gets the men lost in the dessert, and lies to them about how close they really are and in the end takes their money, promising to bring back water and help. He never returned. The system on both sides of the border are getting dirtier and dirtier and no matter how much the Mexican government and the U.S. government warns their nations, there are still a plethora of people that attempt to make that journey to the United States. Many Mexican immigrants only see the positives in travelling to America and neglect to think through their journey logically- this journey could end their lives if they are not careful. Generalizations "They were drunk from having their brains baked in the pan, they were seeing God and devils, and they were dizzy from drinking their own urine, the poison clogging their systems," (Urrera,

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1). The journey to the U.S. is a dark and dangerous one. The saddest part is, that once many reach the border they are caught by the Patrol and are forced to go back home. Grupo Beta has seen the darkness within the border working as a Safety Control for the past five years. His job consists of warning and assisting migrants about the dangers that lie ahead. I want to help people before they get hurt. A lot of people learn their lesson or the dangers of crossing over illegally after something bad happens to them. I cant stop them, but I hope to warn them and beg them to turn around and go back home, said Beta in an interview for Border Stories. The journey to the border is a treacherous one, like Beta mentioned and it depends on exactly where you are traveling from- but the risks are still the same. The wall is strategically set up to slow them down so the Border Patrol can catch them, but the government knows that immigrants will try and hop the fence Officials even estimated that the wall slows border hoppers down by twenty seconds. (Scott, Nicol) Building a wall higher and higher, knowing that people are going to jump over it, is probably one of the cruelest aspects of the system. The wall is built to slow immigrants down, but everyone knows a wall that high is going to do more than slow immigrants down. At the University of Southern California at San Diego, doctors have seen an increased amount of injuries due to border hoppers. Dr. Raul Coimbra (a doctor at USC) estimates that the hospital spends about $18,000 per patient. The patients dont have insurance; therefore the hospital is left with the bill. He predicts if the wall goes up in height again (as it has in the past years) [itation]]in future years that the hospital will see another sharp increase in the amount of injuries. We just want to be compensated for the money we are spending. The government doesnt pay a cent to us. (Border Stories Mosiac Documentary) (This doesnt flow here))
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The United States-Mexico border fence poses dangerous effects to nature and the wildlife around the wall. The border fence has National Guards and Patrol around it at all times, with high security devices and immigration software in the computer systems. With this new security there will be an increased amount of human interaction within the nature that did not exist around the border before the wall was built. It is not necessarily the interaction that is taking place around the wall that threatens the nature, but the construction that went into making the border fence a reality. Border walls have severely affected rivers, streams and wetlands. To build walls in the Otay Mountain Wilderness Area, south of San Diego, DHS dynamited 530,000 cubic yards of rock from mountainsides and duped the waste into the Tijuana River, (Scott Nicol, 1). It seems that the government is foregoing all other aspects of this country for the sake of this fence. As troublesome as illegal immigration is, the more troubling problem is to risk other aspects of our country in hopes of making illegal immigration go away. If the problem is ever resolved then we will be facing a mountain of other issues that emerged because of our efforts to keep the them out. In addition, one of the biggest wild refuges in the world, Cabreza Prieta in Mexico is tremendously disrupted by this as well. In May of 2005 Congress passed the REAL Id Act which waives all previous laws pertaining to the construction and maintenance of border security and border wall construction. This means that other laws that protected nature are now forgone in order to maintain the wall. The government can cut down national forests, plants, and sever the ties between animal populations living on the border. Jaguars have been spotted in Arizona and in New Mexico in the past few decades the separation of borders will make it harder for species to repopulate. Scott Nicol,3). The construction of the wall also has stirred up trouble with higher education. The University of Texas has been in dispute with DHS because the proposed

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fencing will cut off 180 acres of their campus [] and also because the a physical barrier on the campus contradicts a key element in the mission of any institution of higher learning: to transcend boundaries and bring cultures together, (Langerbein ) In addition, tribes were affected by the border wall. Native American tribes like Lipan Apache in Southern Texas and Kickapoo Tribe in El Paso were forced to lose their culture and tradition of the land. (Texas Border Wall, University of Texas) As many problems that the United States has with letting the others in, the reality is that this fear is a characteristic that runs in the human race. The United States is not the only country that is facing immigration issues; we have seen it in our past, when The Great Wall of China was built to keep the Mongolians, yet today it is the biggest cemetery in the entire world. The Wall of Berlin was built to divide the country from different political ideologies. XX many people died trying to get back and forth from the east to west. And still to this day we can see in other countries like Japan and France, where ridiculous laws are implemented to prove the citizenship of an individual. In China, an individual must carry their papers with them at all times.

We could at least make the wall look prettyreflect our culture like the wall of china

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It could at least show or represent our culture respectively It is not something we are proud of morally or else it would be beautiful

And when that heart stopping moment hits and we realize the unthinkable: we are all the villians behind the mask.