Tancredo, “Tough on Terror”? Right. More like, let’s group together what have seemingly become America’s biggest fears: terrorism and the invasion of illegal immigrants deemed as the other. The result is an uber alarm against the two, yet more so a wake-up call to the latter. Literally warning Americans “before it’s too late,” Tancredo is obviously positioned as the answer to it all.
What the ad does in actuality, though, is stereotype all of the 12 million undocumented immigrants estimated by TIME magazine – I’m sorry, that’s 20 million aliens according to the senator – by immediately associating them with the imminent desire to blow up American malls. Moreover, Tancredo targets not only Islamic terrorists (and people of this faith in general), but makes a sweeping reference to Latino and Asian immigrants with the “20 million aliens already taking our jobs.”
What I take issue with then – other than this sensationalist approach of galvanizing political support – is the fact that people like Tancredo often do not ground their assertions in facts. Rather they largely base them off of the public’s trends of anxiety and fear, which is then reinforced by these same politicians in a never-ending cycle.
Thus, it comes at no surprise that such negligence of the truth is drawn into another segment of the national debate on immigration: the costs of undocumented immigrants for the American taxpayer versus the contributions that they make to the American economy. In these recent articles from both the LA and NY Times, researchers have found that in some cases, the contributions far outweigh the costs in healthcare, education and other social services. Adding to that, such expenses are far much less than they have typically been made out to be.
In the LA Times article, the focus of illegal immigrants’ use of public services is on healthcare. According to the Times, UCLA researchers have found that illegal immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries are 50 percent less likely than U.S.-born Latinos to use hospital emergency rooms in California. In this study published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers confirmed that immigrants are indeed less likely to be insured and seek routine and preventive care. The reasons? Not because this generation of illegal immigrants is younger and healthier than the overall population, but rather they do not seek medical treatment out of fear of leaving a paper trail.
Even Alexander N. Ortega, the lead author of the study, agrees in the reluctance of some politicians to acknowledge fact. “The current policy discourse that undocumented immigrants are a burden on the public because they overuse public services is not borne out with data, for either primary care or emergency department care,” said Ortega, also an associate professor at UCLA’s School of Public Health.
In the NY Times article, immigrants, both legal and illegal, are attributed to one-fourth the economic output for New York State. From a statewide immigrant population of 21 percent, contributions to the state GDP were $229 billion in 2005, as stated in the independent study “Working for a Better Life.” The estimates are that 16 percent of the 4.1 million statewide immigrants are residing there illegally.
Again, case in point, “We just felt like there was such a deep misunderstanding about who immigrants were that the political discourse often got far afield from any factual basis of what’s really going on here,” stated David D. Kallick, the principal author of the study.
Put that in your backpack and blow it up, Tancredo.
And since I’ve already jumped back to the ad, I still must give credit to the senator’s brilliant use of the ticking time bomb, images of terrorist attacks abroad, and the suspicious-looking, could be your next-door neighbor, hooded culprit. That said, Tancredo does an excellent job of capitalizing on the fears and suspicions of immigrant-weary Americans. At the same time, I’m just tired of hearing all of the b.s. while people eat it up like it’s candy.
Additional Links and Sources:
(LA Times) Few migrants, much opposition
3 comments:
wow, saw this link on facebook and i needed to get away from studying for finals; now this is some really good stuff. i really like the way you write, it's good quality. not only that but the content is also deep. what are you majoring in???
darrell
hey darrell,
thanks so much for taking the time to check out my site. it really means a lot to me to hear that a few people can appreciate my work. i'm majoring in public relations (which is a journalism major here at 'sc). but i'm also double-minoring in spanish and political science (though i don't have much room for spanish, but oh well, i'll figure that out later).
i'll be studying in nicaragua next year, so i'm going to shift the content of my blog to issues there. i'll keep you posted, though. thanks again!
Its so interesting to me how presidential candidates choose to "reach out to the people." This video, which is an obvious attempt at relating to a younger demographic, is so (for lack of a better word) silly to me. I can appreciate that he is trying to get us to care about him and his issues, but to try and pull a 24 reference to do that seems forced and unnecessary. I don't want to be tricked into liking a candidate because they have cool commercials, I want to have respect for their issues. I give him credit for trying, but its better to be honest about yourself when searching for votes and support.
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