On April 3rd,
2016, the United States Congress passed a piece of legislation concerning the
topic of illegal aliens. An illegal alien is an alien who has entered into
America illegally and is therefore deportable. In the past, Congress has
referred to them by means of calling them illegal aliens. However, after a
group of illegal aliens fought Congress on the term, Congress voted to then no
longer use said term; the term undocumented citizens is to be used instead.
This has begged a question that has been argued all across America for the
following week after the legislation was passed: with their absence of rights
due to no citizenship, should illegal aliens be able to influence government
policy in America?
On
April 3rd, 2016, newspapers across America, such as the Cedar Rapids
Gazette and the Los Angeles Times, announced the passed legislation. While it
has not been a front page headliner, it has caused a bit of a stir across the
nation. With the change of wording from illegal aliens to undocumented citizens
in Congress, American citizens have started to question how policy gets changed
in their nation.
As
stated in the Los Angeles Times, the topic was brought up to Congress by a
group of college students. The group is from Dartmouth College and are known as
CoFIRED (Dartmouth Coalition for Immigration Reform, Equality and Dreamers),
brought up to Congress how the term illegal alien was a derogatory and
offensive term. This then got attention from others in America, who also stated
that the term illegal aliens was offensive. They lobbied for Congress to change
the policy, and ultimately won as Congress passed the legislation on April 3rd.
This,
however, caused quite an outrage from American citizens. Various sources of
news, such as newspapers, the internet, or news broadcasts, were depictions of
citizens protesting the legislation around the nation. Protests out in the
streets were common. Signs were used by many of the protestors. They all wanted
to voice their opinion about how this legislation should not have been passed.
They brought up much evidence to help their viewpoint.
The
Constitution is the law of the land in America, was written by the founding
fathers, and it is what all the laws in America is based upon. Congress, when
passing legislation, must make sure it is constitutional. The Supreme Court
makes sure that laws are constitutional when they are disputed either in
lawsuits or when someone broke the law.
The
Frist Amendment of the Constitution grants the Freedom of Speech to the
citizens of the United States of America. Some citizens, such as college
students, have stated that by banning terms from use such as “illegal alien” is
going against the First Amendment of the Constitution by banning their Freedom
of Speech (Sokol). At colleges it is important to keep a “safe and productive
learning environment”, while still ensuring the “students’ right to freedom of
expression”. While this example is from a college, it is still applicable to
the legislation in Congress. While Congress needs to keep an environment that
restrains from degrading and offending its citizens, such as the safe college
environment, Congress still needs to protect the freedom of expression.
Many
people think that the term illegal aliens should not be used as it is offensive
to those who are illegal aliens in America. As stated in the Constitution, one
citizen cannot exercise his or her rights in order to take away the rights of
another citizen. This leads those to believe that the term, illegal aliens,
should not be put to use. However, if the Constitution were to be read
carefully, then they would notice that the Constitution refers to citizens and
the rights that the citizens of America have. If a person is illegally living
in America, what gives them the right to be able to gain the rights of the
currently legal citizens of America? By doing so shows that the Constitution has
no power over the land with the current interpretation, with that
interpretation being it belongs and maintains order for America and America
alone. Via this interpretation, the Constitution should refer to all of the
world; America, however, is not the world’s police. Therefore, even if the
illegal aliens believe that the term illegal aliens takes away their rights by
means of it being offensive, they have no right nor any power to be able to
change American policy.
However,
that is not what happened. Congress interpreted the Constitution in applying to
all people, not just citizens of America. While all people have their basic
human rights, if they break the law, which they do if they are illegal aliens,
then they should not be granted the same rights as others. Via this passing of
legislation, Congress has declared that even if someone currently living in
America is not an American citizen and is here illegally, therefore breaking
the law, which is a crime, they still have just as many rights as those legal
American citizens have. That interpretation from Congress has a multitude of
flaws, as it could lead to worldly conflicts due to America attempting to be
the world police. Therefore, as a person illegally occupying a territory within
a nation they are not a citizen of, they should not be granted the same rights
as legal citizens of that nation and therefore should not be granted the power
to influence policy.
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