Law in Contemporary Society

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FeliciaReyesSecondEssay 4 - 30 May 2022 - Main.EbenMoglen
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It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted.
 

Impact of Crimmigration on Immigrant Youth

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 The question should not be whether these young people are worthy of protection, but rather how we can protect them. Unfortunately, not protecting them hurts more than just the individual, it can also have drastic consequences on both the family and community at large.
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When we write about "what the question should be," we either put that idea in the introduction or the conclusion. When we begin by proposing a change in question, we are inviting people who have disagreed with us to ask a new question and perhaps change their minds. When we conclude by stating what the question should be, we are appealing to those who agree with us and distributing talking points. Lawyers do both kinds of writing.

This draft is indeed of the latter kind. Rubi's comment strongly resonates with this very effective summons to differentiate from potential allies who are not speaking to the needs or situations of those on whose behalf your thinking is expressed.

I am not advising editorially that you should shift the question to the top, addressing those whose views about who should be protected are flatly different. Nativism, like so many other elements of the present "polarization," is a chronic disease in US social life, now mistreated into an acute condition, sweeping (as Know-Nothingism did in the US in the 1850s) a dying party system towards the dust-heap of history. Now as then, dialogue across these divides is barely possible.

But the management of alliances is a different matter. A draft of talking points that used "and" rather than "but" to deal with the admittedly class-stratified efforts for educational opportunity presented by other advocates down the block would be invaluable. In any social movement, in my experience, forms of policy and political initiative that counteract narcissism of minor differences are precious. Political scientists call it "coalition building," as do primatologists. From a humanities point of view, other conceptions are also fruitful. Differentiation doesn't have to imply opposition. It might be worth considering revisions along those lines, for—as it were—the practice.

 
Felicia, thank you for sharing your thoughts on this topic. As you and I have discussed, Freedom U was an incredible program that stepped in to care for undocumented youth in Georgia. The 'model minority' narrative often used in immigrant rights activist circles, however, creates a detriment to the greater cause of racial justice, and I am really glad you pointed that out. I learned of Operation Matador back when I was working at the Young Center (which I'll also be interning with this summer), and similar to what you said, kids are being targeted by ICE officials based on phony evidence and racist biases.

Revision 4r4 - 30 May 2022 - 14:46:57 - EbenMoglen
Revision 3r3 - 25 May 2022 - 15:16:18 - RubiRodriguez
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