Monday, May 31, 2010
Second Grader Asks Michelle Obama About Immigration Reform
We've been talking a lot about illegal immigration and its' effects in class lately. I thought this was an interesting and thought-provoking video. When most of us think of illegal immigrants, typical stereotypes come to mind. We think of people who can't speak English, who work for low-paying jobs, and who are taking away from America's economy. I thought that this little girl was a great example of the face of illegal immigration today. On Yahoo News, there was an article about the story behind this little girl and her family's illegal entrance to America. Turns out that while this little girl, Daisy, has automatic US citizenship from being born here, her older sister, July, was left in Peru with grandparents so that the parents could come to the US. July still lives in Peru and only gets to see her parents via email, pictures, and videos. When footage of this video hit the news, Daisy's parents had to go into hiding because they were afraid of being sent back to Peru. While US officials have said that Daisy's parents will not be sent back to Peru based on the what Daisy said on TV about her parents, I believe Daisy brings up a good point. What is the solution to situations like Daisy's? What did you think of Michelle Obama's answer? Is there a viable solution to this problem we face as a nation?
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Like all political faces in the public eye, Michelle Obama was almost insensitive and unwilling to open up for a second to the emotions and reality of this child, to let the idea of this little girl's parents being deported from our country seep deeper into her and to strive to understand what this could entail, letting that come through in her reaction, rather than quickly stick to her predetermined ideas and hard frame of beliefs. However, I am curious what Michelle's ideas are for how we should, "work on that" and "fix that so that we get people here with the right papers". What does she mean by this. Is she open to immigration at all or feel any compassion for these people who are pushed and pulled here, help to really make getting the right papers more accessible. or does she want to lock down the boarder?
ReplyDeleteJust my initial reaction I guess. I don't really know, but I am glad you shared this!
I found it shocking that Michelle Obama had almost no sympathy for this girl and her family's situation. "We need to fix that," says Michelle once this young girl states that her parents don't have papers. Fix what?! How is she planning on fixing that, and what does she mean that everyone is congress is going to work together to solve the problem? I am almost positive that once that little girl leaves the room, Michelle and "congress" are not going to do anything to ensure that her parents get papers. So by "fixing that," does that mean that they are just going to deport her parents so that they have one less problem to face? I couldn't believe that Michelle was being so insensitive about this issue to such young children.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting little video. I think this would be a hard position for anyone to be in, especially the first lady. I think it is easy to jump to conclusions and say that she doesn't care and won't do anything to fix the problem, but I think that just like us, she understands that this is a problem that needs to be fixed and truly desires things to change for those in situations similar to this little girl.
ReplyDeleteGood point Jennifer, How would all of you answer that little girl's questions based on the immigration decisions that have been made? That's a tough question, sure Michelle Obama has to be considerate of the little girl and her feelings, but she can't make something up that isn't true to make sure the little girl is fine. I think she answered about as well as she could in that situation. I don't think we should close the borders at all costs by any means, nor do I think it reasonable to send all the illegals back. We just aren't in a situation to do this and this would be a very expensive task!
ReplyDeleteThat is a tough question to be addressed, especially by the first lady who obviously wants her husband to look good in the public eye and also be sensitive to that little girl and her parents. It is hard to come to a conclusion of what should be done in solving the immigration problems, especially in this little girl's situation. I was in L.A. this past weekend and it was interesting to see in one part of town, mostly all the billboards were in spanish (probably 4 out of 5 that we would see), and there was one spanish sign and one english sign beside each other. Many wouldn't communicate with us because they only knew Spanish. There was this really cute family, the parents spoke to their in Spanish, but the kids responded back in English! I was thinking, we learned about this in class!! I also thought if they came and asked everyone for their green cards, it would be interesting to see how many were undocumented, like the 30 days special. It's hard to come to a conclusion on what to do. It will be interesting to see where we are in 5 years.
ReplyDeleteMelissa Bancroft