'Father of man killed by illegal immigrant demands president visit son’s grave'

   This article was posted back in September on the Washington Time's website. In the article,  Don Rosenberg, the father, wrote a letter to Obama about visiting his son's grave as an illegal immigrant killed his son in a car/motorcycle incident. He talks about how when people talk about immigrants, to take in fact the immigrants families, but what about American families and how they are being affected by them. 
             "'Before you illegally say, ‘Welcome to America’ to those who have caused so much pain and suffering, on your next trip to California let me take you to Drew’s grave, and you tell him this is the right thing to do,'"
    I think that, as morbid as it sounds, any one could have caused the accident, legal or not. He continues to talk about how there about 3,000 people who are in car accidents cause by illegal immigrants in 2010. I would like them to see how many people are killed by legal citizens in drunk driving accidents, compared to this 3,00 in all of 2010.
     "According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) 33,561 people died in traffic crashes in 2012 in the United States (latest figures available), including an estimated 10,322 people who died in drunk driving crashes, accounting for 31% of all traffic deaths that year." (Taken from responsibility.org) 
     Even taking out the 3,000 illegal immigrants from this number, for possible illegals driving under the influence, you still come up with at least 30,000 citizens killing others in car accidents. Yes this is a big deal, but this incident could have happened another way, or may not have happened at all. 

Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/sep/2/father-of-man-killed-by-illegal-immigrant-challeng/#ixzz3FizqYMe3 
 http://responsibility.org/drunk-driving/drunk-driving-fatalities-national-statistics

"Military to allow undocumented immigrants to serve"

"For the first time, the program — known as Military Accessions in the National Interest, or MAVNI — will be open to immigrants without a proper visa if they came to the U.S. with their parents before age 16. More specifically, they must be approved under a 2012 Obama administration policy known as Deferred Action for Child Arrivals, or DACA."

    I found this article to be quite interesting, as it sets a new pathway for immigrants to be able to gain citizenship. Within the article it talks about how Obama is frustrated that through his presidency, he hasn't been able to pass or get any immigration laws passed that would help immigrants who want to become part of this country. However it is important to note that is is more directed for jobs like, "rare foreign language expertise or specialized health care training" and are looking for people who speak Arabic, Chinese, Pashto or Persian.  
  It is still up in the air because many young immigrants don't know their ancestral language well, so there is no current number of how many people they can take. "DACA status is granted by the Department of Homeland Security and includes a background check." 
  This article also includes facts like how the military recruits around 5,000 non-citizens each year, those being permanent U.S. residents or "green card" holders. "Since 2001, more than 92,000 foreign-born service members have become citizens while serving in uniform." This is because foreigners who serve in the military are eligible for expedited citizenship.  


Source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/09/25/policy-to-allow-undocumented-immigrants-in-military/16225135/

Hiring an Immigrant as a Nanny

From personal observation, and viewing some family members, it seems that many immigrants, legal or not, are often hired as nannies. When I'm at work, I constantly see women of other ethnicities taking care of (generalizing) white/typical American children. It's easy to tell a nanny apart from them being the mothers, and many of them typically speak their native language whilst hustling around the children.
My aunt, who received her official naturalization document to be a U.S. citizen, takes care of a young boy as well as another child. I also take notice that most of the time I go out, especially in San Francisco, I typically tend to see many more nannies than parents with kids. I actually addressed this to my mom, since I was curious as it is also typical to see in the media, and she told me that it was good money. Albeit there are negative outcomes sometimes to the child who is constantly with the nanny more than the mother, that's not the case of this post. 
I decided to do a quick google search, typing in "hiring immigrants as nanny" which turned into "hiring illegal immigrants as nanny" and I was surprised that none of the links were news articles. There are so many articles about "nanny taxes," why or why not parents should hire illegal immigrants, and it surprised me how many results I got. The very first link is 'Risks to hiring an Undocumented Nanny.' What angered me a bit, under their risks was that "If arrested while at your home, your children could be left there, alone. " Yes the child is important, but it makes it seem like the child is the only important aspect, not the immigrant who probably has their own family and children to take care for. 


Sources:
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/risks-hiring-undocumented-nanny.html

The Treatment of Slaves in America vs Latin America

    I found that one of the most interesting concepts that came about whilst reading this book thus far, and from what I have already discovered through a variety of history courses, is the treatment of slaves in other places than "America."
      It is important to note that, even if slaves could be considered to have been treated "better" in the United States, they were still treated inhumanely and the idea of "breeding" African's is disgusting and makes them sound like animals. This was the mindset of colonial times, and even years after, that African people weren't people, nor even human.
     African's were worked to death in Latin America, the Caribbean, and surrounding areas where the colonist had settled. They would work African's to death, which can still be said about America. Just because slaves in America lived a bit longer, they were still worked until they died.
     Slavery, no matter what, is morally wrong no matter how well you do or don't treat them. However it is still important to note the differences in treatment and why they were treated the way they were, which is explained in out book, Coming to America. (Page 61 and 62) Human's aren't made to be or thought of as disposable. Each human life has significance and meaning, which wasn't that big of a concept back then.

Coming to America: Post 1

      An interesting concept that I find applicable to modern society is the idea of slavery. In the second chapter, there is a discussion of indentured servants and slavery. The concept of becoming "free" after working for three to seven years as an indentured servants. Many of these people were forced into this work, at the beginning, either physically by other peoples or because of hardships pushing them from their home. This practice was replaced later by the bringing of Africans to America.
     The distinction was basically that African's weren't freed after their "term," nor did they actually have a term. They were forced into this and had no say during it until death. Slavery, after many years, is finally abolished.
         The reason I felt like reflecting on this concept was because it occurred to me that the idea of "indentured servants" isn't gone from todays society. People who work as house keepers, cleaners, maids, etc can show qualities of what indentured serving looked like, though the idea is stretched. These aren't careers that people want to have, I know from experience. I feel like this idea should be explored more, as it happens in the eyes of society daily.
      Slavery is a much broader subject, as well as having a multitude of variety of types of slavery. This concept is happening every day under our noses, yet as being on a more global scale, it is still hard to tract down. Part of this country's history, if not a majority, has been founded on slavery, and even though it's tried to correct this idea, it still happens in our modern day and time and it's sickening to think about. Immigrants are a large majority that are subjected to this, many times being forced into farm work by "Americans" barely making a wage.
            Have we truly progressed over the decades, and if so, why is what should be a past ideology still present and haunting this country.


-Vanessa Lomeli