Of Borders and Dreams Presentation and Immigration Act Class Discussion

Looking back into my notes, I realized that I haven’t yet written out my reflection of the literature circle presentation of Of Borders and Dreams, as well as the class discussion about the Immigration Act that we had later that week. It was very convenient that we spend two days close together discussing both of these topics because they have a lot to do with each other. For the presentation, the presenters tried to help us understand the barriers that the book’s main character, Alejandro had to get around in order to get an education. I also enjoyed the exercise in which the presenters had the class close our eyes and envision what Alejandro’s parents had to go through to get into America. I knew little about how illegal immigration affected the school system, so I enjoyed this presentation a lot and I thought that it was very informative. I only wish that the presenters included that class more in their presentation to help us better understand what they wanted us to learn.

Our class discussion about the Immigration Act and the controversy around it helped me to connect what we learned in the Of Borders and Dreams presentation to what’s going on today. Before class, I knew little about this act other than the fact that it had recently been protested in many cities, mainly starting the week that we were on spring break. I was surprised to learn that this act has been around for a while, but it was just coming to the attention of the public because of the protests. There are both positive an negative effects of illegal immigrants living in the United States, so I have mixed feelings about the act. Although I think it’s ridiculous to basically make out all immigrants in the United States to be criminals, I do think that it’s important that they become citizens. There are many illegal immigrants here that are beneficial and do many of the jobs that most Americans would refuse to do, but there are others, such as Jim’s example of the man from Mexico who comes here in the summer, makes money, and then goes back to Mexico rich. That man is abusing the system. He’s coming here to make a profit, but doesn’t give anything to the country, such as paying taxes. It’s people like that who ruin opportunities for everyone else. Recently, there was a political cartoon in the Chicago Tribune that amused me. It was a picture of Native Americans talking to Europeans coming over on a ship and saying, "You can come and live here as long as you adopt our language, customs, and values". This point was also brought up in our discussion when someone pointed out that other than the Native Americans, we are all immigrants. Although this is a pretty obvious point, I think that as Americans who have had families that have been here for generations, we can forget about this sometimes. We need to realize that we came here for the same opportunities that people are coming here now for. I really enjoyed our class discussion on this topic and I hope that I can learn more about this act because as we have learned in class, as well are our reading of the Suarez-Orozco article, immigration to America has a huge effect on the educational system.