Class Recap & Summary for September 1, 2009
LAST WEEK we continued our discussion of the Four (4) ways in which one may stay permanently (and lawfully) in the United States, noting some of important "exceptions": the previous amnesty or "legalization" law, passed during the Reagan administration, in which an individual (similar to the Bracero program mentioned in Daniels) who had been illegally and continuously present in the United States from January 1982 or before could legalize their status and obtain their green card (formally known as "lawful permanent residency"). The second method is called cancellation of removal (for non-permenant residents). This later method can only be done via an immigration judge. One has to be placed in removal ("deportation") proceedings. There is no "application process" with USCIS.

-We also viewed the heated debate shown on YouTube between Geraldo Rivera and Bill O'Reilly. What does Geraldo say about his debate with O'Reilly in his book?

-We discussed the currrent statistics on health care and illegal immigration;
-We discussed the fact that dispite divergence of opinions on the immigration debate, everyone agrees that the current immigration system we have in place is BROKEN.

We also discussed that since 9/11, in March of 2003 the former Immigration & Naturalization Service or "INS" was "abolished" (very strong words, don't you think?). Legacy INS was replaced by the Department of Homeland Security. The DHS has three Bureaus: (1) United States Citizenship & Immigration Services ("USCIS"); (2) Immigration & Customs Enforcement ("ICE"); and (3) Customs & Border Patrol ("CBP"). Links to the three (3) respective DHS bureaus are to the right of this blogspot...

Nicole has made an interesting comment about an event on November 6, 2009 at Navy Pier. One of the topics, assimilation and immigration--will be a major theme (and test material!!) in our film Avalon, next week. Her comments are below:

"Tonight in class(and probably more in classes to come), we learned and discussed just how difficult it may be to obtain a greencard.On a somewhat different note, there will be an event touching upon the difficulties that many immigrants face even after gaining citizenship: Zócalo in Chicago, "What Does Immigrant Integration Mean Now?" on Nov. 6th.

Visit the website below for more information and to make your reservation:
http://zocalopublicsquare.org/upcoming.php?event_id=334


-Last week's important points to consider...
-Health care reform and immigration
-Three reasons why one "comes to America"
-the Geraldo v. O'Reilly heated debate: what, if anything, does it symbolize about the divided opinions on our "broken" immigration system.