Introduction
The current news article that is going to be analyzed in this paper is an opinion article from The New York Times magazine written by Tung Nguyen and Sherry Hirota. The article is titled “Trump’s Next Target: Legal Immigrants” which talks about how the American President is planning the deportation of legal immigrants.
People Also Read
Summary of the Article
This article begins by giving an example of Asian immigrant who came to the states with his family about 50 years ago. He is now an established businessman and a pharmacist who expresses his gratitude to the society by giving back to the vulnerable families. According to the article, many legal immigrants’ dreams of being successful in America may be cut short by the rule proposed by the Department of Homeland Security (Nguyen and Hirota, 2018). By the time this article was being written (25th Sep 2018), the proposed rule was about 7 days old. The rule states that green card status (lawful permanent residence) to be denied to immigrants who benefitted from public assistance. This rule involves all immigrants including those who received the assistance in small amounts. It also affects those who have established their lives in America, playing by the rules and paying taxes but were once on “public charges.”
This proposal may become law in a period of 60 days of the public review. From the comments on this article, majority are not for this proposal stating that it is an unfair treatment to the immigrants and it is against humanity because it will cause family separation and interruption of normal life. There are comments that show support to this proposed rule saying that countries should take care of their citizens and that legal immigrant’s cause joblessness among American citizens. This rule is being proposed regardless of the fact that immigrants add value to the country in terms of labor force.
Analysis of the Article
First and foremost people should stop ignoring the fact that race or belonging to a certain ethnic group is not biological. In science there are no distinct groups of blacks, whites or any other skin complexion. Naqvi (2010) describes it as an “optical illusion.” There are strong comments in this article that show how people generalize negative behavior for certain minority groups in America. For example, one of the comments state that “they don’t like brown people entering the country…brown people are coming to steal, rape, murder….” The truth is that race is a social reality. People always make negative assumptions about people of different skin color; they generalize them all and give them titles that discriminate them. Most black people have been perceived as being criminals; this is why officers would be more alert on black immigrants than immigrants from European countries (Naqvi, 2010).
Whiteness in sociology is perceived as the “normal” or native race in America and that people with white skin have certain characteristics and experiences that make them belong there. According to Cole (2018) being white is the default race in the United States. People are easily defined by their race if they are not European American for example an African American. The white have been always perceived as advanced and intelligent while other races are described as dangerous and having low level of IQ. In the comments section of the article, there are statements such as Trumps intentions to whiten the country and that all immigrants have ill intentions of visiting the country “specifically the non-white immigrants.” Such comments show the level of discrimination against other ethnic groups in the US (Cole, 2018).
The whiteness concept in the American society has brought about racial segregation. Racial segregation is the practical separation of a group of people based on their race. Many believe that racial segregation ended in the 60’s but the truth is that it still exists among the American communities (Cole, 2017). An immigrant named Susan commented on the article that he lives and works in an area where the Native Americans would not live. He adds that the majority living there are Hispanic immigrants. The blacks and the Latinos households are in neighborhoods that are engulfed with poverty. Racial segregation leads to unequal access of education due to different economic levels (Cole, 2017).
Most immigrants remain poor and live in the segregated areas because of their unemployment status. This raises question on the concept of affirmative action. Affirmative action is a policy that was implemented to curb discrimination. It required employers not to discriminate against race, gender or national origin when hiring. Employers are warned against discriminating the minority groups when it comes to filling job opportunities (R.G, 2018). It is clearly expressed in the article that the legal migrants are taking jobs that belonged to American citizens. What happened to affirmative action?
The final concept to be used in analyzing this article is the American dream. American dream is the equality of opportunities in America. This definitely includes the racial and ethnic mix of American people. People from all walks of life in this world have always seen America as a destination of prosperity where skills and hard work results into success. This is not the case anymore, the new administration now blame the immigrants for its economic struggles according to the article.
References
Cole, N. (2017). Understanding Segregation Today. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/understanding-segregation-3026080
Cole, N. (2018). Understanding Whiteness or the Social Significance of White Skin. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/whiteness-definition-3026743
Naqvi, A. (2014). Race, not a Biological, but a Social Reality. Retrieved from https://pulsemedia.org/2014/10/23/race-not-a-biological-but-a-social-reality/
Nguyen, T., & Hirota, S. (2018). Opinion | Trump’s Next Target: Legal Immigrants. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/25/opinion/trumps-next-target-legal-immigrants.html?action=click&contentCollection=opinion&contentPlacement=5&module=stream_unit&pgtype=collection®ion=stream&rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FImmigration&version=latest
R.G. (2018). What is affirmative action?. Retrieved from https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/06/15/what-is-affirmative-action

With a student-centered approach, I create engaging and informative blog posts that tackle relevant topics for students. My content aims to equip students with the knowledge and tools they need to succeed academically and beyond.