The topic of immigration, especially undocumented immigration has been a hot topic in recent US politics. Knowing the information on immigration is the area to first address, therefore, the basic information is necessary. Primarily, an immigrant is someone who is foreign-born and admitted to live in the United States. An undocumented immigrant is someone who is living in the U.S. but has not gained permission from the U.S. government to be in the country. They may have entered without documents and inspection or extended their time of stay passed that of their visa’s expiration date (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2008)
At the moment, this hot button issue of immigration is apparently a growing concern for Missouri citizens. Unfortunately, most people are putting a huge emphasis on policies that should be created far after other legislation has been passed. An important question to as is, why is Missouri focusing on immigration when only 3.4% of all Missourians are foreign born? Ninety-six point six percent of Missouri citizens are U.S. born people, and out of that small percentage of immigrants living in this state, 43% have already become U.S. citizens (Rafaman & Prentis, 2008). This means that 43% of the immigrants living in the state have been here for over five years and went through gaining citizenship, yet many others are legally documented immigrants who have not gained full citizenship yet.
After viewing these statistics, policymakers seem to be a little too concerned with a creating and passing a bill that should be far less important than the enormous situation the state has with health care among other key problems. Nevertheless, the Missouri senate has created various anti-immigration bills to address the seemingly small immigration problem Missourians face. Missouri House Bill 1463 (HB1463) is an anti-immigration bill that states that undocumented immigrants should not be permitted to attend any institution of higher education. These institutions include community colleges, technical schools, and state universities. The bill specifies that the colleges are required to check the status of their students and it would be illegal to admit any undocumented student (MO HB 1463).
This legislation is unfortunate because for most undocumented immigrants entering college, immigration was likely not their choice. The
House Bill 1463 is unfortunately not the only anti-immigration piece in the Missouri legislature. Various other bills are going through the house and senate in the 2008 legislative year. For example, in the Missouri House of Representatives there have been three major bills this session. They include HB 1764 and HB 2320 which were combined to enforce the immigration laws set by the federal government through prohibiting employers to hire undocumented persons. This bill was passed on March 16th. Senate Bill (SB) 858 was passed on March 23 to modify the law for undocumented persons, and HB 1317, passed on March 8th which forces election authorities to check the citizen status of people when applying for registration. In the senate, Bob Onder sponsored HB 1549 which would give highway patrol officers the training and authority to ask about legal status of those arrested. Another bill, HB 1626 prohibits public aid to illegal immigrants (Missouri Immigrant & Refugee Advocates, 2008).
Background and information give basic tools to understanding the immigration issue, but there are various other problems with HB 1463. One of the problems stems from the outlook and myths society has about the larger situation of undocumented immigration, but the main problem with this specific bill is human rights violation. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations, 2008) provided on the United Nations webpage explains some of the basic rights that all human being are protected through. Many of the aforementioned bills going through the state and senate also violate various articles in the human rights declaration.
The document states that dignity and worth of everyone along with social progress and betting standards for life are human rights. Article 1 directly states that all humans are equal in human dignity. First and foremost, HB 1463 is not allowing this to happen. A violation of human rights directly related to HB 1463 is noted through the statement in Article 26 that says “Everyone has the right to education” (p.5). The human rights document also states that availability of higher education should be accessible to everyone and should develop the person in promoting tolerance, understanding and friendship among all groups (United Nations, 1998). Restricting undocumented immigrants from universities halts equality, tolerance, understanding, and friendship among all groups.
Furthermore, human rights are not specific to race, color sex, language, religion, political or other opinions, national origin, social origin, property, birth, or status (United Nations, 2008), but the laws seem to be based on various aspects contained in this list. Other human rights expressed in the declaration include the right to work and choice of where to work within good condition, the right to a standard of living and well being for families, the right to freely be part of cultural life within community, free and full development of the person, and the general welfare of a society, or the common good (United Nations, 2008). All of these declarations are found to be constrained through HB 1463.
Human rights is the direct crisis related to passing HB1463, but societal outlook and misinformation is also a huge problem within the larger immigration discussion. Many people seem to have ideas that immigrants are taking US employment, draining social service systems and the economy in general, and they do not pay taxes. All of these ideas are false. Immigrants create more positions that they take. Undocumented immigrants cannot meet eligibility requirements for most federal and state benefits provided by the government and they can only receive benefits after gaining permanent residency in the United States for at least five years. They provide almost 10 billion each year to the economy, and pay $90 to $140 billion in taxes. Social Security also has $420 billion from people who will never be able to access this money. Furthermore, in Missouri alone, undocumented immigrants pay $29-57 million in taxes (Rafaman & Prentis, 2008).
After intense research and a policy analysis on House Bill 1463: College Admission of Undocumented Immigrants, passing this bill is clearly a violation of human rights. All stakeholders should be educated on the effects of immigration in the United States society. Legislators, more than anyone, should become aware of the harsh ideas presented by anti-immigration legislation. All U.S. citizens should also begin contacting legislators to address the importance of their decisions and have their voices heard.
References
Dream Act, S. 2205, 109t Cong., (2007).
Financial aid and scholarship for undocumented students. (2008, April 28).
http://www.finaid.org/otheraid/undocumented.phtml
Immigrant & Refugee Advocates, (2008). MIRA Advocacy Day Handout. St. Louis, MO.
Missouri House Bill 1463 (2008)
Missouri Senate Bill 858, (2008)
National Conference of State Legislators. (2008).
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/educ/undocimmigrant.htm
Noble, J. (2008). Missouri senate passed immigration bill on voice vote. KansasCity.com.
Nodler, G. (2008) Missouri cannot wait for Washington to act on illegal immigration.
The Chart.
Protopsaltis, S. (2008). Undocumented immigrant students and access to higher
education: An overview of federal and state policy. The Bell Policy Center Web site: http://www.thebell.org/PUBS/IssBrf/2005/03UndocTuition.pdfMissouri
Rafaman, J. & Prentis, C. (2008, April 26). The State of Immigration in Missouri:
Myths, facts, & implications for our community. Immigrants, Immigration and People of Faith Conference-Cardinal Ritter High School, St. Louis
United Nations. (2008). Retrieved April 26, 2008, from Fiftieth anniversary of the
universal declaration of human rights: 1948-1998 Web site:
http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
[Brochure]. Washington, DC
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