For this proposal I will look at three arguments from the opposing side and analyze to see where are paths cross. The three arguments come from Jeff flake, John Kasich, and Ron DeSantis. They all have valid opposing arguments on my subject immigration. I am on the side of getting immigration reform. I believe we should allow fair and fairly simple access to our country because most people are just seeking better lives.
I wll also analyze my own arguments to see where I might confuse people, fail to make the point, or trigger the backfire effect. The ackfire effect is when someone’s beliefs actually get stronger from your argument. The first argument against immigration comes from Jeff Flake. Jeff flake is an American politician who served as the United States representative for Arizona from 2001 to 2013. He is a member of the republican party and took some heat when he flipped on his take on immigration.
The surge of unaccompanied children at the U. S. order, primarily coming from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, has overwhelmed the ability of the United States to handle their legal cases. A law passed under President George W. Bush and aimed at curbing human trafficking requires that minors from Central America who reach the border must have their cases heard in court before they can be deported. Currently, children wait an average of 578 days before a hearing. Obama had requested a 3. 7-billion-dollar supplemental spending bill for the border that would help the courts handle the situation better.
Jeff flake had this to say about that, “When these kids are handed off from the Border Patrol, the government’s role is to actually place those children in the care of a guardian or a family ember and then what the record shows is that they’re told to appear later in court, where their case will be adjudicated. But 90 percent of them, 90 percent, do not then show up in court later. ” He wanted to outline the risk of how the kids failing to show up boost the amount of undocumented immigrants.
This is proved false in the Executive Office for Immigration Review. Between the years 2003 and 2012 only about 30 percent of all immigrants failed to show up at court. When Flakes office was contacted he said the senator’s source for the statistic was a omment by House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte. At a media breakfast Goodlatte said “Right now the law does not allow minors to be held in a facility, so they are released to relatives or foster care, and then given a court date to reappear.
More than 90 percent do not return, he said. When Goodlatte’s office was contacted they said that while visiting the McAllen Border Patrol Station in the Rio Grande Valley in July, Goodlatte heard from Border Patrol agents that only 26 percent of those who were detained failed to show up for removal proceedings nd officials didn’t give a percentage for those who had been released and failed to appear. They cited an article in Newsmax, a conservative online publication, that cited an anonymous “senior Los Angeles County Sheriff’s detective who routinely deals with illegal immigrants” who said a “massive number 80 to 90 percent” do not show up for deportation hearings.
This was like a big game of telephone where the first person got wrong information and passed it down the line. I understand the mistake they made but who have to make sure your information is credible before you deem it as fact. This other argument comes from John Kasich’s ad that aired on February 27 this year. In the ad he states that 20 million Americans are out of work due to immigration. The people over at Politifact asked the Kasich campaign for their evidence, and they proceeded to cite a source that caught them off-guard.
They pointed to a fact-check of theirs that analyzed a statement by republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Trump had stated that 93 million people were out of work. The Politifact people rated that as false largely because that number included lot of people who would not be expected or would want to work like full-time students, senior citizens, and the disabled. However, in the process, they conducted a mathematical experiment in which they played with possible numbers of Americans who are “out of work” that fit somewhere between the official unemployment rate (on the low end) and Trump’s number (on the high end).
One of Kasich’s spokesman said that they just plugged in updated numbers but the calculation was not intended to be the final word on finding out the unemployment situation in America. To kind of set the situation straight the Politfact researchers asked an economist take on this and this is what Burtless said. “Given that the image looks like a guy in an unemployment line, l’d say it’s a misleading figure,” said Tara Sinclair, an economist with George Washington University and the jobs website Indeed. om. Many people have good reasons for not wanting to work now, she said, and that is something distinct from actually being “out of work. ” But Burtless also stated “Gov. Kasich has given an upper-bound estimate of the total number of Americans who are unemployed r underemployed. ” So even though Kasich was off on his numbers like Politifact we have to commend his effort to actually look up the numbers and cite his source. Even though the he misinterpreted the information.
We can also agree that a lot of people are unemployed. We have to consider many factors though and not just point the finger at immigrants. “Recent reports state that the U. S. Customs and Border Protection has apprehended several members of known Islamist terrorist organizations crossing the southern border in recent years. ” This quote by U. S. Rep. Ron DeSantis seems like it would be a bunch of bullshit, but if you listen to his argument and do some research you’ll understand where he is coming from.
Politifact checked with credible sources and found that there have been several reported incidents of agencies encountering people along the Mexican border that were either on terrorist watch list, from countries associated with terror groups, or were suspected of terrorist ties. That information does not prove all those people are terrorist. So this should not cause a panic but maybe a little concern. The statement by DeSantis needed some clarification, but it was mostly true according to Politifact.
That’s why you should hear an opposing argument out, even as outlandish as it may seem. I think where I may throw people off in my argument is when I say that most people that come across the border are good people. They won’t hear me out because my family is a product of immigration. I just learned on my last family trip that my dad isn’t a citizen yet and how bad the security and people like that treat the people from different countries. That was one airport of course and I won’t make the mistake of over generalizing. I also don’t only use personal experience as my evidence.
In my Toulmin argument I reference credible sources too argue my point. But now I will try to find a way to reconstruct my argument to find a mutually satisfactory solution. What I gather from the opposing arguments is that people just want to ensure that if people cross the border they will not be a risk to our safety and ability to get or keep a job. So to turn my argument into a Rogerian argument I need to find a solution that meets those requirements and mine which is to make sure that immigrants have a fair chance at a better life.
