This story is a very well organized piece that clearly presents evidence, provided in a large part by the people directly involved, of private interests pushing legislation. It makes sense that there would be an enormous increase in prisoners thanks to the passing of law that would send undocumented immigrants directly to jail as soon as they are discovered by law enforcement and the story highlights how the benefit to companies that run prisons is far from coincidental. One of the most convincing parts of this story is the fact that the quotes provided are largely from the people who pushed the legislation and stand to benefit from it and they do a good job of exposing themselves. Of course they don't see this as exposing ... More »

This short piece really drives a point home from a personal perspective as well as from an understanding of history. The author does a good job of outlining the hurtful effects of the currently flawed system and the potential benefits of reform. The main argument suggests that this is an issue in a large part of families and how they need to stick together: this is a true American ideal. A nice point of this is that undocumented workers are very much a part of the economy and if a big concern of people regarding the immigration debate is a matter of economics then perhaps we might all benefit from our workers being more productive workers. It might be a flaw of the piece that the author assumes that the reader believes already ... More »

This is quite an interesting and compelling story which focuses on one man and how his mistake is one that many have made and potentially will make. Mr. Joseph's story makes very clear the confusion that immigrants have to deal with when considering voting: although it is illegal they are often allowed to register by uninformed personnel. In this story the major fault lines would appear to be ethnicity, geography, and perhaps class. The story is about people who have immigrated to the United States and are permanent residents (often applying for citizenship) so the issue is presented as one of the singling out of a group of people and bringing to question their rights and how they are treated. I don't believe this story is ... More »

This opinion piece gives a good picture of what the AgJOBS legislation would mean for undocumented farm workers and why it is a push in the right direction. The author dismisses claims that these are jobs that should be worked by Americans with some pretty sound reasoning and is fairly convincing about the benefit of providing temporary work permits to workers that are simply otherwise working under the radar. In terms of fault lines the biggest appears to be class. According to the author these workers are doing jobs that Americans don't want because they don't allow for the middle class lifestyle. The author also asserts that the legislation would have the potential of allowing these workers to advance in our society. This ... More »

This opinion piece is very clear in it's argument: California is favoring illegal immigrants over its legal citizens by proposing the Dream Act. The author provides a number of statistics to which we are given no source, and many of the arguments that the author uses are quotes from other "critics". One quote is provided from the author of the bill, which actually supports this writer's argument that the bill is very costly, and one quote is provided from PR Newswire to give a factoid about the bill. The rest of the quotes are from various opponents of the bill, and the first half of the piece hangs on these. The second half of the piece provides a whole host of statistics, once again without a source, about the condition that ... More »

This is a well written story that provides many sources. The topic is gone over in great depth and it is made very clear what the issue is and how various states were confused by vague and conflicting messages. The proponents and creators of the fingerprint tracking program are cited largely through publicly available letters which, although limiting for our understanding of the other side of the argument, gives the reader a real sense of what the leaders who wished to opt out were dealing with in terms of information provided. The source for the ICE program is anonymous, but we are given the impression that this is someone who knows the program fairly well. The only thing that the story is really lacking is any representation ... More »

This story attempts to link two unrelated events in order to create drama where none exists. Simmering racial tensions are cited in relation to a car accident which are then mentioned as actually having subsided, and somehow this is all linked to Obama's visiting Martha's Vineyard. The relationship of location and immigration debate does not provide a strong enough connection between these two events to warrant a news piece about it.