ISCORE

I went to the session on privileges of US citizens. I found it really interesting and I really enjoyed how the presented their information.

One of the things they talked about was the image of undocumented residences and how most peoples view of “illegals” are instantly drawn to the view of Mexicans. They presented a graph showing the origins of undocumented people in America and 25% aren’t even from South America at all and the other 75% are from all over South America and NOT just from Mexico.

Another thing they did was talk about legislation about immigration from the past and especially the new Arizona laws that allow officers to stop anyone and ask for proof of citizenship, which the presenter brought up a very good question. Does the average American even carry the proper identification at all times to prove that we ourselves are citizens? I know I walk out of the house without my ID frequently and if I was just walking down the street and asked to provide proof I probably couldn’t. Also it was good to hear about laws from the past that I vaguely knew the outcomes of but I wasn’t aware of the laws themselves, such as the laws that provide education for any undocumented children up to the 12^th grade.

It was also interesting to hear and think about the fact that only 5-10% of undocumented children, most of which were brought here by their parents, go on to college because of the lack of finical support they can receive because they lack a social security number. Most finical support required SSN on the application so they don’t apply. And the average income of an undocumented family would be completely eaten up by tuition because students are either charged out-of-state tuition or in-state-and-a-half because of their status even if they’ve lived in their state their entire life.

It makes me really grateful for what I have in life and I’m really glad I had the opportunity to sit in for this session!