The Census Bureau estimated that in the year 2000 there were nearly 9 million undocumented persons living in the United States; this figure marked a more than 100% increase in illegal immigrants since 1990 (Migration World Magazine, 2002, p. 10). How the United States is to accommodate these immigrants is becoming increasingly difficult to assess. What protections and benefits are non-U.S. citizens entitled to receive? In a post-September 11 world, immigration and terrorism are becoming somewhat conflated entities, and those looking to deny immigrants citizen status need only point to national security to defend their perspective. After all, 15 of the 19 terrorists responsible for the September 11 attacks were in the United States legally; evidence also suggest that 300,000 foreign nationals in the US, upon being ordered by the government to deport, promptly went on the runù and remain in this country today (West, 2002, p. 48). Figures such as these do not leave many Americans feeling hospitable towards immigrants looking for government benefits or student visas. And yet, to deny all undocumented aliens access to some basic governmental protections seems rash; the US is a major employer of non-citizen immigrants, and any child born on American soil automatically becomes a US citizen (Guest, 2002, p. 31).
All US citizens therefore have a stake in how these immigrants and future Americans fare. In a larger sense, there are questions concerning civil liberties and human rights that are also attached to the immigration debate. Must one be a citizen to have civil rights in the United States? Do our cherished self-evident basic human rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness obtain for ômembers onlyö?
Whatever oneÆs position, to cite the existence of millions of immigrants throughout United States is more than merely to state a fact: non-citizen immigrants are our neighbors, our companions and for many of us...