government is a complex structure with multiple levels which is more complicated than the next.
With a population in America which currently stands around 320,775,017. The government has
many responsibilities and this population does not include the undocumented that cross our borders
every day.
With all this happening when it comes to the legal aspect of dealing with the millions that
arrive on American soil, the levels of government are to handle the problem on that particular level.
Usually the federal government takes care of the 7,000 miles that border the United States. At this
moment the federal government is taking a particular interest in the southern region of the borders
for two reasons. The first reason is that the amount of miles that separate Mexico and America there
is approximately 2,000 miles long compared to the 5,000 that separate the northern region; this is
easier to monitor the shorter distance. The second is that there is not as many people crossing the
northern border that the country shares with Canada and this includes the borders of Alaska; than in
the southern border.
Like any laws in the country, the federal government make and set forth the laws; however
it is the lower levels to enforce the law to the extreme or as loose interpretation of the law to what
they want. However, the federal government only enforces the nationwide laws and the
interpretations.
It is here that the country has seen the different immigration law that are passed by
Congress but as the law goes to the lower levels such as state and local; they can add stipulations.
For example, the recent controversies that rose with the harsh immigration laws in Arizona.
However, according to my research the other states have followed suit with the Arizona law, but not
to the extreme as the first. However, the immigration law controversy is not the only thing that the
state of Arizona is famous for; the famous gun battle at the O.K. Corral took place in Tombstone,
Arizona.
It is the enforcement of this law in Arizona that my village in Illinois has gone to the
extreme with interpretation of the different immigration laws. In Carpentersville there are three
major ordinances that were passed and now in some way is being enforced. The first is that within
village limits, there is an official language of English; this law is not strictly enforced because there
are stores in the strip malls that still have Spanish language either in the store or in the name. Like
the first ordinance, the village passed very discriminatory ordinance stating something like, “if a
resident is undocumented and living within village limits, he or she cannot fight against village hall
about issues” because of the illegal status; the village does not recognize these residents. This second
issue was brought to the attention of ABC news, who came to the village to report the story. Out of
the three ordinance that the Village of Carpentersville has implemented and strictly enforces
regularly; is the living situation of the undocumented. Most of the houses in this small town are
concerned one family dwellings and a family of 4 or 5 can live quite comfortably in many of the
ranch style houses. With the recent boom in immigration from the south, many of these single family
homes are becoming homes to multiple family. Recently, the village passed an ordinance that would
allow village officials who suspect that there is multiple family; to enter the residence and start the
eviction process and turn any undocumented over to Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE). So
far the village has successfully removed two major undocumented rings. The first was when a little
farming property converted their chicken coops into barrack like homes; in this round up ICE and
other village officials found at least 80 undocumented people. The most recent round up was not as
bad with a total of 20 people in a house. So even the local governments are doing their part to control
the immigration situation.
***Remember there is inline hyperlinks imbedded into the text.***
©
2015 Mary Costley, May 1,2015
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