University of Wisconsin, La Crosse law dispatcher was fired when she defended Trump’s immigration policies while having a conversation with a coworker. The university fired her on the grounds of “threatening or abusive language” and “conduct unbecoming a university employee”.
She was offered her job back 3 days after receiving her termination letter though, after Twitter and other social media platforms started to report on the firing.
Tan Le is a Vietnamese-Australian telecommunications entrepreneur, and serves as the co-founder of Emotiv. Emotiv is a technology company that invents wearable for the brain and the products are sold at many different retailers both online and inside of stores. The gear is very popular because it’s known for its wireless EEG properties.
This TEDTalk is relevant, because our affirmative post this week was focused on how immigrants are valued within the technological fields and the stories of how they got there. Here is Tan Le’s story.
With the recent uprising and hype regarding the status of immigrants, many people have done research and reports on what America would be without immigrants. Many people tend not to recognize all immigrants have done for our country, and the strides and hard work they put in to get here.
There is a difference in the impact that legal immigrants have versus those who are illegal, but there is some impact either way.
Technology is a big factor in today’s society, and immigrants have contributed to it’s growth more than one would imagine. Without immigrants, out “unicorns” would not exist. “Unicorns” not referring to the imaginary creature, but the apps that allow people to travel from one place to another with simply the click of a button and the payment being connected to a credit card. Some common unicorns are Uber or PayPal. About 40 billion-dollar companies would not have been founded without immigrants.
If one looked at all the “unicorn” companies worth one billion dollars or more, 51% had a founder not born in the USA. Also, 70% of those “unicorn” companies feature immigrant workers that play large and key roles within the company.
STEM is a technology based field that immigrants tend to lead, thrive, and do very well in, which may account and contribute to their creativity regarding app creation. They tend to hold a lot of STEM degrees which increases and helps when it comes to job multiplication. It is now statically proven that when there is one immigrant working in a STEM field, they are responsible for creating 2.72 more jobs.
Lastly, immigrants are making strides in fields outside of STEM, and in broader areas of patents and inventions. Immigrants are involved in 76% of patents from top patent producing companies in America, reported to help mankind in many ways.
These patents are both technologically and pharmaceutical (medicine based).
This video was posted by the NYTimes and goes over checking and comparing the different statements that Trump has said about immigration. Often times his staff supports him and his statements, and instead of them apologizing for them, they call them “alternative facts”. They are not “alternative facts” though they are actually falsities which are statements that are untrue, incorrect, and insincere.
“Alternative facts” is originally a law term which describes the inconsistencies of facts put forth in a court, when there is plausible evidence to support both sides of the fact. In this video below you can see the different sides of “facts” that Mr. Trump speaks about.Â
Immigration is the process by which people come to live permanently in a foreign country. America is a place where people see lots of opportunities and tend to be drawn to immigrate to, which is why it has been coined as the “melting pot”. The topic of immigration has been recently talked about in the news and media a lot within the past year or so. Ever since the presidential election campaign began and the candidates were announced, immigration has been a major concern and platform for both parties regardless of their political affiliation. During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump advertised the fact that he wanted to build a wall to keep the influx in immigrants down. He also planned to tighten the laws already existing on immigrants within the country, and more specifically immigrants that are here illegally.
The president has planted a sense of fear within those who are immigrants on American soil. This is not good because not only does he blame the influx on the previous presidents, but he is making people feel as though they are unwelcome and do not belong. Since taking office, he has already attempted to put laws in place to build the wall between the Southern border of North America and Mexico, but his plans have not flowed very smoothly at all. He wanted to have Mexico pay for the wall, but of course they declined this action, so the president has been scrambling trying to find funds and people willing to pay for the wall. It has been a hard task for him to accomplish, because many Americans do not agree with these means of controlling immigration either.
According to the Pew Research Center, rules about immigration have changed a lot over the years, but America is and has been known as a melting pot for many years now. Immigration laws began once the United States won independence from Great Britain. Originally, the immigration legislation laws imposed limits that favored Europeans, but in 1965 the law changed for the better for immigrants from other parts of the world.
This law from 1965 was known as the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, or Hart-Celler Act. It replaced the national origins quota system with a seven-category preference system to emphasize the reunification of families and skilled immigrants. The visa cap was also eliminated from immediate family members of U.S. citizens admitted each year. In 1976, there were also amendments put into place which established a worldwide limit of 290,000 visas. This was put into place specifically in Mexico because the country often time exceed the 20,000-visa limit. These rules were put into place at a time where many other laws of freedom regarding civil rights and people of other heritages were being put into place as well, so it truly helped present America as the melting pot it is.
Imani Yorker
Hi, my name is Imani Yorker and I am a sophomore communication (PR track) and sociology double major. I have an entertainment in the pop culture and corporate communication realms, along with dealing with treating people according to their rights which is where sociology comes in. The rising discussion of an immigration ban from Donald Trump and his administration is not only inhumane, but violates the rights of basic humans. America is, and has been thought of as the melting pot for many years now, and accepts people of all different religions and ethnicities, and the fact that he is trying to take that away is probably the worst thing a presidential administration has done in a long time.
The United States is a country not only founded on immigrants, but immigrants were literally the first people to find the land (despite what books and others may say). I am personally a descendant of African immigrants, which is a reason that I care about this issue. If my ancestors had not been brought over to America, I would not have been here today, or had the same opportunities offered to me. Immigration is legal and acceptable in the country and the fact that it’s being framed as something it’s not is what is upsetting.
The picture here represents my feelings towards Trump and the campaign, and how he tends to often place the blame for his decisions on others…for example who is he pointing to here?
Faces of Immigration 