Human Rights Violation of Non-Citizens in the United States

 

 

 

 

 

Human Rights Violation of Non-Citizens in the United States

Introduction

Fundamental human rights and freedoms of non-citizens in the United States have been violated for about two and a half decades. Human rights of the non-citizens in the United States have received a series of attacks since the passing of the punitive immigration reform bills in Clinton’s administration in 1996 (Almeida, Biello, Pedraza, Wintner, & Viruell-Fuentes, 2016). Liberty, dignity, and equality of immigrants have been assaulted on the US, more prevalently, after the September 11 attacks. Despite successive presidents like Barrack Obama, who tried to strengthen the campaign of equality, there has been a continued undermining of the rights of immigrants. Upholding of undermining executive orders by the supreme court of the US like that made by Trump to ban travellers from predominantly Muslim Countries was views as discriminatory by Human Rights Watch. Allowed detentions by immigration authorities have resulted in detaining vulnerable populations like pregnant women and children – a condition that has been worsened by the removal of legal limits for the detention of these vulnerable people..

Recorded deaths in immigration detentions have been linked to inadequate medical care.

Evidence and Authority

Evidence of the study was sought from peer-reviewed research papers that sought to examine issues that revolve around human rights violations of the non-citizens in the United States. The papers were found in better renown repositories like the National Center for Biotechnology Information, Science Direct, and APA PsychNet. Sources from these repositories are trusted because they undergo a rigorous review and have to pass pre-set standards before publication. Also, selected sources are relevant for the study as their principal components table researched evidence about the violation of human rights in the Us with a focus on non-citizens.

History

The US was founded on a cosmopolitan basis and has since existed as a diverse community. Discrimination is a significant challenge of diversity which has existed along multiple lines in the US. Race and religion have been major lines of discrimination. Towards the end of the 20^th century, the United States started experiencing a high level of immigration. The levels of immigration have been seen to threaten the livelihoods of the country’s citizens. Multiple scholars have associated immigration levels to crime and unemployment. Politicians have also profiled non-citizens as threats to the country’s economy depending on their countries of origin. While immigrants from places like the UK receive better treatment, their numbers are lower than those from countries like Mexico, Brazil, Haiti, and Guatemala. Profiling and discrimination against non-citizens increased significantly during Clinton’s administration when the bill of immigration reforms was made (Ataiants et al.,2018). Immigrants were pigeon-holed as a group of illegal people. During the Bush administration, the fateful occurrences of September 11the US-made avowed assaults on the rights of Arab-Americans and other Muslims. Arab-Americans and other Muslims were detained on the basis of their faith and religion.

The Trump administration also fueled assaults on the human rights of non-citizens. His presidential campaigns were stained with anti-foreigners. Threats of deportation of immigrants, closure of borders, and building walls were a visible display of bad intentions towards individuals from other countries. Researchers have identified various violations of human rights in immigrant detention centres. The US has also failed to protect immigrants’ rights against discrimination. Fundamental civil, social, and cultural rights of immigrants have been openly denied with loose enforcement measures. Recorded deaths in detention centres and border killings have demonstrated disregard for the human rights of non-citizens.

Opposing Viewpoints

Some scholars have reviewed issues regarding the rights of immigrants and concluded that the state had done enough to ensure equal rights. According to Ellermann & Goenaga (2019), the federal laws of the US are inclusive of the measures that are implemented to ensure that immigrants’ rights are observed.  The study explained that legal immigrants had received the full protection of their rights from the government. It was discussed that multiple cases that are viewed as threats to human rights are classical issues that affect not only immigrants but also the US nationals. Linking issues like racial or ethnic discrimination to immigration are not plausible as the issue is deep-rooted in the culture of the US. The idea of detentions and deaths was also explained with a logical approach. Immigrant detentions have been implemented to control illegal immigration into the country. Despite the Human Rights Watch explanation that no human is illegal, it is an illegal act to cross country borders without requisite permissions and documents. Criminal activities like drug smuggling have taken advantage of porous borders, which called for the control of immigration. Ellermann & Goenaga conclude by explaining that the ideology of blaming the US and its departments for violating the human rights of immigrants is not plausible since most actions have been taken as the last resort to solving external threats.

 

 

 

References

Almeida, J., Biello, K. B., Pedraza, F., Wintner, S., & Viruell-Fuentes, E. (2016). The association between anti-immigrant policies and perceived discrimination among Latinos in the US: A multilevel analysis. SSM-population health, 2, 897-903.

Ataiants, J., Cohen, C., Riley, A. H., Lieberman, J. T., Reidy, M. C., & Chilton, M. (2018). Unaccompanied children at the United States border, a human rights crisis that can be addressed with policy change. Journal of immigrant and minority health, 20(4), 1000-1010.

Ellermann, A., & Goenaga, A. (2019). Discrimination and policies of immigrant selection in liberal states. Politics & Society, 47(1), 87-116.

Gonzales-Backen, M. A., Meca, A., Lorenzo-Blanco, E. I., Des Rosiers, S. E., Córdova, D., Soto, D. W., … & Schwartz, S. J. (2018). Examining the temporal order of ethnic identity and perceived discrimination among Hispanic immigrant adolescents. Developmental psychology, 54(5), 929.

Nkimbeng, M., Bandeen-Roche, K., Han, H. R., Szanton, S. L., & Thorpe, R. (2019).

OF DISCRIMINATION ARE ASSOCIATED WITH DECREASED FUNCTIONAL ABILITY IN AFRICAN IMMIGRANT OLDER ADULTS—innovation in Aging, 3(Suppl 1), S714.