Research Paper on:
The Immigration Debate

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
American nationalism with race, specifically with Americans of European descent. Barbara Coe, with the California Coalition for Immigration, a speaker at the event, referred to undocumented aliens working in the  US as "illegal barbarians who are cutting off heads and appendages of blind, white, disabled gringos" (Zeskind A15). Coe is also a firm believer in a covert conspiracy by Mexico  to take back lands in the American Southwest that originally belonged to Mexico (Zeskind A15). Coe may sound like part of a lunatic fringe, but it is a fringe that  is very astute politically. The Los Angeles Times credits Coe with providing the organizational muscle in California that passed an anti-immigration referendum in that state in 1994, Proposition 187, which  was later found to be unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court (Zeskind A15). The depth and breadth of this movement brings up pertinent questions about immigration, such as,  what are the major complaints of this group against immigrants? Why are they opposed to the plan proposed by President Bush? An examination of current literature on this topic indicates  both sides of this national debate and the issues involved, as well as possible policy solutions. The anti-immigration movement, as evidenced by its Los Vegas gathering, is an odd  conglomeration of "ideological white supremacists, armed border vigilantes, nativist think tanks, political action committees, and Republican Party officeholders" who all participate in a movement of "growing significance" (Zeskind A15). While  participants in this movement cite such issues as the economics of providing social services to undocumented workers, as well as an assumed drag on the marketplace, at large gatherings, such  as the one in Los Vegas, the main issues are connected to "race and national identity" (Zeskind A15). Basically, the associated rhetoric at such gatherings comes down to a "generalized