Should The Rights of Illegal Immigrants In Escondido Be "Killed"?

McKenzie Fink

Article 5

North County Times

ESCONDIDO: Demonstrators hold candlelight vigil for civil rights

http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/escondido/escondido-demonstrators-hold-candlelight-vigil-for-civil-rights/article_b49bcf43-3c65-5dd8-b2d7-29dd9ab50ee6.html

How Escondido City Council and police are "killing" people's (specifically Latino's) civil rights

This whole article is about the candlelight vigil, "walk for justice" with an "altar de los meurtos" for citizen's lost rights due to policies and practices of the police and city council. People believe this is directed especially towards Latino's in recent years. "These rights are temporarily dead, largely due to the (Escondido) City Council and police," says Kevin Keenan, the executive director of the ACLU in San Diego. "I think it's inevitable that we will win back these rights, but every year that the current leadership pursues these policies is damaging to Escondido and its residents." A lot of people in the Latino culture are believing this is true right now because of some recent events. For example, a Latino woman called the police claiming that she was beaten by her boyfriend and supposedly they were both arrested and turned into immigration. Also, practices such as E-verify and traffic checkpoints have been creates Latinos now believe they cannot tryst the government.

This connects to what we are studying in class for many reasons. We have learned about the Bill of Rights First Amendment and this article is a direct representation of it. First of all, this story was printed in the first place, which is the right to freedom of press. Second of all, these people are fighting for their rights in the first amendment by assembling peacefully. Finally, these people were there to try and stop the government from discriminating people of different cultures and according to the Constitution, the government is not allowed to do that.

This article does connect to my life in a very indirect way. For one, I have read many stories on how Hispanics and Latino's who believe their rights have been violated. For example, I have heard about Latino's that have been sent straight to immigration by a police officer even though they go to the officer for help. Also, many people I know have many different views on the subject of possible illegal immigrants retaining rights. Finally, this connects to my life because Caucasians are no longer the majority of the population in California. So, I know that if a bill is left for a vote by the public on this matter, the majority vote of possible illegal immigrants having rights will win.

My opinion on this subject is that police are doing nothing wrong in Escondido. The only reason it seems as though they are focusing on Latinos is because there are many illegal immigrants that must be found as a part of police officers' jobs. I am not saying in any way shape or form that LEGAL immigrants should not have rights. I am arguing that people who illegally enter our country and pretend to be a citizen to not deserve to have rights. They are not a LEGAL U.S. CITIZEN and that is what is wrong in the whole picture. They didn't do the work necessary to become a U.S. citizen so they shouldn't get the payoff for being one either.