Many citizens of the United States and around the world seems to be having similar problems pertaining to immigration. Many of these countries biggest issues with their immigration problems are that they are struggling with controlling employment opportunities for their own people and feel as though the immigrants are either taking these employment opportunities or are just bringing down their country with their lifestyles in general. In an online article from the business magazine Forbes' website, the former Prime Minister of Britain Tony Blaire was questioned about the United States' wellbeing. His answer simply stated the the country's welfare was definately in tact according to facts of the exceedingly high number of immigrants still desiring to enter and work in our country. He also went on to say that "the foreigners seeking both legal and illegal entry into the U.S. in the last decade are a market signal pointing to a nation doing far better than elite thinking around the world has suggested." Blaire finished by pointing out that the countries that repel immigrants are the ones that have the real issues. Specifically he pointed out examples of countries such as Zimbabwe, North Korea, and Cuba who are known to be struggling with their people and internal issues within the country itself.
In short, we as the people of the United States I feel do not make such a big uproar with the issue of illegal immigration itself, but the actual problem hidden in the shadows is just plain and simple racism. Sure, foreigners are coming into our country, and might by taking some of our jobs, but the majority of other issues such a crime, drug trafficking, living off our tax money, or somehow lowering the american way of living just by being here are false and have been proven time and time again to be far more effected by those who are actual citizens. In the Forbes article mentioned in the paragraph above, it even addresses the fact that immigrants caught crossing the border illegally have declined substantially and are at the lowest they have been since the late 1970's. (Read full article here.)
Most of the political cartoons we found that were finding faults with illegal immigrants are extremely exaggerated, truthiness, and are negative stereotypes. Many of these cartoonists want to entertain their readers, so they blur the real facts to shine a negative light onto the worst qualities they could imagine an immigrant might have in their foreign and unamerican character. Until Americans start learning about the real facts and issues and not just racially profiling those of different cultures in our country, I believe this issue will continue to be unresolved and no matter what the President does, or what policies the United States government puts in to order. The American public will continue to be unsatisfied with the issue and its progress.
No matter what policy the government follows, the editorial cartoonists will always frame cartoons in a way that follows their personal beliefs. Framing can be found in every cartoon that we found. Positive and negative framing are used to get the illustrator's point across easier, to a large audience, and faster. It's generally very easy to figure out which way the artist is framing a cartoon. For example, the cartoon titled "Tsunami" shows the Statue of Liberty about to be hit by a tsunami of "illegal aliens." The words that the cartoonist used are examples of the negative framing used. The phrase "illegal aliens" is probably the worst phrase to use to describe this group of people. The word "illegal" only has negative connotations, and "aliens" makes us think of people that don't belong here or that are against our way of life. Then, after reading that phrase, the reader looks at the face on the Statue of Liberty. It's a face of worry and fear at the idea of more immigrants coming to the United States. These two choices by the author frame undocumented workers in a negative way.
The types of framing used can also be thought of as cultivation. In the same cartoon referenced above for framing, you can take some examples and see how they cultivate a negative opinion of undocumented workers. Throughout people's lives, they are bound to watch movies, and some movies may be about visits from aliens from other planets. Most of these movies paint the aliens in a negative light, as they are here to kill humans, or take our resources. So, after having watched these types of movies their whole lives, how are the people not supposed to associate the word "aliens" with something that is bad for our country? These cartoons are bringing out ideas that we've had our whole lives, and making us think in a way that the artists want us to think. In the end, it's on the people to be smart and think about what they are seeing, reading, and hearing.
