Week 7-Tao Zheng-A03

In one of this week's readings, "The criminalization of immigrants and the privatization of the immigration detention: implications for justice," Alissa R. Ackerman and Rich Furman discussed the criminalization of immigrants and privatization of prisons in the U.S., the causes and the problems associated with these phenomenon criminalization of immigrants and privatization of prisons. It is until recent years that the criminalization of people has been targeted toward a specific subpopulation, which is the undocumented immigrants. In the article, Ackerman and Furman stated that, "state legislators have made the lives of immigrants increasingly difficult to function, by stripping their previously held rights." For example, undocumented immigrants don't have access to electricity and can not seek driver's licenses. Unfortunately for those immigrants coming to the U.S. seeking for a better life, ended up living like half-human in the U.S, stripped of basic citizens' rights. I think there are better ways to treat the undocumented immigrants, such as officially interview them and document them if they are suitable and not dangerous for living in the U.S. Furthermore, crimination of immigrants and privatization of detention of them "close the American border of free flow of labor"(Akerman, 2012). About a year ago, Donald Trump has ordered the act of closing airport entrance for Mexicans because he assumed them to be dangerous and illegal immigrants while some of them are U.S. citizens. According to Ackerman and Furman, the problems associated with the
criminal subpopulation are the "increased risk of numerous psychological ills for the privately prisoned immigrants and serious implications for the well-being of the children, many of whom are U.S. citizens". I understand the concerns of the government of the undocumented immigrants, but it's not right and justicial to prison them privately for profits. The question is: what are some better solutions to the increasing number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

Works Cited

Ackerman, A. R. and Furman, R. (2013). The Criminalization of Immigration and the Privatization of the Immigration Detention: Implications for Justice. Contemporary Justice Review.

Hinchliffe, Tim. (2016). Majority of Americans ignorantly blame illegal immigrants for unemployment. The sociable. Retrieved from:https://sociable.co/web/americans-blame-immigrants-unemployment/