I have taught non-native English-speaking students and trained teachers to serve these students in various settings for the past 45 years. I believe immigrants enrich our nation, and that is one reason why I went into the field of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).
Over the years, I have co-sponsored a refugee and participated in many service projects for immigrants. From beginning to advanced levels, I instructed non-literate, semi-literate, and literate immigrants in English. I have seen them progress in getting jobs and fulfilling personal goals. But this process is always easier if students are legal and have gone through the normal processes to acquire visas and later become citizens.
Indeed, logjams in our immigration system and Congressional failures to institute needed reforms have hindered many immigrants from entering the country legally. But this does not justify the unprecedented 10 million plus illegal immigrants coming into the country in the past four years. The Biden administration has knowingly exposed legal immigrants and citizens to dangerous cartels and to child, sex, and drug traffickers and known terrorists. I often hear other academics say that we have just as many U.S. citizens who are criminals. But this is skirting the real point that we would have fewer crimes if we did not add to that problem by being lax on whom we admit.
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When I have seen the complete disregard that the Biden administration has had for our borders and its intentional policies to change definitions of asylum and other immigration laws in the name of “charity” in service to a “new world order,” I am appalled.
Who gave them that right?
Month after month, Vice President Kamala Harris, the so-called Border Czar, did nothing as we saw millions of illegal immigrants guided from South America all the way to the U.S. southern border by the United Nations and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Even more outrageous was that the administration gave out cash cards for food, lodging, and legal services at U.S. taxpayer expense. This was followed by free bus and plane rides to every state in the union, with the apparent purpose of affecting party representation in Congressional districts and potentially swinging elections so Republicans would never win another race! Fentanyl has been killing our children, and veterans living on the streets are ignored. That is why the America First theme reverberates with most people and why we, as professors, can no longer ignore these true cries for justice.
These are the real, serious issues that our pupils at the university are not learning about to their detriment.
What many of them who insist on “equity” don’t know is that a large portion of the new immigrants are settling into legal immigrant neighborhoods and overwhelming communities that are already strained economically with additional burdens simply because they speak the same foreign language and share the same background. These long-term legal immigrants, who have struggled the most through COVID-19 and now during a recession, will bear the greatest burden to support them. They will be taxed, along with other citizens, to pay for more law enforcement, teachers, schools, general medical services, maternity services, food, and housing to accommodate these newcomers and, as a consequence, reduce their own incomes and prospects. Is this fair?
Immigrants have enriched this country—most of us are here because of our ancestors came to the U.S. looking for a better life. But as a language professional, I see a very large communication and cultural problem brewing. Those who don’t speak English will take three to eight years to acquire enough English to get good jobs—and some will never reach that point and will become permanent burdens on society.
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Many prestigious universities have been coddling their students following Trump’s recent victory. Professors canceled classes and excused quizzes. Counselors created safe spaces with coloring exercises and therapy animals. Students claimed that their anxiety was so high that they could not concentrate. Coloring books are fine, but we have crises to solve in the language teaching field.
So, what can we, as academics in TESOL and other disciplines, do now that Trump has decisively won—obtaining the most popular and electoral votes by a longshot, representing a mandate from the nation that change is needed. As faculty members, shouldn’t we consider those needs and concerns seriously?
The censorship of conservatives and denigration of their ideas on college campuses is well known. But now is the time for conservatives to speak up. The conservative faculty needs to get more involved politically and teach students to do the same, just as our colleagues on the left have done. There really wouldn’t be time for coddling if these conservative faculty stood up and started fighting for the rights of legal immigrants and citizens, whose rights have been severely threatened by this huge influx of illegal immigrants during the past four years of the Biden administration.
(For more details, visit this paper, in which I describe who these immigrants are, why they have come, and what role ESL professionals play in their education and advocacy. The essay also discusses the influence of conservative and liberal administrations on border enforcement and how the open borders of the Biden administration have not only endangered those crossing the border illegally but also the documented immigrants and citizens already living in the country as well.)
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Photo of large groups of illegal aliens apprehended by Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents near Yuma, AZ, on June 4, 2019. by Jerry Glaser — United States Department of Homeland Security on Picryl
This article was originally published at www.mindingthecampus.org
