Are They Doing Anything To Help Us Now?

In 2004, many people were still worried about immigration. After 9/11, many immigration laws had been put in effect, but the opinion of many was that they were still not being implemented. Many were worried that there was nothing being done to stop terrorists from entering the United States.

Heather MacDonald, a writer for the City Journal, address this issue in her article The Illegal-Alien Crime Wave. She says, “Some of the most violent criminals at large today are illegal aliens. Yet in cities where the crime these aliens commit is highest, the police cannot use the most obvious tool to apprehend them: their immigration status” (par. 1). MacDonald realized that using by using an example of growing crime and then pointing out how the police are doing nothing to stop the illegal immigrants that congress passed laws to insure that crime like this wouldn't happen again. By writing this article at a time when many people were wondering how the laws were being enforced, it would’ve fed off of people’s curiosity about whether or not the laws were doing their job. It would’ve answered the question as to whether or not another terrorist attack would be prevented by these laws.

One thing that Heather MacDonald failed to do in this article was use more recent examples. She starts off promising with getting the reader’s attention, but then fails to give concrete recent examples of failed law enforcement. She instead brings up events that happened in 1995 through 1997. When she does mention more recent events it is to quote government officials. The only mention of the devastating attack is to say “On September 5, 2001, his handpicked charter-revision committee ruled that New York could still require that its employees keep immigration information confidential to preserve trust between immigrants and government. Six days later, several visa-overstayers participated in the most devastating attack on the city and the country in history” (par. 20). A fact that while interesting does nothing to answer reader’s questions about whether or not the immigration laws in force now are being enforced and if so to what success. MacDonald never mentions the facts that most of her American readers would be interested in– whether or not the immigration laws are going to protect their country from being attacked again.

Timing is everything

As the state of the union address approached, one writer decided to take matters into his own hands and tried to secure jobs for unemployed Americans. He stepped forward at a time when he needed to act. Winston Churchill put it this way-"To every man there comes in his lifetime that special moment when his is figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered a chance to do a very special thing, unique to him and fitted to his talents, what a tragedy if that moment finds him unprepared or unqualified for that which would be his finest hour."

Now this writer's timing is great but unfortunately not impeccable. He posts his article just two days before President Obama gives his state of the union address. He does; however, create a very easy way for his audience to positively react to his article. He provides a link to a website which allows them to fax congress. He also adds a link to allow people to send a certain fax to congress which upholds the ideals which he puts forth in the article.

Next he writes about four main issues and how the President's address could directly affect all of them. He understands the importance of this speech, this one moment in time, and he wants others to not only understand it, but to also add their say. He then proceeds to present a well outlined argument on what President Obama should have talked about in regards to immigration. His timing allowed others to take their own stand at a critical moment.

In a world where timing is everything Kairos plays a key role in allowing us to identify when those crucial moments come into our lives. The author acted and the rest was then up to the audience.

"Our View on Legal Immigration: Congratulations, graduate. Now Leave the USA."

http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/05/our-view-on-legal-immigration-congratulations-graduate-now-leave-the-usa.html#more

I would like to talk about the Kairos of this article. Kairos is presenting your argument at the right time, in the right circumstances, in the right place and to the right audience. I think it pretty clever that USA Today looked at their immigration concerns in a different light. Instead of focusing on illegal immigration and the disputes on that, they talk about legal immigrants who come for college and then stay. I think that the timing to address this was perfect. The reason being is that people have been frustrated with illegal immigrants taking the lowend jobs for so long that action seems to be dying out. So USA Today brings us to the attention that legal immigrants are also taking jobs in the U.S. They are taking the high paying jobs. Now in order to get positive responses on this article USA Today needs to make sure that the right people are reading this article and under the right circumstances. Because USA Today is a newspaper I don’t believe it will be hard for the right audience to come upon this article. The right audience would be those who are interested in immigration and/or those who are also against immigration. The very best circumstances would be while a bill, law, or proposition on immigration is in the process of being voted for and passed. This article was published on May 12,2009. So all of the voting was obviously finished. But I still believe it was a good time to publish it. The reason why is because opinions were slowing down about the results of the current elections, and the public would need something else to focus their attention on. Legal immigrants taking the jobs that many Americans so desperately need seemed like a great idea.