Maricruz Rodriguez-Ortiz

Signature Assignment
Prof. Jane Drexler

Intro:
Illegal immigration
Townhall.com
5 reasons on why illegal immigrants shouldnt be given American citizenship
Its a controversial topic
Persuasive Argument
Issue: Not wanting to have an amnesty law passed for illegal immigrants to be able to gain their
citizenship in the U.S.

Conclusion: Therefore he does not want illegal immigrants to gain citizenship because of his
fear that, that law will attract more illegal immigrants into the U.S, taking the jobs away from the
American people and causing poverty to increase with doing so, the fear of delinquent behavior
and making America look weak for allowing something like that to happen.

Burden of Proof: Lies within the person who is making this argument.

Identifying the premises:

P#1: it will only encourage more illegal immigrants to come to the U.S.
SP: weve already had a one time only amnesty deal that occurred during the
Reagan Administration.
SP: idea was supposed to allow illegals who were here to become citizens and
simultaneously beef up security to try to keep the problem of illegal immigrants coming
into the U.S. to ever happen again
P#2: Illegal Immigrants take jobs from American Citizens.

SP: People go out every day looking for a job to support their families and come
home empty handed.
SP: illegal immigrants in this country are holding jobs that American Citizens
would otherwise have.
SP: Theres no job in the country that cant be filled if illegal immigrants
disappeared tomorrow.
P#3: Were importing poverty.
SP: The majority of illegals are uneducated manual laborers.
SP: Crooked business owners get cheap labor by allowing illegals to work for
them.
SP: Society has to be burdened with people who are going to cost more money
than they ever pay in taxes
P#4: It rewards bad behavior.
SP: its against the law to enter the country illegally, to buy fake documents or
steal someones SSN, and not pay your taxes. So after all of that, were going to give people
citizenship?
SP: Its not smart to reward bad behavior and punish good behavior.
P#5: it cheapens and demeans our country.
SP: The U.S. gives citizenship to anyone and everybody they can find.
SP: American citizenship shouldnt be given to people whose first act upon
American soil was to violate our laws.

Maricruz Rodriguez Ortiz

Responding with Fallacies

Dear whoever is making the argument,

I would totally have to disagree with you on the argument you are trying to make about
illegal immigrants, but shouldnt oil companies be more on land than near the ocean? No wonder
there are so many oil spills. I mean yes illegal immigration is a very big topic thats very
controversial, but you should be very careful talking about it. I hear your neighbor goes for the
amnesty bill that is trying to be passed. You wouldnt want him keying your car or egging your
house because you disagree now wouldnt you? Besides why should anyone listen to your
argument? I mean even your wife said that all you ever do during the week is play video games
and on the weekends you go out and try to find the latest addition to the beanie babies, what do
you know about the world, let alone illegal immigration. Ha! You argue that with the amnesty
bill 20 million illegals will gain citizenship, maybe even 30 million. At least only 15 million will
probably end up getting their citizenship because probably only half will pass the background
checks. But in reality you are 100% for the amnesty bill, so I dont know why youre hiding the
fact that you are, but I could understand. You even said so yourself before you gave your speech,
that the government paid you 3 million dollars to argue against what you really thought about it.
They knew people would pay more attention to your speech since you are loved by communities
all around the United States.

Maricruz Rodriguez Ortiz

Responding for real

Dear whomever is making the argument,

Your argument about illegal immigration is very well written out, your reasons are very
clear as to why you dont want illegal immigrants to gain their U.S. citizenship. These arguments
come from a belief that with passing such a bill, an amnesty bill; will encourage more illegals to
come into the United States, you also argue that illegals are the ones to take the jobs from
American citizens and by doing that, the U.S. is importing poverty which cheapens and demeans
the country. Although I dont fully agree with your arguments, this is where we do agree, I will
have to admit I do agree with some of points you are trying to make. I do believe that having
such an open bill that will allow anyone to gain their citizenship would attract many people into
the United States, but something could be done about that. There could be background checks,
certain criteria that they would have to reach that would allow them to apply for it like, not
having any type of criminal records, and have x number of years in the U.S. I also agree with you
that it rewards bad behavior. Obviously there are millions of people out there that enter the
United States without a green card or any sort of approval. Entering a country without doing it
the right way should be punished to an extent, not by eliminating the chances of receiving their
citizenship but by making the process a little longer and stricter. However here is where I would
have to disagree with your argument, I do not believe that illegals are taking the jobs of
American citizens, that depends on them whether or not they want to go out and look for a job,
illegal immigrants come into the U.S. for many reasons but the main one is the ability to have a
better life, much better than the one they used to have back in their home country. Millions of

jobs are open for anyone, but like you or me, people get lazy and that leaves jobs open for those
willing to take it when theyre in need of shelter or money. The way I see it is that, America is a
country of opportunity. Its a big melting pot of the world, there are a lot of different ethnicities
and cultures in this nation that thats what makes it a beautiful country to live in. If you didnt
know, America is built on immigration; pioneers were the first real immigrants here, American
soil used to belong to the Native people. Illegal immigrants, especially those that come from
Mexico, come with the mentality that theyll be able to give their families everything they dont
have. They want their children to get the best education they could get and thats why they
migrate to Utah. I believe that everyone deserves a chance to live the dream they couldnt do
with living in their own country, America is able to help those dreams become a reality and of
course I think it should be earned. Theres no race that is superior, we need to stop thinking that
there is.

Reflection of my own argument:

I believe that my argument from one to ten, with ten being very good, it was more like a nine. I
feel very confident and I made my points clear as to why I didnt agree with some of the things
he was arguing about as well. My paper really flows all together, so I think I did a very good job
with that. I feel like I could have added more to it but if I did I would have written at least three
pages. I would have focused more on the positive outcomes of illegal immigrants receiving their
citizenship, not just for them but for their children.

Identifying the fallacies:

In order:
Red Harring: when a person takes a position and another responds by using misdirection
to get them off the topic so that they forget that they were making a specific point. (Ex. what
were you doing out all night. That is unacceptable. Other person responds, I was studying with
a friend. You want me to get good grades dont you?)
Appeal to fear: when someone tries to convince you of a particular course of action by
not giving you good reasons but rather by scaring you with horrible consequences if you do not
act this way.
Adhominem: when someone rejects another persons argument, not by rejecting their
reasons, but rather by attacking their character.
Golden Mean Fallacy: when someone claims that a certain position is the correct
position, because it is a compromise between two other, incorrect, positions.
False appeal to authority fails 3rd condition: when someone tries to settle an issue by
referring to the testimony of an authority that has been shown to have been influenced by
promises of money or power when coming to their claim on a matter.

IMMIGRATION
Over the last few months most conservatives have quite naturally been distracted by Barack
Obama's frightening incompetence, his elephantine spending, and his zealous attempts to
swallow as much of the private sector as the government beast can stuff down its gaping maw.
But while the cat's away, the mice will play. The little feet you may have been hearing pitterpatter back into the public square? They belong to advocates of amnesty for illegal aliens. Oh,
they don't necessarily call it that. They call it comprehensive immigration reform, earned
legalization, a path to citizenship -- but, it all amounts to the same thing: rewarding people for
breaking our laws.
On behalf of the overwhelming majority of the conservative movement and the American
people, let me say, "Not just no, but Hell, no" to giving illegal immigrants American
citizenship.
Now, I know what the response to this will be: "You must hate Hispanics!" Actually, it doesn't
matter where the illegals are from; they're not welcome here. But, but, but...it'll help the GOP
with Hispanics to support amnesty! Tell that to John McCain, who bombed with Hispanics
despite being the Republican most associated with amnesty. Well, then you must not want any
immigrants in this country! What a despicable argument. Comparing an illegal alien to someone
who loves and respects this country enough to come here the right way is like comparing a
burglar to an adopted son.
Let me tell you exactly why illegal immigrants shouldn't be given American citizenship.
1) It will only encourage more illegal immigrants to come here. We've already had a "one
time only" amnesty deal for illegals. It occurred during the Reagan Administration and the idea
was supposed to be that we'd allow the illegals who were here to become citizens and we'd
simultaneously beef up security to try to keep the problem from occurring again. Well, guess
what? That very bipartisan sounding compromise didn't work. To the contrary, it failed
miserably. So why in the world would anyone who actually wants to stop illegal immigration
want to try something that has already been proven to be counterproductive? We have far more
illegals in America today than we did when the "one time" amnesty went through. Do we want
20 million illegals here when the next amnesty goes through? 30 million? Are we going to be
accused of racism if we say the next huge wave of illegals shouldn't be given citizenship either?
Where does it end?
2) Illegal aliens take jobs from American citizens. The economy stinks. American citizens are
out of work. People are going out every day looking for jobs to support their family and they're

coming home empty handed. Meanwhile, there are illegal aliens in this country holding jobs that
American citizens would otherwise have. "Oh, but those are jobs Americans won't do!" There's
no such thing. There's no job in this country that couldn't be filled if every illegal disappeared
tomorrow -- but, here's the catch: the crooked business owners who are knowingly hiring the
illegals might have to pay what the job is worth instead of hiring people who let everyone else
pay their health care, pay their car insurance, and pay their share of the taxes.
3) We're importing poverty. It's no secret that the majority of illegals are uneducated manual
laborers. In fact, that's supposed to be one of their selling points, isn't it? Don't advocates of
amnesty say we need illegals to do the dirty, hard, manual labor that "Americans won't do?" But
even if that were true, which its not, people with very limited skills often turn into liabilities for
a society as they age. There aren't a lot of people picking oranges and scrubbing floors at fifty
years old. In other words, in order to help crooked business owners get cheap labor today, the
rest of society has to be burdened with people who are going to cost society far more than they
ever pay in taxes. Are American taxpayers so unburdened that we want to actually bring in even
more people to carry on their backs?
4) It rewards bad behavior. It's against the law to enter this country illegally. It's against the
law to buy fake documents or steal someone's social security number. It's against the law not to
pay your taxes. So after all of that, we're going to give people citizenship? What message does
that send to all the immigrants filling out reams of paperwork, paying out significant chunks of
their paychecks, and waiting for years in their home countries to finally achieve their dream of
becoming an American citizen? Here's the message it sends: You're a chump! This is something
you don't normally have to say to people north of five years old, but it's not smart to reward bad
behavior and punish good behavior.
5) It cheapens and demeans our country. Is this Cuba? Is this Afghanistan? Is this Rwanda?
Are we such a garbage dump of a nation that we have to desperately give citizenship to anybody
and everybody we can find? Newsflash: This is the greatest nation God has seen fit to raise up
in the history of mankind. We can not only have the cream of the crop from other nations; we
can ask them to wait in line, obey our laws, and prove themselves -- and the ones worth having
will do it because this is the place people all over the world dream of coming one day. American
citizenship is a precious thing and it shouldn't be given to people whose first act upon American
soil was to violate our laws.