Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Pillow Pals equals Anchor Babies?

I swear each year the exchange students see more of the United States than I did in all of my childhood. This fall break, I have two French exchange students who went to Philadelphia, one Italian exchange student who went to Las Vegas, a Singaporean who went to Boston, and a group who went to New York.

Well I went home.

I should stop saying this, but home still doesn't feel like home. And I'm starting to forget my home in New York.

I also have a confession to make. I have a pillow pal. After seeing Toy Story 3, I should feel less ashamed about having a cuddly stuffed animal in my dorm room, but sadly I am feeling defensive about my cuddly lamb of a pillow pet. If you check out their website [http://www.mypillowpets.com/], you'll see why I'm so defensive. That's right. On the FRONT page of their website is a three-year-old with his pillow pal. And right below that is a link that says "COMBAT PILLOW PAL FRAUD." Don't laugh. It's a big deal, okay? Reading that page, I realized that my fuzzy animal of a pillow was actually... a victim of fraud. It wasn't its fault that it was born an impostor.

Which leads me to the term anchor baby (nice tie-in, I know). For those of you who don't know, anchor babies is a "term to describe a child born in the U.S. to illegal aliens, and is generally used as a derogatory reference to the upposed role of the child, who as a US citizen through the legal principle of jus soli, may facilitate immigration for relatives through family reunification" (Wikipedia.Org). While in truth, "a US citizen child cannot file for a US visa for its parents until the child is 21 years of age, and upon reaching that age the child must also be earning at least 125% of the US poverty threshold to be able to apply."

In late September, LSA publicized an Immigration Panel that it would be having [Youtube video]. There has been debate over the term anchor babies, especially on their youtube page. To quote, "The law, when originally written, obviously didn't factor in the pandemic that would eventually evolve as a result of Mexicans and their disregard for laws, among other things. Mexicans sure have no trouble reproducing offspring and relying on the backs of others to pay the bill." and the response was "So what I'm gathering from your comment is that Mexicans are a pandemic and it's their fault they want to improve their lives." This gives you a sense of how people feel!