Into the Wild Spaces

In 2006, the United States finds itself divided, not for the first time, over the issue of immigration. The divisions run deep across gender and socio-economic lines, partly because the United States is itself a nation of immigrants, but just as equally because, in the aftermath of September 11th, 2001, the United States doesn’t know whether would-be immigrant workers are more a boon or a burden, a threat or a buttress. At hand are fundamental questions: do immigrants bolster the American economy or sap it? Are willing, foreign workers a threat to the American labor pool and the so-called “American way of life” or are they themselves a part of the same? Do already-working but undocumented workers have a right to assimilate into society legally or would addressing their documentation provide amnesty and an unwitting incentive for further immigration? And lastly (for the moment), does America have the right or the ability to enforce its borders, and if so, how?