Educating About Immigration

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Overview:

In this lesson, students consider proposed legislation that would provide a path to citizenship for young people who arrived as undocumented children. First, students read about and discuss the legislation. Then in small groups, students role play state legislators, supporters, and opponents of the proposed legislation.

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Overview: Students will examine a controversial law passed in the state of Arizona that directs law enforcement officers to investigate suspected unauthorized immigration. They will recognize the constitutional issues of preemption, reasonable suspicion, and equal protection and relate them to the facts of the Arizona law. Students will then judge whether several sets of facts are valid examples of reasonable suspicion. They will also evaluate the law in a simulation using the GRADE policy-analysis rubric.

Time: One to two class periods.

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Overview: Students will role play editors at a newspaper. They are given the task of evaluating four letters to the editor sent in response to recent legislation from Congress. The legislation streamlines the process for unauthorized immigrants to become permanent residents. Students focus on the economic arguments in the letters and choose two letters that will help show the newspaper is balanced (i.e., choose two letters with opposing viewpoints).

Time: One class period

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Overview: In this activity, students evaluate various proposals to amend the system of visas given to immigrants in guest-worker programs. They discuss the proposals and decide which are best and worst, with reasons for each decision.

Time: One to two class periods.

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Objective: Students will evaluate the practices and rationale of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Time: One class period (or one-and-a-half if students do the reading in class)

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Overview: The Panel Discussion activity provides teachers and students alike with a format for structured discussion of controversial issues. In this discussion, students enrich their understanding of immigration policy in the article on Special Order 40 in Los Angeles.

Time: One to two class periods.

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Overview: Students evaluate a variety of proposals that state governments have made to address the issue of granting driver's licenses to immigrants. They will vote, as a group, to advise the government about the different proposals. Students with dissenting opinions also have an opportunity to express themselves.

Time: One to two class periods.

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Overview: Students will role play state senators from their home state. Imagine Congress has just passed a joint resolution to amend the U.S. Constitution to allow naturalized citizens to run for president. The terms of the resolution are close to Senator Orrin Hatch’s proposal in 2004. The students have the task of deliberating the resolution, coming up with arguments for and against it, and deciding whether to support it. Students have the option of suggesting changes to the resolution.

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Overview:

You’ve probably heard a lot of talk about unauthorized immigration. It is often also referred to as illegal immigration or undocumented immigration. For the last 30 years, unauthorized immigration has been a major political issue. It remains one of the most difficult to resolve.

Overview: The federal government is in charge of the nation’s policies on immigration. The current proposals before Congress on immigration are examples of the making of public policy.

Public policy consists of laws, rules, regulations, and agreements establishing how the government operates. When Congress passed the U.S.A. Patriot Act in 2001 and put immigration under the control of the Department of Homeland Security, it was establishing public policy. When an executive agency such as the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services adopts immigration rules, it is setting public policy for all immigrants.

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Overview:

This lesson traces immigration to the United States through the 1850s. Particular attention is paid to the initial European immigration, the bringing of black slaves from Africa, Irish immigration and nativism against the Irish, and the Mexican-American experience and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildalgo. In the activity, students create posters relating the experiences and contributions of the different immigrant groups that have come to America.

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Overview:

This lesson continues the history of immigration from 1850 to the present. Special emphasis is placed on the experience of Chinese immigrants, the "new immigrants" from Southern and Eastern Europe, nativism and restrictive quotas, the 1965 immigration act, and the "new immigrants" from Asia and Latin America in the contemporary era. In the activity, students research, write, and report on a notable immigrant to America.

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Overview:

This lesson tells the history of Ellis Island, how and why it was developed, and the experiences of those immigrants who passed through it. In the activity, students write the story of an immigrant passing through Ellis Island in 1907 or of an immigration inspector working on the island.

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Overview:

This lesson explores the challenges in educating immigrant children at the turn of the 20th century. It specifically looks at the efforts of William Maxwell, the Superintendent of New York public schools, in providing for the needs of the new immigrants. In the activity, students participate in a simulated school board meeting on how to go about educating the newcomers in New Chance, a hypothetical city with a large immigrant population.

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Overview:

This lesson examines the struggles within the Roosevelt administration and the reasons behind its policies toward Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust. It tells the story of the St. Louis, an ill-fated passenger ship full of Jewish refugees that was not permitted to land in the United States. It looks at the work of the War Refugee Board. In the activity, students role play members of a United Nations conference meeting after World War II and create an international treaty on refugees.

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Overview:

This lesson looks at international law and U.S. policy on refugees. It tells about the international treaties on refugees, how the United States has responded to refugees since World War II, and current U.S. refugee policy. In the activity, students look at some refugee policies of other countries and decide whether they violate international law on refugees.

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Overview:

This lesson looks at issues of U.S. asylum. It covers U.S. and international law on asylum and the difference between refugees and asylees, the debate over asylum reform, and the controversial cases of Walter Polovchak and Elian Gonzalez. In the activity, students decide whether to grant asylum for particular refugees.

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Overview:

This lesson explores the massive immigration from Vietnam and Cambodia begun in the 1970s resulting from the end of the Vietnam War. It focuses particularly on the crisis caused by boat people fleeing the region, the Geneva Conference called to address the situation, and the subsequent resettlement of many of these refugees in the United States. In the activity, students look at refugees from Afghanistan and explore whether the United States owes a special obligation to refugees from countries in which it has fought wars.

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Overview:

This lesson looks at the incidents of "boat people" refugees from Haiti and Cuba in the 1980s and 1990s and the different U.S. policy responses to the incidents. It provides a brief history of each nation, an overview of U.S. foreign policy toward the two nations, and story of the "boat people" crises and their aftermaths. In the activity, students role play presidential advisers and decide on a policy for Cuban and Haiti refugees to recommend to the president.

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Overview:

This lesson focuses on the 1982 Supreme Court decision in Plyler v. Doe on whether a state may deny public education to the children of illegal immigrants. It gives the background on the case and the arguments for both sides. In the activity, students take part in mock hearing before the Supreme Court on this case.