CT Forum on Immigration

       The CT forum on immigration focused on the issue of illegal immigration in an interesting way, showing the perspective of an undocumented immigrant who has been living here for decades compared someone who was born and raised in the United States. Jose Vargas, who arrived in the United States when he was 12 undocumented, spoke about his experience after he found out that his papers weren’t correct, including that he was put in jail for some time, because “they didn’t know what else to do with us.” He also spoke about his Filipino background, and how that affected how he was seen compared with the undocumented Hispanic immigrants. While he came from a perspective of empathy and morality, General John F. Kelly came, arguably, from the other side. He stated that illegal and undocumented immigrants could potentially be a threat to national security, and that people should immigrate to the U.S. legally or not at all. However, there are too many factors in this to make such a broad statement. As one of the questions posed, this is more than a security or border crisis. It’s also a humanitarian and environmental crisis, which makes it all the more complicated.