Keywords

Immigration; identity; privilege; legislation

Abstract

This research examines Senate Bill 744 (S.744) from the 113th Congress of the United States, and its findings will be used as a model to reveal problems in similar legislation. Senate Bill 744 was proposed by the 113th Congress in an attempt to accomplish bi-partisan immigration reform. The bill was viewed (and still is) as a comprehensive compromise, in that neither Democrats nor Republicans were completely satisfied with its result. The outcome was that the legislators who were involved in S.744*s creation were satisfied that something on the topic of immigration reform had been accomplished (the bill passed the Senate, but never came up for a vote in the House), even if it was not what they, nor their constituents really wanted. S.744 addressed, what the researcher perceives, as the key Democratic and Republican issues concerning immigration reform in the United States, which were status for undocumented immigrants on the left, and increased border security on the right. However, the researcher also notes that neither of these issues were handled well in the bill because of their exclusionary nature, and that is what led her to this research. This study is important because it will highlight legislative failures and look at how representatives can be held more accountable for their use of disingenuous language. This research looks at aspects of identity and privilege as they relate to exclusions from the dominant culture, and consequently the legislative process. The researcher would like to disclose that as an immigrant herself she has first-hand experience of the system*s failures, and is approaching this project with personal invested interested in the success of future legislation.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2015

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Sandoval, Jennifer

Degree

Master of Arts (M.A.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Communication

Degree Program

Communication; Mass Communication

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0005805

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0005805

Language

English

Release Date

August 2016

Length of Campus-only Access

1 year

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

Subjects

Dissertations, Academic -- Sciences; Sciences -- Dissertations, Academic

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