Solving Illegal Immigration [For Real] | Sonia Nazario | TEDxPennsylvaniaAvenue

Pulitzer Prize winning writer Sonia Nazario takes you on a personal, powerful, emotional journey to show why three solutions pushed for decades by U.S. politicians--both on the left and the right—to stem illegal immigration have failed. The author of Enrique’s Journey, possibly the most read book about immigrants to the U.S., asks: What if we did something radically new, something that works?


Sonia Nazario is an award‐winning journalist whose stories have tackled some of this country’s most intractable problems -- hunger, drug addiction, immigration -­ and have won some of the most prestigious journalism and book awards.

She is best known for "Enrique's Journey," her story of a Honduran boy’s struggle to find his mother in the U.S. Published as a series in the Los Angeles Times, "Enrique's Journey" won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 2003. It was turned into a book by Random House and became a national bestseller.

She is a graduate of Williams College and has a master’s degree in Latin American studies from the University of California, Berkeley. She has honorary doctorates from Mount St. Mary’s College and Whittier College. She began her career at the Wall Street Journal, and later joined the Los Angeles Times. She is now at work on her second book.

[gloriavera]

As an immigration lawyer, I applaud you passionate and insightful advice on how to deal with a serious problem. by investing wisely to stem the horrible tide of violence in these countries, we can make the world a better and safer place for us all. You solution is practical, humane, economically feasible and has a proven track record. Why would we not want to embrace it? I say, the State Department should receive funds to implement these programs throughout the region, instead of wasting them on a wall that has huge environmental, ecological and human costs. Let's work to help people, not hold them back. I congratulate you on your passion, intelligence, and bravery. Gloria Vera

[diegoayala]

I say we help them in their countries rather then bring them in with no end in sight

[fsauceda]

I love this woman! Finally, someone speaking out with proof about Honduras!!

[abab-fcxg]

*How many future crimes would be prevented when a country has a secure border?*

[veramann]

Great ideas! Less children = less immigrants = less street gangs.

[GK-opoc]

The answer is a six month seasonal work VISA placed in a diplomat category for NO birthright citizenship.

[eljefe]

This is such a conundrum. I can see political asylum as being a good thing, but I know that anybody and everybody also takes advantage of that including people with bad intentions. I also hate the thought of a 7 year old clutching a teddy bear before a judge without an advocate.

[mattw]

If we can spend so much on a wall we can definitely spend some money on these programs

[margaretgreen]

CPS IS NOT PENALIZING THESE PEOPLE FOR ABANDONMENT OF THEIR CHILDREN. LET AN AMERICAN TRY IT, AND THROWING AWAY THE KEY IS NO PROBLEM. CHILDREN TRAVELING ALONE IS NOT SAFE ITS (CRUEL) 🗝️

[barrydavis]

She is right on so many issues. I agree most of the people who are here illegally do not want to be Americans. The people from the various countries have bonded to their nation and culture. Many Americans are arrogant to believe that every person here illegally wants to become Americans. They don't! Many Americans are naive. She made the claim that they are entitled by right to become an immigrant. I think she used this this verbiage because of the audience she was speaking to. Many people in the audience and in our nation do feel that the solution is simple. We should have open borders and simplify citizenship. Let me use an example of an unrelated topic to help clarify how why this language is misunderstood.Example: You are entitled to become a millionaire or a billionaire, You are entitled to become an athlete, You are entitled to become a scholar. It's true that because of the freedoms of our Nation we have the right to the pursuit of our enjoyment. But clearly you can see we are not assured success. We may lack the knowledge, the will or the strength to achieve any Just like no one is entitled to becoming wealthy in our nation. If we are unsuccessful in building wealth we are not entitled to take the law into our own hands and victimize others for our benefit. What our country does provide is a legal path to citizenship. Some may be denied because of criminal history, Health issues or for other reasons.

She did make a good point about helping the countries from which they are fleeing to enforce laws, get convictions and establish law and order. What she doesn't stress is ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION is basically a reflection of their Native country, their values and their culture. I have noticed a common belief among illegal immigrants and the poor. They believe and live their lives by consequences rather than by law. Don't get me wrong. I am not calling them criminals nor am I saying that they are bad. What I am saying is we are a country of laws. The laws are in place not to victimize but to protect us from becoming victims. As long as they believe that it is OK to violate our borders and violate visas. They will fail to realize the American dream.

The reason for our failure, for having over 10 million illegals living with in our borders. We must accept the blame. We do not enforce the laws. And as she said there are victims on both sides. She talked about the virtue of creating a safer environment in other countries by assisting communities in foreign countries to enforce laws. But she wrongly believes we should relax on our own laws. I believe it is in our favor to help other countries have freedoms and laws so that their citizens can live in peace and prosper. But I also believe our countries number one duty is to serve our own citizens and communities.

If you believe illegal immigrants benefit communities, you are wrong. In Yakima county nearly 1 out of every 10 citizen is an illegal immigrant. The earnings per household is among the lowest in the State of Washington. Illegal Immigration is a crime. And crime in any form ignored will deteriorate society.

[jdljdl]

High homicide rate? East St Louis and Baltimore have homicide rates per capita as high as Guatemala and San Salvador.

[RealLimerickman]

There is a lot of information about why did their home nations go down the tubes. Also what is the real reason on why are mothers abandoning their children? The real reason, not the emotional bull reason. It is often on economic one, not a emotional reason. It is often repeated throughout history of mothers abandoning unwanted children, letting children to fend for themselves. Accepting these abandoning children just makes things far worse long term. It is cheaper to 1/. fix the out of control crime issue locally and 2/. setup orphanages to look after abondoned children, and then to foster them out or give them up for adoption.

There is an old saying. "You have to be cruel in order to be kind", in order to save lives.
The decriminalize of drugs will take the power away from the criminals. Drugs addiction needs to be treated as a health issue and not by the criminals system. Allow local growing of natural created drugs, so crime gangs lose power.

[veronicac]

God bless you 💞
We need more ppl like,
Keep up the good work

[wastbs]

Build a very tall and strong wall. Heavily man it. Works for other countries. It will work for us. Every broke person in the entire world is not entitled to come here whenever they want.

[johnnyjohnzelsolopodcaster]

I grew up in the USA and slept in a car off and on through out my child hood and went to bed cold and hungry and my mom worked two jobs I watched her fall asleep on the road every morning taking me to school worrying that she would crash n die on her way to work making it hard to focus on school so can us American born kids get some credit for our triumpths instead of putting immigrants on a Pettle stool

[charleshewitt]

Sad that in 6 years, there are only 850 likes.

[lauragiammatteo]

How wonderful that you can share your knowledge and teach us.!!!! I am so worried about what happens to animals in general!!!

[zbig]

Asylum (a tree uprooted and upsidedown) economic immigrant ( defoilated tree.)

[JunLealYanome]

Hello Miss Nazario, your lecture was very interesting but I would like to bring out some points I consider are wrongly directed, if you could put it that way. First, you mention that "corrupt mexican police" is grabbing the immigrants that are traveling on trains and killing them, when on the other hand, you say that the strongest gangs in Honduras are killing their own people, so which one is it? To my opinion, these are two separate issues that should be treated like such. Another issue here is the funds that are being given to Mexico to prevent immigrants from crossing the border over to the U.S. This fact does not ensure or guarantee that its going to happen, when we are forced to a certain situation, in this case SURVIVAL, we will do anything possible to get to where we want to go and start our survival plan, which is getting a job so we can continue providing for our families. Thank you for reading. Best Regards.

[marieconstant]

NAPLES FLORIDA DAVID LAURANCE GRACE GRACE