Immigrant or Not, When On American Soil We All Have Rights

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A lot of people argue that immigrants should not have the same rights as an American citizen, but that idea is not so American, is it? America is known as the land of the free,but if people who come here to make a life for themselves, legally, are denied of their rights we are selling false hope. When the Constitution was written, the founding fathers had everyone in mind, but now people are starting to tweak that idea. If memory serves well, the 5th Amendment explicitly states that no person shall be be held to answer for a crime unless a jury is present nor should be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself. Note that it says no person, it does not say everyone excluding foreign nationals. One might argue that the Constitution does not apply to non-citizens but that is not necessarily true. The Bill of Rights, which is part of the Constitution, protects the rights of every human being on American soil. Now, if the subject of the matter were extraterritorial beings, this would be another argument. In an article by Macleod, she wrote a very important fact, “..a non-citizen is informed of her rights after the interrogation” (13). What does not make sense is the fact that non-citizens are interrogated and questioned like any other suspect would but without the rights. That is ridiculous. People may argue that terrorists who are sometimes non-citizens definately do not deserve these Miranda Rights, but what happened to the “innocent until proven guilty ” concept? In some cases, those so called “terrorists” are victims, just innocent people who were set up. Emily Bazelon brought up a controversial point, “Republicans in Congress denounced the Obama administration for going soft” (9). Although this statement w... ... middle of paper ... ...Care That No One’s Reading Dzhokhar His Miranda Rights?” Slate.com. The Slate Group, 19 April. 2013. Web. 20 Feb. 2014. Karns, Stephen P. "Rights of the Accused in Military Proceedings." Rights of the Accused in Military Proceedings. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2014. Macleod-Bell, Kristin. “Immigrants Deserve Miranda- Like Warnings When Arrested.” Immigration Impact. Immigration Impact, 28 Feb. 2013. Web. 20 Feb. 2014 “Do Noncitizens Have Constitutional Rights?” Slate.com. The Slate Group, 27 Sep. 2001. Web. 22 March. 2014. Tanton, John. “Illegal Aliens Should Not Have The Same Rights Of Citizens.” The Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor, n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2014. Zennie, Michael. "Bin Laden's Son-in-law Claims He Was Disoriented during Interrogation. Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 09 Oct. 2013. Web. 22 Mar. 2014.

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