Close Reading #3 -Nov.18- "New Hope on Immigration"

"New Hope on Immigration" http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/opinion/sunday/new-hope-on-immigration.html?ref=editorials&_r=0 

In the article "New Hope on Immigration, according to the author, Obama had promised that he would deal with immigration in his first term and failed to do so. The author believes that now that Obama has been reelected, he has a second chance to work with immigration laws, and now it's even better since the Republicans are now on board. The author of the article uses the literary techniques diction, details, and syntax to  try to show the audience that President Obama has an opportune moment to reform, and that many are now in favor of reform, including some that may have previously been against it.

In the first paragraph of the article, the diction used shows the audience how the Republicans were strongly against unauthorized immigrants and thought of them poorly, but are now allowing some change. The author writes "unauthorized immigrants are an invading army of job stealers, welfare moochers and criminals whose only acceptable destiny is to be caught and deported". The words "stealers", "moochers" and "criminals" are normally used to describe people that take from others, giving off a negative feeling. This makes the audience believe that the Republicans thought that all illegal immigrants were no good. The author also writes "Senators like John McCain and Lindsey Graham, who once bravely supported bipartisan reform but slunk away late in the last Bush administration, are scratching at the door again, as if the last five years never happened". When the author uses the word "slunk" it gives of an impression of shying or quietly slipping away, as if McCain and Graham slowly dropped their support despite what they previously thought. The use of the word "Scratching" gives off the feeling of eagerness, showing the audience how McCain and Graham were glad to be able to support reform, forgetting about their 5 years of silence.

The details that were put into the article show how Obama has a good opportunity for reform. The author writes "All it took was an election in which millions of Latino voters — many of them the wives and husbands, sons, daughters, grandchildren, cousins, co-workers and friends of those despised “illegals” — overwhelmingly chose President Obama over the man who promised to be deporter in chief. They rejected Mitt Romney by 3 to 1, according to exit polls. Asian-Americans did, too. Republicans looked at a changing America, saw a future of decline and irrelevance for the party, and concluded that immigrants weren’t so bad after all.". By adding the detail about how Obama has strong support by many, including the Republican party, the author shows the audience that the idea of reform is a popular among a large amount of the population, and so Obama wouldn't meet much resistance when trying to work with immigration laws. Another set of details that were added to the article show how useless immigration enforcement is. The author writes "Illegal border crossings and arrests at the border have fallen to the lowest levels in decades.". Through this detail, the author shows the audience that because the number of illegal immigrants have fallen, we don't need to waste money on unnecessary enforcement.

Lastly, the syntax in the article gives of a feeling of accusation. The author writes "The hard-liners against reform — including the white-culture alarmists and the closet racists — have not gone away.". By adding the groups against reform in the middle of the sentence, the audience feels as if the author is accusing them of not wanting change. It's as if the author has to stop mid-sentence just to turn and state the groups through his teeth. Same goes for the sentence: "Now he needs to think bigger and better, and look to the large constituency behind reform — student activists, business groups, farmers, labor unions, Catholic bishops, evangelical churches, African-Americans, civil-liberties organizations and regular American citizens who support legalization — to press the case.". The author emphasizes the large amount support by listing all supporters in the middle of the sentence. This shows to the audience the opposing amounts of supporters and those that are resistant.

Overall, the author shows the audience that reform is popular among many, and Obama is now in a great position to begin making changes through their use of literary techniques. It's clear in the article that the author believes that Obama should work on immigration reform, and many even be trying to get the audience to believe that as well.