SIGNIFICANCE

As of the 2000s, local networks of the GrayPanthers across the United States comprise a nationalorganization of members who call themselves ‘‘inter-generational activists dedicated to social change’’ at thelocal, state, and federal levels. The group deals withmore than just issues of the elderly, believing that theymust work to make the United States ‘‘a better place tolive for the young, the old, and everyone in between.’’

Many of its members are high school and collegestudents. Believing that neither the young nor the oldshould be ignored, disregarded, or discarded by therest of society, the Gray Panthers believe that teen-agers and the elderly should be given more responsi-bilities so as not to waste vast talents and experiences atboth ends of the age spectrum. The Gray Panthersrefute the notion that retirement is the only alternativefor the elderly. Kuhn personally believed that societyhas treated older persons as problems of society insteadof persons experiencing problems caused by society.She has fought to reverse that impression of olderpersons. Four issues that Kuhn and the GrayPanthers have promoted are the abolishment of forcedretirement, exposure of nursing home abuses, reformin the hearing aid industry, and bringing to light thestereotyping of older people in the media.

In 1978, the Gray Panthers helped to enact legis-lation called the Age Discrimination in EmploymentAct, which increased the mandatory retirement age inthe United States from sixty-five to seventy years inmost sectors of the economy. Then, in 1987, the Actabolished mandatory retirement altogether for mostpeople in the United States. (Some people still mustabide by mandatory retirement policies, such as pilots,bus drivers, and other such occupations where age hasbeen shown to be a valid occupational requirement.)

Beginning in 1977, the Gray Panthers founded theNational Citizens Coalition for Nursing Home Reformand, in 1977, produced the handbook ‘‘Nursing Homes:A Citizen’s Action Guide,’’ which exposed and docu-mented nursing home abuse.

In 1973, the Gray Panthers joined Ralph Nader’sRetired Professional Action Group to produce a docu-mentary called ‘‘Paying Through the Ear,’’ a report onhealth care issues for hearing. In 1982, the GrayPanthers worked with Nader’s Public Citizen to per-suade the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)to monitor and regulate the hearing aid industry withrespect to deceitful practices.

In 1975, the Gray Panthers began one of its mostimportant programs: the National Media Watch TaskForce. Members of the task force monitored howseniors were portrayed on television. When they

found inaccurate or offensive portrayals of older peo-ple, members relayed that information to the televisionbroadcasters in order to eliminate such portrayals ofolder people on television. They eventually succeededin convincing the National Association of Broadcastersto modify the Television Code of Ethics so that seniorswere treated with the same respect on the majornetworks as were being accorded to minorities andwomen.

At the age of sixty-five years, when she was sup-posed to retire, the hard-working and committedMaggie Kuhn founded the Gray Panthers. MaggieKuhn died on April 22, 1995—twenty-five years afterher (supposed) retirement. During her lifetime, Kuhnchampioned the fight for human rights, economic andsocial justice, international peace, integration, andmental health. She helped to change how societytreated and regarded the elderly. The Gray Pantherslives on after her death, helping to deal with policiesrelated to the elderly.

FURTHER RESOURCES

Books

Kuhn, Maggie. No Stone Unturned: The Life and Times ofMaggie Kuhn. New York: Ballantine Books, 1991.

Web sites

The Gray Panthers. <http://graypanthers.org> (accessed May31, 2006).

Public Broadcasting Service. ‘‘Maggie Growls: FilmmakerQ&A.’’ <http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/maggiegrowls/qanda.html> (accessed May 31, 2006).

Public Broadcasting Service. ‘‘The Gray Panthers: Panthers onthe Prowl.’’ <http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/maggiegrowls/panthers.html> (accessed May 31, 2006).

Protesting U.S.-Mexico BorderPolicy

Photograph

By: Denis Poroy

Date: October 1, 2004

Source: Poroy, Denis. ‘‘Protesting U.S.-Mexico BorderPolicy.’’ AP Images, October 1, 2004.

About the Photographer: Denis Poroy is a contributor toThe Associated Press, a worldwide news agency basedin New York.

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INTRODUCTION

The long history of Mexican migration to theUnited States is driven by poverty and a lack of jobsin Mexico, along with a consistently high level ofdemand for cheap labor from employers in theUnited States. Mexicans have entered the UnitedStates in massive numbers, some legally and some asundocumented immigrants, and they are believed toaccount for around half of all undocumented immi-grants living in the United States.

Over time, there have been variations in the patternof Mexican migration to the United States and in thepolicy initiatives that have attempted to control and legit-imize the flow of immigrants. Up until the late 1970s, themajority of Mexican migrants exhibited circular migra-tion patterns between the United States and their owncountry, entering the United States to work on a tempo-rary basis in farming and other seasonal industries. At thistime, a temporary laborer policy program was initiated tomeet the needs of employers and migrants alike. Fromthe 1980s onward, however, there have been a largenumber of Mexican migrants wishing to settle

permanently in the United States, and unprecedentednumbers have entered as undocumented immigrants.

Two major Immigration Acts have been passed inresponse to the increase in undocumented migration,especially from Mexico: the 1986 Immigration Reformand Control Act (IRCA) and the 1996 IllegalImmigration Reform and Immigrant ResponsibilityAct (IIRIRA). Both Acts have focused primarily onstrengthening the operations of the U.S. BorderControl, the enforcement arm of the Immigration andNaturalization Service (INS). In addition, the IRCAintroduced penalties for employers found to haveknowingly employed undocumented migrants, createda guest worker program for agricultural laborers andprovided an amnesty for undocumented migrants whowere already long-term U.S. residents. IIRIRA furtherstrengthened the provisions of the IRCA by increasingpenalties on undocumented migrants and humansmugglers, while at the same time changes were madein welfare legislation, which had the effect of excludingmany immigrants, both legal and undocumented, fromthe public benefits system.

Migrant activists lean against the border fence protesting nightly patrols by citizen volunteers who search for people crossing the US-

Mexico border. PHOTO BY DAVID MCNEW/GETTY IMAGES.

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Although undocumented migrants from Mexicoenter the U.S. in a variety of ways, many simply crossthe border by foot. Therefore, recent immigrationpolicies have included increasing the budget andemployee numbers of the U.S. Border Control, pro-viding it with advanced military equipment and con-structing more fences and ditches along the border.The strategy has been to implement specific opera-tions in selected areas known to be main crossingpoints for migrants. One of these is OperationGatekeeper, launched in the San Diego border regionin 1994. Other intensive border control operationshave been conducted in Texas and in central Arizona.The intended purpose of the operations was not onlyto apprehend undocumented migrants found crossingthe border but to act as a deterrent to other potentialmigrants. It was thought that the terrain along other

parts of the border was too harsh and the climate tooextreme for migrants to use as a crossing point. In fact,many migrants have been prepared to risk their livescrossing this inhospitable environment.

Although the border control operations appear tohave had some success in reducing border crossings,the overall number of undocumented migrants enter-ing the United States from Mexico remains high.Moreover, the border control activity has had theunintended consequences of redistributing bordercrossings to the more inhospitable areas of the borderand increasing the number of deaths among migrantswho succumb to the extremes of climate and environ-ment. They have also apparently led to an increase inthe use by migrants of agents or ‘‘coyotes’’ to help themfind a route into the United States, as well as the

n PRIMARY SOURCE

Protesting U.S.-Mexico Border Policy Marchers carry a casket along a section of the US-Mexico border in Tijuana to mark the 10th

anniversary of Operation Gatekeeper, October 1, 2004. AP IMAGES.

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development in Mexico of large-scale criminal activityin illegal trafficking of people.

n PRIMARY SOURCE

PROTESTING U.S.-MEXICO BORDER POLICY

See primary source image.

nnn

SIGNIFICANCE

Undocumented immigration, particularly fromneighboring Mexico, has long been one of the mainitems on the U.S. political agenda, and one that rousesconsiderable public interest and attention. Despite vari-ous policy initiatives designed to deter potential undo-cumented migrants, the overall numbers continue torise. A conservative estimate based on the 2002 censusput the total number of undocumented migrants in theUnited States at 9.3 million; since this is based on officialpopulation statistics, the true number is likely to be muchhigher and also may have risen considerably since 2002.

A key factor underlying the continuing high levelsof undocumented migration is that employers con-tinue to have a demand for low-cost labor, whichmigrants are prepared to provide, whether or notthey can enter the United States legally. Policiesdesigned to make entry to and settlement in theUnited States more difficult—such as increased bordercontrol and exclusion of migrants from welfare benefits—may have some deterrent effect but ultimately manymigrants will consider that it is worth taking the riskto escape even worse conditions at home.

In 2004, President George W. Bush announcedproposals for a guest-worker program under whichmigrants would be allowed to enter and work in theUnited States on a three-year, once renewable permit,and would be allowed to apply for green cards to enablethem to stay in the country. At the same time, thenumber of green cards issued to low-skilled workerswould be increased to accommodate the higher demand.The advantage of these proposals over previous guest-worker programs is that they take account of changingpatterns of migration in which seasonal border crossingsfor temporary work have been replaced by an increaseddemand for permanent settlement in the United States.If implemented, along with increased border securitymeasures proposed in 2006, their impact on actual levelsof undocumented migration and the number of bordercrossing deaths remains to be seen.

FURTHER RESOURCES

Books

Delaet, Debra L,. U.S. Immigration Policy in an Age of Rights.Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 2000.

Morto, Alexander. The Roots of Mexican Labor Migration.Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 1994.

Periodicals

Canales, Alejandro I. ‘‘Mexican Labour Migration to theUnited States in the Age of Globalisation.’’ Journal ofEthnic and Migration Studies 29 (2003).

Cornelius, Wayne A. ‘‘Controlling ‘Unwanted’ Immigration:Lessons from the United States, 1993–2004.’’ Journal ofEthnic and Migration Studies (July 7, 2005).

Griswold, Daniel T. ‘‘Confronting the Problem of IllegalMexican Migration to the U.S.’’ USA Today 131 (March2003).

Orreniou, Pia M. ‘‘Illegal Immigration and EnforcementAlong the U.S.-Mexico Border: An Overview.’’ Economic& Financial Review (January 1, 2001).

Pentagon Will ReviewDatabase on U.S. CitizensProtests Among Acts Labeled ‘‘Suspicious’’

Newspaper article

By: Walter Pincus

Date: December 15, 2005

Source: Pincus, Walter. ‘‘Pentagon Will Review Databaseon U.S. Citizens: Protests Among Acts Labeled‘‘Suspicious.’’ The Washington Post. December 15, 2005.

About the Author: Walter Pincus is the national securityreporter for the Washington Post, a daily newspaperbased in Washington, DC with a circulation of overfive million copies weekly.

INTRODUCTION

In December 2005, the television network NBCreported that it had obtained a secret 400 page data-base from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)listing what the military called ‘‘suspicious incidents’’across the United States. The list, known as theCornerstone database, was maintained by the Federalagency CIFA (Counterintelligence Field Activity).According to a 2003 report of the DoD to Congress,CIFA is charged with ‘‘identification and tracking ofterrorists and production of CI [counterintelligence]assessments and advisories and risk assessment in

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