VOA慢速英语2014 前美国移民局官员抨击移民政策

 

AS IT IS 2014-07-23 Former Agent Blames Politics for US Immigration Crisis 前美国移民局官员抨击移民政策

The American government says people in Central America are coming to the United States because they believe they will be permitted to stay if they claim they are refugees escaping violence.

But this is not true.

A former U.S. immigration officer says actions being taken by Border Patrol agents at the U.S.-Mexico border may be causing people to believe differently.

The Obama administration says as many as 90,000 children might try to enter the United States illegally from Mexico this year.

Why so many?

Former U.S. Immigration Special Agent Hipolito Acosta says U.S. law might be the reason.

“When individuals enter the country illegally and they are issued a notice to appear at a later date for an immigration hearing, the likelihood is that they are not going to appear.”

Mr. Acosta says more federal agents are needed to find people who do not come to court when ordered.

He says family members in the United States who pay to smuggle¹ their children into the country should be held responsible.

“If that family member is in the country illegally, we must reunite them with the children that entered the country.  And they must all be placed in deportation² proceedings³ and ultimately removed from the country.”

?Mr. Acosta says he crossed the border illegally many times when he worked as a Border Patrol agent.

“I was the first agent in the history of our agency who went to Mexico and actually got smuggled⁴ all the way from Mexico to the interior cities in the United States.”

Mr. Acosta wrote a book called “The Shadow Catcher.”  In the book, he tells about the times when he made people think he was an immigrant.  Police call this “going undercover.”  He also writes about when he spoke⁵ in court against smugglers and people who abused immigrant children.

Mr. Acosta grew up in a Mexican-American community near the border in Texas.  He speaks English and Spanish.  He says immigrants should respect U.S. law.

“Certainly, I can understand somebody wanting to make a better way of life.  But I expect them to go and do it the right way.”

Mr. Acosta says some politicians are not trying to solve the problem.  He says some of them use the immigration issue to gain political support.

“I think they should put those things aside and do what is best for the country.”

Mr. Acosta says Congress should pass an immigration reform bill that would allow people from Central America and Mexico to work in the United States temporarily.  He says the law also should punish employers who let undocumented immigrants work in their companies.

1 smuggle   

vt.私运；vi.走私

参考例句：

• Friends managed to smuggle him secretly out of the country.朋友们想方设法将他秘密送出国了。
• She has managed to smuggle out the antiques without getting caught.她成功将古董走私出境，没有被逮捕。

2 deportation   

n.驱逐，放逐

参考例句：

• The government issued a deportation order against the four men.政府发出了对那4名男子的驱逐令。
• Years ago convicted criminals in England could face deportation to Australia.很多年以前，英国已定罪的犯人可能被驱逐到澳大利亚。

3 proceedings   

n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
• to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼

4 smuggled   

水货

参考例句：

• The customs officer confiscated the smuggled goods. 海关官员没收了走私品。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Those smuggled goods have been detained by the port office. 那些走私货物被港务局扣押了。 来自互联网

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。