Interest Groups

The issue I chose to focus on for my interest group research was immigration. I selected is immigration because it is extremely relevant today and affects lives of  not only Americans but people around the world. Immigration is a topic that people have many different views on because it is such a large issue but these views can for the most part be boiled down into two main categories: pro legal immigration and anti legal immigration.

Members of the pro immigration often believe that immigrants are people that are in need of help and it is our duty as people who live in a world power country to help them. Members that do not support immigration often argue that immigrants hurt our economy and before we can help them we must ensure that our country is at its most stable. Politically there are interest groups that represent both of these viewpoints. To get the full picture I looked at both a liberal and conservative interest group that focused on immigration.

Liberal Mission: Enact policy changes that guarantee rights for immigrants and their families Stabilize lives of immigrants waiting for citizenship Help acquire citizenship for immigrants

Conservative Mission: Reduce immigration levels over time Focus on American growth/quality of life

This is a retweet from the American Voice’s twitter that encompases the viewpoint of American Voice. It is a link to an article from The Hill that talks about the recipients of DACA’s positive impact on America and talking about how they are as American as people that were born in America.

This is a tweet from FAIR’s twitter that encompasses their viewpoint. It is a link to an article written by Fox News talking about Trump’s increased restrictions on immigration in response to a recent terrorist attack.

There are many differences and few similarities between these two interest groups and their objectives. Their goals are pretty much opposites, American Voice advocates for immigrants believes that they should be granted citizenship whereas FAIR believes that America should focus inwardly and decrease the amount of immigrants that are allowed into the country. Both show extreme bias towards their viewpoint and morals.

Interest groups influence the public’s perception on certain issues. They are a large source of information on the issues that are relevant to today's society and politics. They are a community for like minded individuals to come together and talk about issues that affect the nation as a whole.