Ben Carson, Secretary of Urban Development and Housing, had a meeting on Monday, March 6 where he referred to slaves as immigrants. Many critics have commented on his remarks on social media platforms like Twitter.

There has been so much controversy because he compared slaves and immigrants. People have felt the need to share how they feel about this since it is a very touchy subject.

According to 9th grader Joseph Kallan, “No, immigrants are people that came here by choice. Period.”

In order to debate this further, a distinction between an immigrant and a slave is even though it is pretty simplistic.

Slave: a person who is the legal property of another and is forced to obey them.

Immigrant: a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country.

The popular belief is that slaves are not immigrants but there are some that say otherwise.

According to 9th grader Joseph Cabeza, “No, because immigrants came here by choice for a better life meanwhile slaves were forced here into a country that they didn’t know or care about.”

Immigrants are usually perceived to have come here for a better life.

According to Ms. Figueroa, “Technically, they are immigrants because they now reside in a foreign country. While slaves can be considered a type of immigrant, they are not synonymous to each other.”

Even though it is a popular belief that as long as people move to another country they are considered immigrants. Many believe that immigrants can still be considered immigrants if they didn’t go by choice. This is what Ben Carson believes, he calls slaves involuntary immigrants. An involuntary immigrant is a person who went to live to another country by force.

Ben Carson stated on Facebook that he said that immigrants came here, but slaves were forced here. Giving this distinction justifies what he had previously said.

According to Joseph Cabeza, “I think it’s wrong comparing slaves to immigrants because he’s trying to say that slavery is justifiable.”

Justification of an issue is usually purely based on opinions so some people believe that an issue can be justified but others believe that it can’t.

According to Ms. Figueroa, “No it is not justifiable because he comparing people who did not have a choice to emigrate to those who did it having one. They were not coming here out of their own free will, they were slaves.”

Society today has been becoming more liberal so that means being fair to others and speech that sounds discriminating is now usually looked down upon. This is proven by what happened throughout the interview, out of 3 people interviewed, 2 believed that slaves are immigrants.

This is not the first time the public has been upset with what a politician said and it won’t be the last. Politicians should watch what they say in order to be beneficial for everybody and to make connections. With a good relationship the country can run itself smoothly.