Hope for Undocumented Immigrants

Today, illegal immigration is one of the biggest issues in several countries, such as the United States, Germany, and Sweden. People are running away from war and moving to countries so they can start a new life filled with happiness. However, moving to a foreign country illegally is still an issue and is hurting the economy of several countries. The US. presidential election for 2016 will be held in a couple of months, so how will the future president act to end this issue without hurting the economy and some of the peaceful undocumented immigrants. There are around 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States, who are taking away jobs and resources from the US. citizens. Therefore, the United States should take actions to prevent the arrival of any future illegal immigrants and make the current illegal immigrants permanent residents for the next 10 years so they can prove their loyalty to become US citizens.

The origin of illegal immigration started at the end of the nineteenth century. A federal law was passed in 1975, which barred the entry of prostitutes and convicts. Then, President Chester prohibited the entry of all Chinese immigrants to the United States. Although this action affected only a small percentage of immigrants, thus causing a distinction between illegal and legal immigrants. In 1892, the New York portal of immigrants, Ellis Island, “became the nation’s premier federal immigration state” (End Illegal Immigration). In the early 20th century, around 23 million immigrants entered the United States from all over the world. This caused Congress to pass a law, Quota law, that reduced immigration to around 350,000 a year. Then, Congress kept reducing the number of immigrants until 1929, when immigration was cut to around 150,000. However, the United States left the door open for Mexican and Northern Europeans: this legal immigration led to illegal immigration. Edward Dowell, vice-president of the California Federation of Labor, “estimated that while 67,000 Mexicans entered the U.S. legally the prior year, many times that number entered illegally” (End Illegal Immigration). Then, around 1,000,000 Mexicans were deported during the Great Depression. President Hoover believed that undocumented immigrants were taking jobs from Americans: President Hoover said, we should deport the “undesirable aliens.” In the early 1940s, a huge number of illegal immigrants started immigrating because of wars. In other words, illegal immigration is still a big issue in the United States by taking jobs from citizens and raising taxes.

“No man is above the law and no man is below it” (Theodore Roosevelt). Illegal immigrants, who are not following the law and respecting this country, should be punished by deporting them back to their countries. Some of the illegal immigrants don’t follow the law, by not working on improving themselves and causing problems. Therefore, the United States should deport them so they don’t commit any further crimes and keep the United States safe for all Americans. FoxNews.com found that “the estimated 11.7 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. account for 13.6 percent of all offenders sentenced for crimes committed in the U.S.” (Zimmerman, “Elusive Crime”). Most of the illegal immigrants who are sentenced for crimes are in deportation proceedings. Also, FoxNews.com reveals the reason why states don’t share this information with its citizens: “These numbers would expose how serious the problem is and make the government look bad” (Zimmerman, Elusive Crime). In addition, illegal immigrants, who don’t have the pride to become Americans, should be deported too: “all the graffiti, the trash–they don’t take any pride in this country, gangs, drugs. If you come to this great nation and work and go to school and obey the laws, but if you’re here to cause problems, go somewhere else” (Moons, Latino Immigrant). Clearly, some of the immigrants left their houses and neighbors, to live in a warm, safe house with their family. The United States shouldn’t deport undocumented immigrants, who are willing to work. However, some of the undocumented immigrants are causing troubles by not following the law and being criminals. Therefore, the United States should not allow them to stay in the United States for the safety of our citizens.

The United States is known around the world as the country of freedom. Therefore, the United States should not deport all of the Illegal immigrants. Undocumented immigrants, who came from dictator countries, such as Mexico, left their countries to live in a democratic country, like the U.S. There are some undocumented immigrants who are contributing to the economy of the United States and willing to work really hard to make a better life for their families. For example, the movie A Better Life talks about Louis, a Mexican father, who works hard in the United States, even though he’s an undocumented immigrant. The father was a good person in his community, and he never tried to steal or commit any kind of crimes. However, he was sent to jail for couple weeks then was deported for driving a car without a license. The father needed a car to start his own business, but he didn’t have a license because of his illegal immigrant status. This movie shows a powerful scene of the father saying goodbye to his son before couple hours from his deportation. Another example of a hard working immigrant is Jose Vargas, who is a famous writer, filmmaker, and immigration activist in the United States. Vargas shared his experience as an illegal immigrant in today’s America. First, he talked about how expensive it is to submit documents for citizenship. Second, he talked about the time when he wrote in the New York Times that he’s an undocumented immigrant to show how immigration is an actual issue in the US: he wrote ”I’m American, just not legally.” Vargas believes that some of the undocumented immigrants should not be deported because their circumstances made them work harder for themselves and to improve their community. Vargas and I agree that the United States should keep and protect some of the illegal immigrants because they’re also good for the economy. Finally, the United States should consider some of the illegal immigrants’ kids who were born in the US and can make a difference to the world if they were educated. For example, Steve Jobs, an American information technology entrepreneur and inventor, was adopted by a family in California. Jobs’ biological dad, was a Syrian migrant, who believed in education but he didn’t have enough money to raise him. Jobs was adopted by a family who educated and surrounded him with love. Jobs changed the world after inventing a couple generations of iphones. Clearly, the United States should keep immigrants, who are contributing to the economy and willing to work hard for their families.

“The U.S. immigration laws are bad – really, really bad. I’d say treatment of immigrants is one of the greatest injustices done in our government’s name” (Bill Gates). Therefore, the United States should come up with a new law that benefits immigrants who are willing to work and deport immigrants who are causing troubles in the US. The law would state the following: in order to become an American citizen, the current undocumented citizens who are willing to work should be given a Green Card (a proof that its holder, is a lawful permanent resident ) for 10 years instead of 5 years. There are lots of immigrants who can’t work because of their status as undocumented immigrants. However, immigrants should be required to show improvements in their lives in order to become American citizens. Also, illegal immigrants should prove that they’re peaceful immigrants, are willing to follow the constitution when they become citizens, and have pride to become US citizens. Finally, immigrants who are criminals and are not willing to follow the rules should be immediately deported because the safety of US citizens is quite important. Although there are illegal immigrants who are criminals and deserve to be deported from the US, there are others who are willing to work to start a new life.

The United States should take actions to end immigration issues because immigration is a long, rocky, and dirty path for all immigrants and illegal immigrants. In 2012, I was lucky enough to get a Visa to visit my uncle and cousins whom I had not seen for years. The crisis got worse in Syria and I couldn’t go back to my native country. Therefore, my family decided to submit some documents for asylum. During this time, my family and I were given TPS, temporary protected status. Although I never experienced the feeling of being an illegal immigrant, my life was filled with fear from not knowing whether or not we would be granted asylum or forced to return to my country. I started my school year at Falmouth High School asking myself if it’s worth it to work hard and learn this language or not: simply because I didn’t know if our documents were going to get rejected or not. However, after a year, we granted asylum, and that gave me the motivation to work extremely hard to become a successful student at Falmouth High School. Obtaining asylum made me feel like I belonged to this place and it made me care more about what’s going on around me. In other words, there are some immigrants who have similar stories and are willing to work hard to make a new life. Therefore, the United States shouldn’t consider all immigrants as criminals and deport all of them. Moving to a new country and going through the process of immigration can be one of the immigrants most stressful decisions, and they might not be happy about being illegal immigrants but war forces them to think more about their kids.

Clearly, illegal immigration is an issue in several countries after the crisis in Syria and Libya. People are running away from the destruction and looking for a place to start a better life. For example, “German police said they had arrested 57,000 illegal immigrants in 2014, an increase of 75 per cent compared to 2013” (Huggler, “Illegal Immigration to Germany”). In Sweden, “some 163,000 migrants applied for asylum in Sweden in 2015, the highest per capita number in Europe” (EU Migrant Crisis). In other words, war and the spread of blood are what is causing the increase of illegal immigrants. There are lots of people, such as Aboud Shalhoub, a Syrian jeweler, “who keeps trying to travel to Europe illegally so he can apply for asylum, and submit paperwork for family reunification” (Taub, “The Journey from Syria”). The coming presidential election can change the world by electing a new president who can take actions to end the bloodshed that is causing people to travel illegally. US. citizens can take actions in several ways to end immigration. For example, citizens can vote for a president who can use the power of his office in a positive way. Furthermore, citizens, who are teachers, workers, and students can take actions by writing what they believe is right. Personally, as a student, I learned that one of the ways to end illegal immigration is by writing poems that encourage people and countries to end the spread of bloodshed in the Middle East. For example, one of my poems is called Save the World and it says:

Open your eyes,

and look what happened to the world.

There is no light,

and no love.

The water doesn’t look the same—-

it’s not clear anymore.

It turned into blood from people’s hate

and it’s spreading around the world.

If we don’t stop it,

many people will die

including kids

who will drink it instead of water.

People are running from the destruction to live in a safe place. Therefore, US citizens should support a law that would protect illegal immigrants, who are peaceful and willing to work.

Works cited

A Better Life. Dir. Chris Weitz. Perf. Demián Bichir, José Julián, and Eddie ‘Piolin’

Sotelo. Eric Eason, 2011. Film.

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<http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/boom-donald-trump-announces-5-point-plan-

about-illegal-immigration/>.

Davidson, Adam. “Do Illegal Immig rants Actually Hurt the U.S. Economy?” The New

York Times. The New York Times, 16 Feb. 2013. Web. 30 Apr. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/magazine/do-illegal-immigrants-actually-hurt-the-us-economy.html?_r=0>.

“EU Migrant Crisis: Sweden May Reject 80,000 Asylum Claims.” BBC News. N.p., n.d.