Immigration has been part of my life since the day I was born. My family had emigrated here from
Mexico about forty years ago. The purpose of my grandfather’s journey to the
U.S., particularly Chicago, was because he wanted his family to have endless opportunities. He wanted to support my family and give them what they deserved. This is where the business began. He opened a Mexican restaurant with his brother in order to save up enough money to bring his family over. One by one, my aunts, uncles, mom, and grandmother arrived. They all worked and helped at the restaurant upon arriving. To this day, they are still working in the business or have opened their own restaurants. As years passed, each and every one of my family members became citizens and are all now legal citizens. This is a great example of immigrants that are here for a purpose; for a chance to start new. No one is a “real” citizen of the
U.S. except for the Native Americans. If you look back far enough, to when
Columbus landed on the
New World, Native Americans had already settled here. Technically, everyone is an immigrant. So how does one immigrant tell another they are not allowed? My opinion against immigration is open border policy.
Immigrants want to attain a job in the
U.S. because they get paid more even though to others, it’s barely anything. Compared to what they receive in their home countries, it’s definitely worth traveling. They want their families to have a better and safer life. Immigrants work hard and do the dirty jobs that Americans don’t wish to take. They bust their backs and can’t afford to miss a day of work. The fact that they push away hard working human beings is demeaning. I do agree that there are a few bad apples in the tree but it doesn’t mean that every single apple is.
Many Americans are angry that immigrants are taking their jobs away from them. ”Illegal immigrants desperate for any job unfairly depresses the wages and working conditions offered to American workers, hitting hardest at minority workers and those without high school degrees,”(Illegal Immigration).
The articles states that illegal immigrants are working with a very small wage and it’s straining to the Americans. They obviously want a better wage then what they’re working for and companies won’t hire them. They know they could find any immigrant to work for a small amount. Truth is, many citizens don’t even want the jobs because some are dirty. Owners of companies know that immigrants wouldn’t miss a day of work because they can’t afford it. Going back to hundreds of years ago, not every one was or is a “real” citizen. If you really look back at your family tree, you could see it. Somehow, everyone arrived from different countries at one point. What about
Columbus that came from
Europe? Since then, many have migrated to the U.S. Everyone has a background of different ethnicities so no one can really say they’re citizens. So how does that make one immigrant tell another to get out of the country? If they had the opportunity to come here and start a life and later on become citizens legally, then so should immigrants who are trying to come into our land now. Opposing sides may say that they all did it legally and are now full citizens. They paid their dues and are now legal.
Immigrants are now working hard in order to raise enough money to pay for all the legal papers they need in order to become citizens. It is a costly transition that they need to overcome. But if they come from countries that are poor and they can’t raise enough money, then how can they pull through? “In 1990 the
US citizenship application fee was $90. Today the
US citizenship application fee is $695. That’s six hundred and ninety-five dollars,” (Immigration Direct). They need the jobs and money in order to receive citizenship. Give them a chance to collect what they need.
Pursuit of happiness is something that every single human being longs for. They want an opportunity to raise their families in a safe environment. They want their children to receive the greatest education they could possibly have. Unfortunately, second and third world countries don’t have the privileges that we have here regarding education and jobs. If immigrants have the opportunity to come and they really want to learn and assimilate to our culture, why throw them out? They are trying their hardest to blend in but again, they don’t want their culture to dissolve. “We drew maps of grocery store aisles and took a field trip to Safeway. We studied bus routes and U.S. currency. For Thanksgiving, we baked a pumpkin pie” (Manry). The article is about an English teacher who teaches immigrants how to speak English. She ends up getting attached to all of her students and teaches them how to interpret bills and their children’s report cards. One day, she arrives to class with more than half her students gone. It turned out that they all got deported because they raided their job. Immigrants like these that try their hardest to assimilate shouldn’t be punished. Others say that immigrants are costly to legal citizens because we pay for their health care and they don’t pay for taxes. Truth is, we also pay for criminals to be sent to jail. I believe that it’s better to pay for hard workers rather than criminals.
As you can see, many immigrants try their hardest in order to assimilate to this country. They want an opportunity to attain a job and raise their family. If that’s not the case, then they want to raise enough money to send to their families back home. Whatever the case is, they work harder than many in order to raise what little money they get. Not all immigrants are drug dealers and smugglers. Some are here for the wrong reason and are putting a bad name on the ones who are here for a great reason. Don’t let the bad apples corrupt your opinions. Many just want a chance to start fresh and get the education their countries couldn’t give them. I believe that there should be an open border policy because every human being deserves a chance. Not one race should be excluded from the pursuit of happiness.
