The American Dream And Immigration
When I was younger the immigration issue never crossed my mind. I never knew that some people in America weren’t citizens and that people wanted to immigrate here. As I have grown up and started college I hear this issue come up more and more. Then when I saw headlines and videos about people being deported after living here for 30 years with no criminal charges and heard my friends talk about their struggles with immigration I have kindled a passion about this subject. There are real issues related to immigration. Immigration laws should be changed in order to assist people who are undocumented in the US and persons seeking citizenship from other countries in order for them to immigrate legally, in a timely manner, and in a safe way. I hear the same story all the time. People who have lived in the US their whole lives since they were 3 years old face being deported to a place that is completely alien to them. If and when they are deported they have no one in that country and since they were not able to bring anything with them when they were stripped from the country they call home they are nothing there with no belonging. In their old country they are left stranded and often there is no support for these people from their government. These people often have their entire families here in the US and have built a life for themselves here by creating businesses and jobs. These people are not able to live off welfare so they do not come to milk the US of their programs and systems. They often create small businesses in order to be able to work or find construction jobs and other backbreaking work to create jobs for themselves and increase the US’s small business revenue. Children who have come here when they were very young are oblivious to their status here and learn when they are 16 that they are not documented. Many students do not feel the pressure of being on a protected legal status or being undocumented until they try to get a job, driving license or need a Social Security Number.
After this turning point in these student and children's lives they feel this sense of not belonging. One program in the US that is being ripped to shreds is Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. This program was very helpful and useful to these innocent children who wanted to be safe in the country they call home. Many people in the Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals program, a program that gives temporary citizenship to people who have come here as children, were protected at the time of signing the executive order to take it away are losing their DACA status every day. Almost 983 people lose their status every day. I cannot imagine how frightening living my life in the only country I know and being here on a protected status and then suddenly my status is stripped from me. Many of the kids and young adults in this program are in school and college and having your education threatened when you have already invested in it is the saddest and most unfair thing. These students should be able to live their lives as regular students and not have to live in fear of being pulled over for not putting a blinker and then being thrown back to a country that is completely alien to them.
“Twenty-year-old Alexis G. had been living in the United States almost his entire life when he was deported in June to Nuevo Laredo, south of the Rio Grande, to a country he barely knew. “My parents brought me to the US, and I grew up in the United States. If I were to sing an anthem right now, it would be the Star-Spangled Banner — I don’t know the Mexican anthem,” he said.” This real life scenario is a truth for many people in the United States that are not citizens. Some of the children and students who have come here do not even have a strong grasp on their countries language. Many of these people are struggling to become citizens and working hard to make it happen, but the process is not easy. The process of becoming a citizen is long and hard and very expensive. Many of the people who want to build a better lives from themselves and live the American Dream do not have the time and especially do not have the money to go through this extraneous process. These people bring many skills and often are willing to do the jobs in the US that many citizens would never be willing to do. Immigrants also have many skills, studies show that 25.3 percent of tech. and engineering business in America has a foreign-born founder. These businesses that immigrants have created generate billions in sales and create jobs right here in the US. Some studies show that immigrants raise the GDP by billions of dollars, although it is very difficult to judge whether immigrants raise the GDP because of the many factors.
The system for these people needs to be changed in order for people to thrive here. Some people believe that undocumented people steal American jobs and make the US a poorer and more dangerous country. That all the undocumented people are all drug dealing criminal rapists that raise the US crime rate and make the US an unsafe place. Some people also believe that many people come illegally to the US in order to get on welfare and ride the systems that the United States has in place for its citizens. Undocumented people actually cannot get on welfare because they have no US identification. Of course there will always be the bad apple of the bunch, but many people who risk their lives to come to the US and be undocumented are here to work hard and have and live the American Dream. Undocumented people are actually good for the US because they create jobs for themselves and work the hard uncoveted jobs.
In conclusion, immigration laws are moving backwards right now, programs are being stripped away and this is not beneficial for people who are ready to work hard for the US and it is not beneficial for the people in the US who are citizens. The immigration laws need to be changed to benefit these hard working students who want to be Americans and feel they already are. The immigration laws need to be changed to benefit the undocumented who work hard for a country that sees no value in them. We need to realize as Americans that in order for this country to be as great as we say it is we need these people. Enable people who want the American Dream and make America greater by supporting undocumented people who want to immigrate here and those who were in DACA and change the laws.
