preview

Illegal Immigration Research Paper

Decent Essays

With President Trump’s recent pledge to be harsher on illegal immigration, coupled with the rise in arrests and deportations made, my nightmare of finding my parents in detention and awaiting deportation is solidifying. For these last couple of months, while the house sleeps, I imagine different scenarios. Assuming I was still a minor, my younger brother and I would be sent with my parents. Dreams of attending a top-rate American university would be muted. What would happen if they were deported once I was eighteen? Assuming I was already in college, I would keep my brother and myself in America, taking legal guardianship of him. If that happened, I would have to transfer from my university to one closer to home and start working to maintain …show more content…

The point, however, is that with such an impervious action not only would the life of my parents forever change, but also those of my brother and me. It’s not realistic to imagine that individuals can be plucked from their homes, their neighborhoods, their cities without some ripple effect. Now, I acknowledge both sides of the illegal immigration issue. I realize that Americans stigmatize the general immigrant population as competition for jobs and benefits. In addition, the public misconceives that illegal immigrants are criminals (when in fact the crime rate among immigrants is lower than the native population). I also realize that immigrants are an economic boon. Finally, regardless of how they became “illegal”, I realize that these immigrants have families (like mine), have lives (like mine), and have opportunities (like mine). With such a personal connection to this issue, I find myself defending these immigrants to a broad audience. A couple weeks ago, I attended my school’s Model UN meeting concerning illegal immigration. While feeling grateful to find peers with similar opinions, I was still shocked to hear those who would, without hesitation, deport immigrants like my parents. Perhaps their point of view lacked a real-world context, so I decided to give them the benefit of doubt. At the time, however, I resisted from sharing my

Get Access