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Immigration And Immigration

Decent Essays

Immigration laws have changed throughout the centuries. During the 1900’s there was a literacy test. It tested people’s ability to read and write it also served as a prerequisite, in which potential citizens were chosen to vote and serve in the armed forces. The literacy tests were a way in which the government could manipulate their anti-rage against immigrants. To many non-informed Americans, it was a way of regulating the immigration process. Immigration has always been a heated topic for many people in the United States. It continues to be the thing Americans can’t really fix in terms that all parties can agree.
To begin, the main issue in the editorial of “The Immigration Law,” published by the New York Times was about creating a new system in which the literacy test was not the only thing taken into consideration. An issue with the central focus of the literacy test is that it doesn’t gear its focus to what is important such as the person’s criminal background. A question that remains unanswered to me by this editorial is, how did this literacy test protect or benefit the United States? The person’s literacy skills shouldn’t be the main qualification to the path to becoming an American citizen. I strongly believe the literacy test fails to determine one’s history of violence. As stated in the editorial, “The alien who can conquer his thirty to forty words, in ordinary use and plainly legible print, may import a household of illiterates.” This goes to show that yes,

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