Path To Citizenship: Unocumented Immigrants

If it were up to you, and you had the choice whether or not to give undocumented citizens a chance at citizenship, would you? Many people believe that they should not have a chance at citizenship because they came here illegally. Every person has their own opinion on this topic. This debate is one of many debates going on in between the candidates or even the politicians, but of course they all have their own views and reasons on it. Everyone should consider that they should because either we are hurting families or they can help improve our economy. In the next three paragraphs this argument will be influencing you to side with my claim, that undocumented citizens should get a pathway to citizenship.

Jamiel Shaw, Jr. was shot and killed March 2, 2008. His life, at the age of seventeen, was not taken by any ordinary individual, but by an unauthorized immigrant abiding in the United States. This was not his first offense either; he was on his third gun charge the day he murdered Shaw. Instead of being deported right away after his first offense, he was sent right back out onto the streets. Jamiel Shaw, Sr. claims that his “family’s peace and freedom were stolen by an illegal alien from Mexico” and also believes that Congress is “not securing the border” (“Illegal Immigrants and Crime”). Under the Dream Act, this criminal would have been rewarded with legalization. In what way does this illegal migrant deserve citizenship and legal status?

There are many vulnerable populations within the United States. One of the many vulnerable populations are undocumented immigrants. Undocumented immigrants also known as illegal immigrants according to Wikipedia (2016) is defined as “the migration of people across national boarders in a way that violates the immigration laws of the destination country” (para 1). The United States of America has one of the largest population of immigrants. In this paper, I will be discussing the multiple stressors related to undocumented immigrants as well as the programs that can be used to help alleviate those stressors.

Providing a path to citizenship has been labeled as granting amnesty. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan introduced an amnesty plan similar to the one being proposed as a solution for America’s current immigration problems. The 1986 bill required immigrants to prove they were

Guarding the Golden Door by Roger Daniels provides an overall clarification of the immigration system in the United States throughout the past and in latest policies. Ever since 1882, America claimed that the settlement objective was to prevent it from occurring, although it permitted the complete opposite. Thus, the single factual policy that has been realistic to American immigration is that it is on a constant twist of shifting policies, which are changed according to the present nature of inexpensive employment for American manufacturing demands. Almost all of the American immigration policy has been shaped by people that did not comprehend the outcomes of the tactics they badly tried to generate, and who made open door policies simply to close them.

As the number of illegal immigrants entering the United States begins to increase once more, the issue of allowing or prohibiting immigrants to gain temporary status in order to obtain work continues to create national problems. According to a report given by the Department of Homeland Security, it is estimated that the number of immigrants entering the U.S. is at about 1.1 million people per year. (Hanson Par. 1) These individuals come into the United States in search of better living conditions and opportunities. However, these immigrants face challenges when it comes to work and other types of living.

There are millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States, many of whom are Latinos. Americans today tend to believe that undocumented immigrants are: rapist, drug traffickers, live off the welfare and come to the United States to take American’s jobs. Indeed, American employers are hiring, so jobs are there, but the American people are not doing them. Therefore, someone must do the hard labor that no one wants. Many Latinos immigrate to the United States looking towards a better future for their families. They come with a positive perspective that their children are going to have a better life and are not going to experience any injustices. For many decades, white Americans have oppressed and marginalized undocumented immigrants because

Many Latinos from Central America, South America, and Mexico have sacrificed their lives to immigrate to the United States to have a better life. Many have immigrated legally and many more have immigrated illegally. They all have a hope for what is called the American Dream. The ideal life that every United States citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success through hard work and education, determination and initiative. Latino Immigrants come to America for this hope, to have a good life, to have great education, to have rights, opportunities and so much more. Legal Latino immigrants have these opportunities and they don’t have to go through struggles and obstacles as much as illegal immigrants. Undocumented immigrants have always been the target for American government. They have always struggled with finding jobs, keeping a job, not getting paid enough, their educations, health services and so much more. The main purpose of this paper is the struggles and obstacles of undocumented Latino immigrants who have migrated to United States through education.

The Heritage Foundations, Tim Kane, Ph.D., writes “America’s exceptional status as a ‘nation of immigrants’ is being challenged by globalization. The biggest challenge for policy makers is to distinguish illusory immigration from real problem. The supported approach from recent years ‘a policy of benign neglect’ is no longer an option.” Members from the Senate and House of Representatives both recognize this and should be given credit for their efforts to craft this proposed comprehensive law which today, is known as the ‘Amnesty Plan.’ I strongly agree with this ‘Amnesty Plan’ and feel it needs to be pushed through due to its solid pillars. Such as, having

Invisible workers are workers who are usually performing jobs or services that may be behind the scenes, unseen and unknown, maintaining a low profile to avoid detection. This country has many invisible workers and many of them are here as undocumented workers. The jobs they do and services they perform help to keep our society running smoothly in many cases. Often they do not get credit for the work that they do, but in many cases, we could not get along without them. Many of the jobs the undocumented workers perform are jobs that no one else wants to do, such as work in sanitation, janitorial, construction, etc. Because of the nature of many of these jobs, a number of them are performed by those who are here without benefit of legal documentation.

The purpose of this paper is to show that undocumented immigrant population has been decreasing in America. Immigration especially undocumented immigration has been a political issue over the years. The author Robert Warren, served as a demographer for thirty-four years with United States Bureau and former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). He has written and contributed to many other reports dealing with immigration and unauthorized immigration. In his paper he shows different graphs and charts to support statistics and facts. A major finding in Warren paper is that the undocumented population of the majority of US states declined after 2008; however, 11 states reached their maximum population in 2014, including Texas. Another major

Birthright citizenship is when citizenship is automatically granted to children who are born in the United States of America. Basically, all children born in the US receive automatic citizenship regardless if their parents are born in the US or from other countries.

The question of birthright citizenship, can be one of America’s hotly debated topic; that is next to illegal immigration which it is married. “Birthright Citizenship”, addresses the children born outside the country of their parent’s legal residence, and this is not just an American issue. While this previous statement, does not specify state illegal immigration, which appears to be some of the debate of this issue, during political season this does become a talking point in political circles.

Birthright citizenship causes many problems for the American society. The first major issue is that it causes a bad chain reaction. Once the child has citizenship, it makes it harder to deport the parents, who are still illegal aliens. This becomes a moral dilemma when the parents are breaking the law and their child is stuck here. Having a baby is beneficial for the parents, because it gives them a better chance of gaining citizenship. The chain reaction starts when the family starts inviting their extended family and inlaws to take advantage of this loophole in the constitution. This means that more undocumented immigrants have an incentive to come to America and break the law.

Citizens who are born in the United States sometimes take advantage of the system and are still considered “citizens.” This is unfair for the immigrants who work, pay taxes and are trying to become a citizen of the state, but have to go through a long and complex process. However, others say that immigrants come here illegally into the country are breaking the law, but most of these immigrants are desperate to start another life and earn money to send back home. Also immigrants do not understand the slow and long processes to be allowed in another country.