Exploring the Path to Citizenship for Immigrants

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Should immigrants who have resided without documentation in the US for an extended period of time be granted amnesty/path to citizenship? Immigration hasn’t always been seen as a bad thing in America, but as the years go on it continues to be seen in a darker light. Originally, America was founded as a promising immigrant state. It was a place to avoid religious persecution, famines, and most importantly as a place to start a new life for one’s self and family. People journeyed from all over the world to get a glimpse of life in this new world. Early on it was mostly Europeans that traveled across the Atlantic sea for freedom, but then came the Asians who helped build important infrastructure like railroads and roads. Today immigration is …show more content…

Some of this is due to the fact that people don’t believe that the proper authorities would be of much help. The bulk of this however, is because people are scared. They are scared to call in a murder that they witness because they don’t have the killer to come after them. Other times they are scared because they think that it is embarrassing and they don’t want people to know about it. Take rape for example. According to Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network Organization, only 40% of rapes are actually reported to the police and a whopping 3% of rapists actually serve a day in jail. This is a very frightening statistic, especially if you are of illegal residency in …show more content…

The majority in fact doesn’t believe that they should be given the opportunity. According to an online debate at debate.org, 75% of the people who saw the post voted against the idea. This is due to a lot of different reasons along with some misconceptions. Many Americans do not like the idea of there being any more immigrants granted citizenship. With the employment rates as high as they are today and over population starting to creep in, they are reluctant to give anyone else the same opportunities that the founding fathers gave their ancestors. Many of these people are under the misconception that all illegal immigrants all made the decision themselves and that they do not pay taxes. Although this is true for some immigrants, it cannot be said about

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