For the first part of my life, I was surrounded by people from Northern Europe. Within the past few years, however, that has changed. A huge oil boom has taken place within North Dakota and we are struggling to find enough workers. As news has spread, migrants have come to find a new life and provide for their families. Within this new work force, illegal immigrants exist. However, I sit here wondering what makes them illegal and not myself. Only one century ago, my family moved here for a better life. Now, America has made that goal almost unattainable. In school, we are taught that America is the place where dreams come true, the “promise land”, but how can that be when we deny all those who reach the border? America, as a country, is composed solely of immigrants. Today, like in earlier times, many immigrants are looking for a better life. While it is evident that issues arise with incoming immigrants, it is America’s job to assist immigrants with assimilation by providing programs. I believe that America was created as a country to give a new sense of hope to those who are lost. As a part of this, I stand firm in my belief that the United States government needs to take action and help provide for our fellow migrants.
In eighth grade, I was assigned to trace back my heritage. Growing up, I knew little tidbits like the fact that I am Irish and, therefore, cannot tan. But past that, my knowledge was quite limited. I reached out to extended family, on the hunt for my ancestors. Because much of my family past had been documented, I was able to trace back to the 1600s. On my father’s side, he came from Irish farmers who came to America in the late 1800s. My mother’s family was a mix but mainly English who came i...
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.... As a country, when given the opportunity to help decrease this crime against humanity, it is our duty to help those in need.
Works Cited
Thornburgh, Nathan. "The Case For Amnesty. (Cover story)." Time 18 June 2007: 38+. Academic Search Premier. Web. 21 Mar. 2014.
Vargas, Jose A. "My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant." The New York Times. The New York Times, 25 June 2011. Web. 21 Mar. 2014.
Preston, Julia, and John H. Cushman. "Obama to Permit Young Migrants to Remain in U.S." The New York Times. The New York Times, 15 June 2012. Web. 21 Mar. 2014.
Hemphill, Craig Kyle. "Am I My Brother's Keeper?: Immigration Law Reform And The Liberty That Is America (A Legal, Theological And Ethical Observation On The Debate Of Allowing Immigrant Amnesty)." Texas Hispanic Journal Of Law & Policy 15.1 (2009): 51-70. Academic Search Premier. Web. 21 Mar. 2014.
In April of 2006 the reformation of immigration laws was a major topic. Wondering why immigrants should be able to come to the United States without rights and still be able to work here and eventually becomes a U.S. citizen. In the article “The Border on our Backs” written by Roberto Rodriguez, an illegal immigrant supporter wrote about the failure of the bill. In response to Rodriquez’s article Parker wrote an article titled “Se Habla Entitlement.”
John F. Kavanaugh, a professor of philosophy and a Jesuit priest, wrote the article “Amnesty? Let Us Be Vigilant and Charitable” for an issue of America, a Jesuit publication. In his article he discusses the negatives of American immigration laws and argues for their reform.
Valbrun, Marjorie. "Children of Illegal Immigrants Struggle When Parents Are Deported." The Children of Undocumented Immigrants. Ed. David Haugen and Susan Musser. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2013. At Issue. Rpt. from "Foster Care, Uncertain Futures Loom for Thousands of Immigrant Children." America's Wire. 2012. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.
Kuttner, Robert. "Illegal Immigration: Would a National ID Card Help?" Business Week August 26, 1991.
For many Mexican immigrants, crossing the border into the land of freedom and the American dream is no easy task. Some immigrants come over illegally by means of hiding in cars to cross borders, using visitor visas to stay longer, marrying to become citizens, and having babies as ‘anchors’ to grant automatic citizenship. Other immigrants gain green cards and work visas and work their way into becoming US citizens legally and subsequently gaining citizenship through paperwork for their families back home. After escaping harsh living and working conditions in Mexico, immigrants come to America prepared to gain education, opportunity, and work. This American dream unfortunately does not come to pass for most.
The United States of America, being a country founded by immigrants, is known all over the world as the land of great opportunities. People from all walks of life travelled across the globe, taking a chance to find a better life for them and their family. Over the years, the population of immigrants has grown immensely, resulting in the currently controversial issue of illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants are the people who have overstayed the time granted on their US, visa or those who have broken the federal law by crossing the border illegally. Matt O’Brien stated in his article “The government thinks that 10.8 million illegal immigrants lived in the country in January 2009, down from a peak of nearly 12 million in 2007.”(Para, 2).
Ngai, Mae M. 2004 “Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America” Publisher: Princeton University Press.
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Jose Antonio Vargas’s article on My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant is a writing about his childhood journey from the Philippines to the United States as an Undocumented Immigrant. Vargas writes this article to emphasize the topic of immigrant and undocumented immigrant in the United States. He uses all three appeals: pathos, ethos, and logic in his writing, in specific, he mostly uses pathos throughout of his entire article with a purpose for the reader to sympathize and to feel compassion for him. The use of these appeals attract many readers, they can feel and understand his purpose is to ask for others to join and support other people who undocumented immigrant like himself. In addition, it gives other undocumented immigrant people courage
5. Ernesto Galarza, "Life in the United States for Mexican People: Out of the Experience of a Mexican" from Proceedings of the National Conference of Social Work, 56th Annual Session, University of Chicago Press, 1929.
Considering the ideas that both authors have brought to the table, I have concluded that in order to make progress in solving the problem of undocumented immigrants, we as a country must decide what’s best for our country. We either look at undocumented immigrants as an asset or a parasite. America is the ‘land of opportunity’ where millions of people want to live there and pursue the ‘American Dream’. We should not let people stop from achieving their dreams. But on the other hand, a quantity of immigrants leave their country because it does not have “stable democracies and free markets” that “ensure economic growth, rising standards of living and thus, lots of jobs”, because the countries of these immigrants “birth rates and native populations fall”.
Gomez, Alan. "White House immigration plan offers path to residency." USA TODAY 17 February 2013, n. pag. Web. 24 Apr. 2013.
...acts. Cato Institute and the National Immigration Forum, n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2012. < http://www.cato.org/pubs/policy_report/pr-imsum.html>.
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Furthermore, Vargas faced many personal and career obstacles in his story. For example, at the age of 12 his mother sent him thousands of miles away to live with Vargas’s grandparents in America who were both naturalized citizens because she wanted to give him a better life. After Vargas arrived in San Francisco, he fell in love with the area and loved living with his grandparents. As years went by, Vargas, who was 16 at this time, went to the D.M.V. to get his driver’s permit, but fortunately the clerk working at the office told Vargas that his Green Card was fake and never to come back. After questioning his grandparents, Vargas finds out that he was smuggled into the United States of America and all his documents were fraudulent. In Vargas’s essay, “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant”, his story fiddles with the readers emotions and makes the reader ponder the issue of immigration in the United States of