Being an immigrant in the US, fortunately legal, gives me the access to the immigrant community--legal and illegal. I have heard so many stories that make me question the fairness of the immigration system specifically and the United States generally. One year ago, my colleague’s wife was able to get a U.S/ visa. She traveled with their kids, who were Americans by birth, to the U.S.A. At the airport, the immigration officer gave her a three month stay. After the three months were over, she had to stay on illegally. The immigration found out. The INS wanted to deport the mother and canceled the father’s application for permanent residency. So far this may seem ok, but here comes the shock. The INS didn’t let the parents take their four and six year old kids, arguing that they are Americans, and that they would live here. The U.S. law gave the immigration officer the right to deport the parents and to keep the kids in the custody of immigration. Fortunately, my colleague got a lawyer and he prevented such a mess. This left me wondering, if this is what is happening to the people coming through the country’s front door, what is happening to those sneaking across the borders?
As you can see, I already had a viewpoint before I started my research. My argument was that the aliens also have the right to invest in them selves and to achieve the American dream, especially since the society itself is a community of immigrants. The only difference is that there are ancient immigrants and recent ones. But this concept would only convince an immigrant like me, but Americans themselves must be thinking differently. For sure, they are thinking about their own good. They don’t care if they are treating those immigrants the same way their grandparents had been treated when they had first arrived. So I decided to research the outcome of legalizing undocumented immigrants, and how this could benefit the average American.
First, I decided to search what the Americans think about illegal immigrants. I started my research on the Expanded Academic Database, where I found so many articles about the topic. I narrowed my research by looking for the reactions to illegal immigrants. I found an article that grabbed my attention written by Paul Magnusson and Ben Elgin. It is titled, “Go Back Where You Came from: Across the Country, a Grassroots Backlash is Building.” It was published on July4, 2005 in the Business Week magazine.
The writer starts his essay with the opinion of an average American, who is working as a police chief. Such an opinion is supported by the law. He thinks that if anyone is to come to the USA, he should come through the front door; otherwise, he will be charged with trespassing (Magnusson, Elgin).
The writer then mentions the results of random polls about illegal immigrants:
In a June 2 Fox News poll of 900 registered voters, fully 79% said they favored stationing the military at the border to stop illegals. A mid- May NBC/Wall Street Journal poll of 1,005 adults found 58% disapproving of Bush's amnesty proposal while just 38% approved, (Magnusson, Elgin)
This gave me a pretty clear picture about the public’s opinion about illegal immigration. This essay also answered my question about the borders. There have been calls to secure the borders for almost a hundred years; however, since 2000, 1.4 million Mexicans have come to the U.S., and fully 85% of them entered illegally (Magnusson, Elgin) The reason is that both parties don’t take any actions about it, either because of the business owners or sympathy with the struggle for these immigrants:
Business-friendly Republicans want to satisfy employers' appetite for low- wage labor by passing the Administration's guest worker program… But the GOP also wants to score points for securing the borders against terrorists and criminals. Democrats are divided, too. They are sympathetic to the struggles of immigrants, legal and illegal alike…. But th