YATW 2.0

“After all, the American Dream doesn’t just belong to some of us. It belongs to all of us.”  Antonio R. Villaraigosa, mayor of Los Angeles and the former president of the US Conference of Mayors says in an editorial.

Hi everybody! I’m back again with some new and improved information about immigration. If you haven’t read my first blog post yet, here it is. Basically what’s going on is this awesome project in Ms. Dunn’s English class called “You and the World”. This is a project during which students choose a topic/idea in the world that is important them; then, the students conduct research through interviews, surveys, news sites, and newspapers. A lot has changed in the world of immigration in the past few months, but first we’ll talk about some perspectives on immigration reform.
annual-newresidents
annual-newresidents
​The image above shows the anual growth of residents in various countries. Evidently, the US gains more and more people each year.

I have touched on this matter slightly in the past, nevertheless, I wish to discuss it some more right now. Barack Obama wants to grant citizenship to the illegal immigrants already present in the US. Then, he plans on securing our borders (security forces, walls, etc.) so that we can retard the rapid flow of immigrants into our nation. Evidently, there are people that disagree with Obama; one of those people is Senator Marco Rubio, from Florida. "Here's how I envision it, they would have to come forward. They would have to undergo a background check. … They would have to pay a fine, pay back taxes, maybe even do community service. They would have to prove they've been here for an extended period of time. They understand some English and are assimilated. Then, most of them would get legal status and be allowed to stay in this country." He told the Wall Street Journal. Clearly these two opinions differ in many ways. Obama thinks that we should grant citizenship to those already here (though he doesn’t actually specify how) whereas Rubio expects much more out of the immigrants in order to make them a part of this country. Nevertheless, there are still many sides to the never ending debate over immigration. Another side to this debate is that of my older brother, Ilya Friedman. He thinks that there we should keep our doors wide open to new citizens. In his opinion, our country thrives on new people joining our communities, workforces, and country. Many people think that these immigrants are taking away our labor work, but Friedman begs to differ. He says that those immigrants that make their way into the US are ready to work hard in order survive here. There is nothing wrong with that and we shouldn’t scold them for wanting to work. This is excluding people who work but do not pay taxes; Friedman understands that individuals who don’t pay taxes have earned repercussion.

Millions upon millions of people wish to live or work in the US; sadly, most of those people have trouble becoming legal citizens for reasons including, but not limited to, lack of experience, inability to speak English, or criminal records. However, many different kinds of visas and green cards exist for all different types of individuals. Unfortunately, there are far too many to name here and now, but if you want to learn some more about these green cards and visas, you can visit this informational immigration website.
illigal-immigration
illigal-immigration
This image clearly shows that we, Americans apparently don’t want any more immigrants, yet the fact of the matter is that it is so easy to have nothing in the US and still be able to survive!

So, what’s really been happening with immigration in the US? Nothing. Seriously, I’ve told you about what people have been discussing, but that’s as far as they’ve gotten so far. If you want to read about some more discussions, feel free to Google some news articles.

Bibliography!

Comments (2)

Joshua Berg (Student 2016)
Joshua Berg

Good post. I thought it was interesting that people from the same family could have such different opinions, especially on an issue that is relevant to them in such a way.