Immigration and America

One of the main topics in the presidential election right now is the issue of immigration and what we should do about it. Ideas range from deporting all illegal immigrants and building a wall to keep the Mexican people out of our country to lets allow their children to citizens but not the parents because they came here illegally. To me, this issue is not the most complicated thing in terms of the idea, executing the idea is a whole different story.
There is a stereotype going around right now that says that most illegal immigrants are violent criminals or they are only here to sell drugs. Many people, like Trump fall into the trap of this lie. In fact, most illegal immigrants are hard working families, who seek the opportunity to have a better life and provide for their family. Because of this reason we should allow all illegal immigrants without a violent or drug related crime to become American citizens. On the other hand, criminals should be deported back to mexico. A question that people often ask, especially when referring to Trump is, should we build a wall? Personally, I am neither for nor against building a wall at the Mexican-American boarder. Several countries like Vatican city have done this to control who goes in and out of the country. This will allow the US to have better control over the drugs that brought in and out of this country. It was also allow the US to control who goes in and out of the country and deny criminals access to United States. Contrary to this, building a wall would go against all American values. This country was built on Immigration and allowing people to move to America in search for a better life. If I were to be forced to make a decision on whether or not I would be in favor of building a wall, I would have to lean on the safer side, which is building the wall. It would lower the amount of drugs brought into the US and give the government greater knowledge as to who is coming in and out of the country. However, there is yet another downside to building a wall. Doing this would weaken Mexican-American relations, which could only lead to more issues. Because of this, I chose to remain undecided on this issue.

No Such Thing as an Illegal Person

Immigration is an extremely hot topic these days, and with candidates such as Donald Trump taking such an extreme stance on one side of the issue or the other, people don't seem to have a clear consensus as to what we should do about the issue of immigration and illegal immigrants. Let me start off by saying that illegal immigrants are actually an extremely integral part of our economy, with them helping pay for social security as well as growing a very large portion of produce and making up a large part of work forces overall. Because Trump's immigration plan seems to be the leading plan right now (I'm shuddering just thinking about a Trump presidency), let's just take a look at what would happen. 11 million workers would disappear. Our real GDP would take a $1.6 trillion hit, and it would take 20 years to completely remove all illegal immigrants. The price of strawberries, bananas, and any other farm-produced products would skyrocket, as well as farm income dropping severely. Not to mention how illegal immigrants actually create jobs that often go to U.S. natives. Though it may seem a bit paradoxical due to the wording, illegal immigrants play an extremely crucial part in our nation's economy. Thus, though it may make plenty of people angry, the most beneficial and easy solution to this "problem" is to provide citizenship to these immigrants. Putting them on the record would make them legal workers, eliminating all the scares created by raiding factories and trying to find illegals, as well as keeping the benefits of these workers being here.

Election of Immigration

Immigration has been one of the driving problems in the presidential debates this year. The methods of dealing with immigration problems vary incredibly. Whether you are Donald Trump, with a very xenophobic policy, or Bernie Sanders, who has been shown to be very compassionate on the issue of immigration. With so many opposing views, it is important to know where each candidate is coming from.

Recent research suggest that about 15% of the United States population is comprised of immigrants. That is about a 10% increase since 1970. These are the kind of facts that have Donald Trump riled up. Trump doesn't want illegal immigrants to come to the US and be able to get jobs that other Americans could also be competing for, which is a valid fear, but his policies are too harsh. Trump wants to build a wall around the country and very strictly enforce border control, to decrease the number of immigrants from mexico. Trump also wants to restrict access from other countries too, mostly in Muslim countries. He sees recent terrorist activity as directly connected to the Muslim faith. This is a closed minded idea that seem xenophobic and offensive, but in an era with so much uneasy feelings, this is the kind of policy people seem to be flocking to.

On the other side of the immigration coin there stands Bernie Sanders. Sanders has very different policy ideas than Donald Trump. Sanders says that The United States are a country built by immigrants, and because of that they should be accepted. Sanders has constantly said that he is ready to give many people any and every opportunity to pursue a life in The United States. "Their story, my story, our story is a story of America: hard-working families coming to the United States to create a brighter future for their children," Sanders' motto for immigration. Sanders' policies will provide the county's already diverse culture to go further in the direction of full equality and acceptance.

These are just two of the views surrounding immigration, one of the most important topics of this election year.

No Easy Answers On Immigration

America is a paradox of a country. English settlers came here seeking wealth and religious freedom, and bullied their way across a swath of land until their domain reached from coast to coast. However, despite this, American policy has often treated immigrants very poorly. Even back in the 1800s, Irish immigrants were consistently treated terribly by their fellow Americans. Some version his has been reflected across every ethnicity- as "whites" were starting to become the minority, people began to consider the Irish "white" for the first time. This happened with Germans and Jews, too, and who's to say it won't happen to Hispanic or Arab citizens? But each time, the majority has to find some new, frequently poor minority to pick on. Frequently, these groups are made mostly of immigrants.

It's more complicated than that, though. The greater concern is that of illegal immigration, and more specifically, what to do with the vast number of illegal or undocumented immigrants currently living in the US. Doing nothing is bad for everyone, but there's no efficient way to get rid of them, so we're stuck in the middle while everyone runs around trying to figure out how to deal with unexpected tenants. The secret is, no one really knows. Look at Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, two prominent political figures and sons of immigrants, quarrel back and forth.

Both of those men have "plans". Donald Trump has a "plan" to build a wall and deport a lot of people. But none of it is backed by any true evidence- it's all just theorizing and conjecture. America's situation is so unique, so unprecedented- a country literally built entirely by immigrants, who moved here and conquered "illegally", now spending a large amount of time trying (and to some extent failing) to figure out how to kick out the illegal immigrants. My theory is this- someday, living in the US as a Hispanic or Arab won't be twice as hard as being white, and that will be the day when the number of illegal immigrants finally drops. In the meantime, maybe we should just leave undocumented immigrants alone.

Donald Trump's Animosity Towards Immigrants

Donald Trump is known for his anti-immigration views. He is an advocate for closing U.S. borders and has stated his dislike for immigrants a numerous amount of times. Unsurprisingly, he targets immigrants in his speech during the launch of his presidential campaign. Trump utilizes pathos in his spiel to rally Americans against immigrants.

Trump begins with stating that the "U.S has become a dumping ground for everybody else's problems." Trump is hoping to turn Americans against immigrants by using pathos to evoke anger and a sense of unity from his audience. The wording of this sentence deems the U.S. as weak, and suggests that other countries are violating America by "dumping" immigrants into U.S. territory. The rhetoric used here is effective because it implies that other nations view the U.S. as inferior which causes Americans to unite on a common ground of hatred. Trump then further says that the immigrants entering the U.S., from countries like Mexico, are not "good people." He states,"They're [Mexico] not sending their best...They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists..." Trump again uses pathos to evoke emotions of fear and anger. Fear of drugs, crime and rape corrupting American communities, when in reality, Trump's statement is not true and is a generalization. He hopes American's will view immigrants as a burden rather than a positive addition to American society. He goes on even further with his pathos method, by stating, "It's [immigrants] coming from more than Mexico. It's coming from all over South and Latin America and it's coming probably from the Middle East." Trump is hoping to evoke even more fear from his audience through his last statement. Given the U.S.'s rocky relationship with many Middle Eastern countries and the looming threat of ISIS, Trump hopes to scare American's into believing that immigrants are terrorists and are a threat to America.