Thanks again to all of you who are reading my blog. I really appreciate it and hope that you take something away from it each time you read one of my posts. This is a letter that I wrote for one of my classes The Preferential Option for the Poor. Immigration reform is something that I am really passionate about and hopefully you are too after reading this. Please feel free to leave comments, I would love to hear from you.
To Whom it May Concern,
As you know we live in a nation built on a foundation of immigrants. Immigration is a tradition that is as American as can be. A tradition that began 392 years ago when the Mayflower crossed the Atlantic and formed the first permanent European settlement in the United States. What you may not know is that while our country is proud of our immigrant tradition and loves boasting about our national status as a “melting pot,” we have an equally lengthy tradition of rejecting, persecuting, and marginalizing immigrants in this country. Whether it be the Irish, Jews, or Italians on the East Coast, the Koreans, Chinese, and Japanese to the West, or the Hispanics to the South, the same immigrants that help build this great country were met by “Americans” with hostility and persecution, a tradition that sadly is being upheld today.
There are currently approximately 11.1 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States today and thousands more that are attempting to enter our country illegally each year. These undocumented immigrants are the backbone of our workforce, they are gladly taking the most difficult low-wage jobs that many Americans quite frankly just will not do. Yet these human beings, who play a vital role in the economy of the United States, are not being treated with the respect and dignity that every human deserves. These undocumented persons are for the most part productive, tax-paying, and all around good people, who are oftentimes the only source of income for their families in the States as well as back home in their country of Origin. Still to be undocumented in the United States means to live in fear. Each undocumented person in the United States must worry everyday about getting deported, losing everything that they’ve worked for, and having to make the treacherous journey back into the United States (most often across the U.S.-Mexican border). So why do we, a country with a rich and deep tradition of immigration, continue to promote and maintain a broken set of immigration policies? Something must be done so that the dignity of these 11 million people can be restored and they no longer will have to live in fear.
The first thing that we must do is create a legal path to citizenship for those undocumented immigrants residing in the United States. Passing the DREAM Act would be a good start. The young people who were brought to the United States illegally as children are victims. They did not choose to come into America and they certainly did not choose to break any laws. These young people should not be punished for crimes that they did not commit. Many of the people that the DREAM act would affect are as American as you and I. They grew up in the States, went to public schools, and are the children of good tax-paying parents. However, with all this being true these young men and women are being punished. These young people are not eligible for Federal Student Aid and since many of them come from low-income situations they cannot attain the level of education that will allow them to live out their full potential. Even if these young people are not interested in pursuing higher education, because of their undocumented status it proves very difficult for them to obtain gainful employment. Again these people should not be punished, the DREAM Act must be passed. Allowing these young people to become citizens would also create a pathway to citizenship for their parents by giving the new American citizens the chance to sponsor their parent’s applications for citizenship and in turn allow these people to live without fear for the first time in years.
Secondly, we must either completely secure our borders or begin to allow all people who want to work in the states, barring a criminal past, work visas. The truth is that undocumented and migrant workers provide a much needed workforce in the United States with many industries, especially agriculture, depending on the abundance of cheap labor provided by these people. Without this vital workforce that many industries depend on, our national economy certainly could not continue at it’s current level. However, if the American people are still opposed to allowing these workers from the south into this country something must be done to stop them from coming in. We must build a wall, hire more Border Patrol agents, or do something to make sure that not a single immigrant crosses into our country illegally. The current patchwork system of agents and fences is not keeping these undocumented people out of our country. All that the current system is doing is forcing those who are attempting to enter the country illegally, to cross the border in some of the most rugged terrain in the world. Each year thousands of people die trying to cross the border into the United States from Mexico and this must be stopped. These people are human beings who possess dignity and rights. Being the great nation that we are we must recognize these people and their plight and put an end to this senseless death and tragedy. This means that we must either grant a much greater number of temporary work visas to all who apply for them or create a better system that does not allow anyone to enter this country illegally. I believe in the people of the United States. I believe that we can stand up for these people, allow them the dignity that they deserve, and an opportunity obtain a better life.
Finally, we must work with Central American and Caribbean governments to create sustainable and decent paying jobs within their borders. The majority of undocumented and migrant workers are not immigrating to the United States because the want to, but rather because it is a necessity. Most of the people who cross into our country from Mexico are doing so because they cannot find work back home in Nicaragua, México, Honduras, or El Salvador and to put it bluntly their families are starving to death. As a country the United States needs to create policies that encourage and reward businesses that invest in and create good sustainable jobs in Central America. Policies like these would provide jobs for those seeking employment in the aforementioned countries and greatly reduce the need of these people to immigrate to the United States in order to survive. It would also be the foundation of a much stronger Central American economy which would provide a great trading partner for the United States in the future.
I understand that this issue is not as cut and dry as I make it out to be. I just hope that I proved the point that something must be done. Our immigration policy in this country is broken and has to be fixed. Too many people are senselessly dying because of bigotry and bad policy in America. Again we must recognize the humanity in all people, especially the poor and marginalized and provide them with the dignity and respect that should be bestowed upon all people. After all we are a nation founded by immigrants and I think we have turned out pretty well so far. So let’s continue our great countries tradition and provide an option for the poor.
