At one of our country's largest ports stands a mighty collosus that holds an inscription containing the passage "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" I am of course refering to the Statue of Liberty. So if our country is supposed to accept the poor and tired who want to be free, why does it cost so much to become a citizen?
Have you ever wondered why there are so many illegal immigrants? No, no, not why they come over, but why are they illegal? Are they just too lazy to go through the process of becoming a citizen? No, that isn't exactly the case. The act of becoming a legal citizen is wired with red tape and expensive tasks. One has to pay legal fees by hiring a lawyer, take a difficult test containing random U.S. History questions that the majority of legal citizens couldn't even answer, and all of this is assuming you even got sponsored by someone inside the country to begin with. How do the people who don't know any Americans get sponsored? How do the poor, honest immigrants who can't even afford to even become legal immgrants with a green card pay for the legal fees involved? They usually can't, but they still want into the Land of the Free, so they do it the only way they can, illegally.
I'm not saying we should let anyone become a citizen and have no restrictions on immigration; we don't want anymore serial killers inside our country, we make enough of our own. However, I am saying that we should make ways for honest yet financially handicapped people to get in, such as free temporary status, like a green card, that can be obtained by anyone that comes over and is willing to work. Some kind of pay-as-you-go type of citizenship, like an indentured servant almost, but without the servant part. That way we really can live up to the Statue of Liberty and welcome anyone, regardless of wealth, into our great country.
Update: Here are the steps required to receive a green card. A relative or employer of the immigrant must submit papers to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. This takes a few months usually and costs around 200$. Next the papers must be processed and additional documents and a passport usually need to be obtained as well. This takes a few more months and around 500$ is needed for processing fees. If the immigrant is a direct relative to the sponsor, then no visa number is required and the case goes straight to the U. S. embassy in their country. After some blood tests and medical checks that cost another 200$, the person can enter the United States. However, if the immigrant isn't a direct relative, they must wait for an Immigrant Visa number to become available before they go to the medical check stage, which takes anywhere from a few months to a few years. The whole process costs around 1000$ and takes at least 5-6 months.
Considering the fact that many of the current illegal immigrants were in a stage of poverty before coming here, it isn't hard to understand why they can't cough up a thousand dollars and wait half a year or more. In case you are wondering where I got this info, I received much of it first hand from a legal immigrant who lives in my suite. Also, this website sums it all up nicely if you are interested in learning more.
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2 comments:
I would like to point out one key flaw in your reasoning here, particularly since you decided to discuss such a polarizing topic. The words written on the Statue of Liberty are a poem, not a law pertaining to immigration. The words have nothing to do with what America is "supposed" to do nor do they have have legal implications whatsoever.
I get so sick and tired of hearing people, like yourself, preaching from some idealistic mountain of virtue what I should be doing. What is so difficult in providing logical evidence, in context, to support your argument?
I could honestly care less where you stand on the issue of immigration. The important thing here is how you present your argument. In fact, I think that this may be one of the major reasons why Americans are so hated in other parts of the world. They get so caught up in how things should be, that they fail to recognize how one can truly impact the world.
So please refrain from apply poetry to what America's role in the world should be. Thank you.
First off, I'd like to apologize. This post was not finished in the current state you see it in. I had an emergency and had to travel to my lab. Being the novice that I am when it comes to blogging, I didn't know that I could have simply saved it, and I posted the article in a panic while I was leaving.
I agree that it is pathetic that I didn't post hard evidence and simply gave you my opinions. I will be adding a new section to the post in an attempt to complete it.
However I would like to point out that this is my blog. I'm sorry if you dislike my opinions, but this is where I post them. If you don't consider our country to be one that should support immigration, that is fine. However, I am not one who believes that joining our nation should be limited to those who can afford the legal fees, even if such fees are as "low" as 1000$ dollars. In my opinion, the chance of success that our great country offers shouldn't be similar to a country club. One's possibilities in life should be limited by their actions and how responsible they are, not by what kind of financial state they were born into.
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