Immigration Essay, Research Paper

People have been immigrating to the United States for hundreds of years. Here they find food, shelter, relief from persecution, and a chance at a life of their own. Immigrants flood our gates from all over the world to be a part of the land of the free and the home of the brave. With more immigrants coming in daily, documented and undocumented, the United States needs to restrict the amount of immigrants coming across the borders.

Legal and documented immigrants make up only eight percent of the population as of 1990, so it cannot really be said that “America is being overrun with immigrants” (Cole 99). But current assessments of the number of undocumented immigrants is somewhere between 2.5 and 4 million according to Cathi Tactaquin (465). That is a large amount of people to be running about the United States without visas or green cards legalizing their residency. The United States should be checking every person that comes though the gates. If they don’t have a visa, they should be sent away. The United States also needs to keep track of the immigrants already in the country that have expiring visas. If their visas expire, they need to either renew them or be deported to where they came from.

America is the melting pot of the world. A variety of people migrate here from a variety of countries. Yet, even with a variety, we still have a sense of nationalism, a feeling of superiority to other countries just because this is our country (Fleming 446). Though we have come together as a nation, communities of immigrants still set themselves apart from the rest of the country. Their values and culture single them out from being part of our nation as a whole. Each community brings over things from their home country, like food and more influential things like their morals and values. If we acquire enough of one country, what kind of country would we begin to be? In Fleming’s essay he quotes Edward Abbey “How many of us, truthfully, would prefer to be submerged in the Caribbean-Latin version of civilization?” (446). Our primarily European background has served the United States well, why let immigrants change it? If they are coming to our country, then they should acquire some of our values.

Many people find refuge and relief through our justice system. The “Temporary Protected Status” (TPS) provided an eighteen month period of protection against deportation for Savadorans in 1990 (Tactaquin 468). American has given its charity to many. Thomas Jefferson believed the United States should provide a haven for the talented and freedom-loving people (Fleming 447). But too many refugees, documented or undocumented, are filling our country. Our country should not be a safe haven for people from countries with problems. They should be able to solve their problems on their own, within their own country. We did not find refuge in other countries during the Civil War, so why should other countries use us?

National security has never really been a problem in the United States. Our country has not been heavily threatened by outsiders too badly in the past. There hasn’t really been a dire need for background checks or identification of all immigrants. But now, after the September eleventh attacks, it seems as though security should be tightened. The government needs to protect its country from outside danger. Background checks should be mandatory on any person requesting entrance to the United States. Measures need to be taken to make sure the Unites States is a safe and secure place for its citizens to live.

Yet, America has become the country it is now mainly becaus eof the immigrants in it. With the current events and drastic changes being made to our country, the amount of immigrants needs to be restricted. For the sake of national security and our identity, the United States must stop letting immigrants flood the gates.

Cole, David. “Five Myths of Immigration.” The Nation. 17 Oct. 1994. Rpt. In Current Issues and Enduring Questions. 4th ed. Sylvan Barnet and Hugo Bedau. Boston: Bedford, 1994. 98-101

Fleming, Thomas. “The American Dilemma.” Chronicles. 13.3 (1989): 8-11. Rpt. In Current Issues and Enduring Questions. 4th ed. Sylvan Barnet and Hugo Bedau. Boston: Bedford, 1994. 444-450.

Tactaquin, Cathi. “What Rights for the Undocumented?” NACLA Report on the Americas. 26.1 (1992): 25-28. Rpt. In Current Issues and Enduring Questions. 4th ed. Sylvan Barnet and Hugo Bedau. Boston: Bedford, 1994. 465-470.