The Immigration Reform

How many of you know someone who came to your country from some other country? It’s very likely you do, especially if you live in the States. The United States is amidst another immigration reform, one that could really revamp the policies currently in effect if passed. My question is this: how will these policies affect the United States as a whole, and will their effect on immigrants now and in the future be positive or negative?

Here’s the spiel on the current immigration policy, or at least what I can make of it. Citizenship can be earned by being born in the States or if one is adopted by a family in the States (this is called naturalization). This is the simple bit. Then comes the consistently controversial part: illegal immigration laws. The United States hosts over twelve millions illegal immigrants. Normally, when authorities find an illegal immigrant, there would be arrangements made for them to be deported. If said immigrant refused to leave their home, they could be taken to jail. Some people consider this action to be unconstitutional, as there is a lack of “due process of law”.

Now onto the immigration bill, proposed by the Gang of Eight (which I learned is a bipartisan group of eight senators and not some kind of Sherlock reference). Basically, if signed into law, the bill would grant a kind of amnesty to illegal immigrants currently in the country. From my understanding, immigrants who are here and working (thus providing for economy) will be able to gain a merit-based visa. This then gives a pathway to citizenship.

What policy is better? To define ‘better’, the immigration policy that is not only beneficial to the nation as a whole, but also more morally appealing. The bill proposed by the Gang of Eight would definitely benefit the economy. Because more citizens are seeking jobs that require a college degree, less and less people go into the more laborious, but very necessary jobs. These jobs tend to be taken by immigrants when they first enter the country. The proposed bill would allow those people to stay, and thus help the overall economy.

What I find to be most intriguing about this bill is the fact that it addresses immigration less matter-of-factly than other proposed reforms. In the United States, we are all immigrants. My mother came here from Spain. My father’s grandfather came to California from France, and even hid that he was French to avoid total adversity. America is still the melting pot of gold it was at its beginning. People still come here to make a better life for themselves and their posterity. Should they be deported because some old policy makes U.S. citizenship so covetable and hard to achieve? I think not. We are all the American Way.

What are your thoughts? I’ve barely scratched the surface here, as it is a very big topic.