Vasquez 1
Danny Vasquez
Professor DiAngelo
English 111/16YA
6 February 2019
Pro Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants
When an immigrant fails to abide by the laws of the country he or she is visiting, that is when they become illegal. Immigrants have various reasons for leaving their home country. The reasons range from looking for better opportunities, fleeing persecution, human right violations, but ultimately the overall goal is to improve your livelihood. Because of the stringent immigration laws, relocating to another country is not a get up and go scenario, even that varies from person to person, depending on their financial means. When in search of a better life for you and your family in another country: rightfully so, you should be given a fair chance to prove you have good intentions of contributing to the U.S. society, before being labeled illegal and being looked upon as a criminal.
Individuals seek multiple ways to gain entry to the United States. Some are fortunate to get a worker’s visa, the many that aren’t resort to illegal methods to cross the border, like paying guides commonly known as Coyotes to guide them through unknown and treacherous paths. This demonstrates the lengths a person will go to for a better life, risking their lives with no guaranteed result. Despite the method employed to travel here, the general goal is the same; to seek a better life, to have even a slim chance to engage in opportunities many of us take for granted. Although many immigrants make these life changing decisions with an optimistic outlook, the outcomes are not as positive and unfortunately they are met with hardship and negative environments.
In 2016 an estimated 44 million immigrants lived in the United States (Zong, Jie, et al. 1). Most of these individuals come from countries South or North of the U.S. One of the biggest issues to date is what the government is doing about the illegal immigrants in this country. The current President has zero tolerance for illegal immigrants and is aggressive in making sure that number does not increase. The President categorized immigrants as rapists, and murderers. A generalization of that degree resulted in controversy towards the government’s immigration approach. However incendiary the President’s words were, it does bring up the question, what is the best way to deal with this issue?
In the past, our government implemented the concept of amnesty to deal admit immigrants from other countries. Granting amnesty to immigrants not only acknowledges their suffering by granting them relief, it also makes them feel like they are active members in this country. Permitting immigrants to come here through amnesty allows them to be legally recognized and no longer labeled illegal. This method degrades the stigma that immigrants are criminals solely bound to commit violent acts and cause havoc in your country. For example, Scott Horsley’s article “FACT CHECK: Trump, Illegal Immigration and Crime” from the NPR websi...
