Immigration Laws

March 15, 2012

Dear Mr. Presdient,

            My name is Nik. I am a student at Parkway West Middle School, and I am writing you today to share my thoughts on a very important subject, immigration. In my communication arts class, I had to write a commentary essay on a current topic, and I chose immigration. My uncle was an illegal immigrant for 11 years, and I was born in the Czech Republic.

            To begin, almost all Americans today can trace their roots to an immigrant, yet immigration has always been an issue hotly debated.  On the one side, people argue that immigrants steal jobs from "Americans"; on the other, that we should empathize with the immigrants and allow them to work legally in this country. My opinion is that we should have laxer laws on immigration; this will help immigrants and our economy. People go to extreme measures just to become an American citizen. For example, my uncle Jose traveled over the border for four days in the desert climate, watching people die off from heatstroke and exhaustion. On top of that, the guide got lost, so the trip took longer than expected. This shows that people put their health and life in danger just to work a minimum wage job. When Uncle Jose was seven-years-old, he started working after school. When he was fifteen, he had to drop out of school and work full time. He is a hardworking individual that would be a great addition to America. If laws were made to make the process of becoming an American citizen easier, Jose would have not have had to go through all this.

            In addition, having a larger amount of immigrants could help our economy. According to the Center of Immigration Studies, in 2002, had illegal aliens been legalized, they would have contributed over $10 billion to our country in taxes.  My uncle Jose was in the US for 11 years as an illegal immigrant, and from all those years, not once did he "compete" for a job with an American citizen. Clearly the whole "Mexicans are stealing our jobs" idea is ridiculous. Not only are these people working some of America's least desirable jobs, it would end up being cheaper to make them American citizens.

            Mr. President, I believe it should be easier for aliens to become an American citizens. Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to read my letter.

                                                                                                                                    Sincerely,

Nik

St. Louis, MO

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