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Hetzael Soto-Martinez

Mr. Jorgenson

English 1010

4-12-17

The Path Way

An Immigration reform or a path way to citizenship has been a controversial topic, and it

has been a topic that keeps coming up in news networks across the country and in politics. For

many years, the approach to immigration reform was moving forward form President Ronald

Regan giving citizenships or amnesty to everyone who was in the U.S. from 1982 back in 1986,

but of course it presented the challenge of proving weather or not they were here because many

undocumented immigrate where working and getting paid under the table meaning cash. One of

the many questions I have, was how did we go from being so welcoming to immigrates without

letting up on border security to just calling them Criminals and rapist and trying to ramp up

security and build a wall that would cut through many U.S. citizens property along the border? I

can assure you that I am not a rapist or hold a felony record and can sympathize for those who

are about to lose majority or all their property to the Mexico side if a fence or wall was put in

place but an early Welcome to Mexico is in order. What really makes a reform so difficult and

what are the fears doing to Native born Americans have, will they lose their jobs? Will the

economy tank? Higher crime? These are all valid fears that I considered and did some research

on.

I had the chance to talk to an immigration lawyer about the touchy topic of immigration

reform. Marlene F. Gonzalez has been an immigration lawyer for 20 years, she herself has been

through the process of becoming a U.S. citizen. First, we started talking about the different
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vetting processes that we had gone through and the fees that must be paid; why is an immigration

reform so urgent? I asked Marlene In my years of helping undocumented immigrates Ive

noticed that the older people coming close to retirement had nothing waiting for them like a

pension, social security, or even Medicare. What came to mind next and from personal

experience was that a lot of these immigrates did not stay in the U.S. many of them would go

back to their native lands where they have been sending part of their paycheck to. Many

immigrate would send money back to build homes, buy lands, invest and give back in some ways

to the communities but lets talk about the impact they have here in the U.S. in 2013 immigrates

added 1.6 trillion dollars to total U.S. gross domestic product, or GDP. Economist have also

found that immigrants compliment native born workers and increase the standard of living for all

Americans (Estradra). Those numbers could increase if a path was to citizenship was placed by

congress.

In 2014 President Obama acted by placing an executive order for immigrates and that

was the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, or DAPA,

and an expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or expanded DACA. Which

helped many immigrated like myself contribute to our society, this meant that we would all be

legal to work, pay taxes, obtain a Social Security Number, and even a drivers license. Of course,

all of this was not free I can tell you by my personal experience, there is an extreme vetting

process I underwent, checking my back ground for any criminal record even had to print my

biometrics so they can be saved in a data base and it came with a fee. The next step was sending

I.C.E. every piece of information I had since I had arrived in the U.S. I was Five when I arrived,

that included all my medical records, school records, any accomplishments, and a letter stating

where I was June of 2014 when the executive order was signed. At the time, I was playing High
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School baseball and my couch did not hesitate in writing me that letter and even had it notarized.

Once I had all that paper work gathered up I had to pay a lawyer to make my application and

send that information out to immigration then I would have to wait 3 months then I would get an

appointment with I.C.E. and Social Security. At the end of the process I would end up spending

$4500.

In my case when applying for DACA it was broken down into pieces, So, wouldnt it be

easier to break down a reform into pieces? I asked Marlene in some way, meaning if maybe

they had a record that was years ago that break down would help us identify offenders and

possibly see if they qualify, but for the break down would cause a lot of people to leave work

because they cannot get an appointment on the weekend, but another reason is now causing

concern, like you can see nowadays many immigrates are afraid to go into federal building

because of the fear of being deported or being arrested by I.C.E many immigrates arent even

reporting crimes in fear of deportation(Gonzalez).

During this last Presidential election, I kept hearing peoples concerns like They are

taking our jobs which in a sense is true because due to high regulations and high pay the jobs

that where once here in the U.S. are getting sent to Asia, India and Mexico, but many jobs here at

home are still unfilled. Wasnt sure how new jobs where going to be created and Trumpster

didnt fill us in on how he was going to do that but he was going make some great deals. With

the high number of unfilled jobs here at home maybe a reform would help fill those positons and

help lower the unemployment rate. Why arent they filled now? Many of those positions would

require the employer to use the E-Verify to check if the document you have presented are yours

and not doctored or illegally obtained. Many immigrate that come to this country have skills that
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many jobs could use for their benefit but cannot hire them because of them not having any legal

documents.

A question that I kept having was do Americans not want us in this county? Do they

think we dont need some sort of path way to citizenship? so I did my research and found

something surprising. A recent study done by the Pew Research Center found that 71 percent of

Americans believe that people in the United States illegally should have a way to stay in the

country, 27 percent thought that they shouldnt stay legally and a 2 percent not knowing.

The 71 percent that thought that they should stay legally also broke it down, 43 percent thought

that they should only be a path way to become citizens, while the 24 percent thought that there

should be a path way to residency and of course 4 percent not knowing. In that same study

thinking about immigrants generally, 49% of Americans say they strengthen the country because

of their hard work and talents, Two-thirds of non-Hispanic whites (67%) say illegal immigrants

should be allowed to stay in the country legally, while 31% say they should not.
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Like Trump said, Mexico is just sending the worst they have, some bad Hombres but is

that true? A 20-year study done by Charis E. Kubrin, University of California, Irvine, and

Graham Ousey, College of William and Mary shows that communities where large portion of its

residents are undocumented immigrates have lower crime rates and violence Our analysis of the

literature reveals that immigration has a weak crime-suppressing effect. In other words, more

immigration equals less crime. So, if crime isnt stopping us from making some sort of reform

or path way to citizenship then what is? Could it be that big businesses are taking advantage of

paying less for workers since immigrates would work for less in some cases. That could be it

since the U.S. does have a long track record of building its country on cheap or free work labor

making the rich richer and suppressing the poor. As a nation, we all seem to be on the same page

knowing that to help our economy we need to make a change and that change needs to happen

now with a crumbling system of welfare and Social Security and a whole generation soon to

retire.

Many fortune five hundred companies that have been pushing the whole world forward

the owners are immigrate or parents are immigrates. For example, the Mac that I am using to

write this paper on was made by Steve jobs he was a son of Syrian immigrates. What are the

three reasons why immigrants are important to economic growth? Labor force growth,

entrepreneurship and human capital (Gonzalez). From a stand point of who gets to benefit the

most from a reform or a path way to citizenship it would be the U.S. and the economy. Now will

President Trump look at these facts and see that a Big glorious wall will not help the American

people or will he listen to the Alternative facts?

While majority of the nation agrees that immigration is good and with proven facts that it

lowers crime where large portion of its residents are immigrates what will happen next? In my
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opinion is that this reform is soon to happen but we keep getting side tracked by other events that

will drain the resources to do that. If we get into another war we will see these programs for the

poor be drained, like Martine Luther King JR mention in his speech Breaking the Silence about

the was in S. Korea we will see all the programs to help the poor be depleted, and with it a

reform for immigrants. Its up to the people now to march and protest in peace to push for this

reform to help us well into the future.


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Sources

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2013/apr/02/what-pathway-citizenship/
By Molly Moorhead

Financial penalties are in the mix too: a fine of somewhere between $2,000 and $4,000, plus
back taxes for the time theyve worked without paying income taxes.

The framework describes an E-Verify system that holds employers accountable for hiring
undocumented workers and makes it more difficult to falsify documents to obtain employment.

The immigration law President Ronald Reagan signed in 1986, for example, granted legal status
to everyone who had been here since 1982. Sharry questioned how some people might prove
how long theyve been in the U.S., especially if theyve done work that wasnt documented.
A recent survey by the Pew Research Center found that 71 percent of Americans believe that
people in the United States illegally should have a way to stay in the country. But in that group,
just 43 percent say they should be eligible for citizenship, while 24 percent favor permanent
residency only.

http://www.people-press.org/2013/03/28/most-say-illegal-immigrants-should-be-allowed-to-stay-
but-citizenship-is-more-divisive/

Pew Research center

Thinking about immigrants generally, 49% of Americans say they strengthen the country because
of their hard work and talents
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2016/10/02/3-reasons-why-immigrants-key-to-
economic-growth/#6bfa30677dab
Stuart Anderson

Labor Force Growth: If those who oppose immigration were correct, then Japan, an immigrant-
unfriendly country, should be an economic juggernaut. It is not. Japan is facing an economic and
demographic crisis. Japan has the worlds oldest population, as well as a low birth rate and little
immigration, but its growth problems go far deeper, noted a recent analysis by Bloomberg; the
work force is shrinking due to less immigrates

What are the three reasons why immigrants are important to economic growth? Labor force
growth, entrepreneurship and human capital.

http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=23550

When measured over a period of 10 years or more, the impact of immigration on the
wages of native-born workers overall is very small. To the extent that negative impacts occur,
they are most likely to be found for prior immigrants or native-born workers who have not
completed high schoolwho are often the closest substitutes for immigrant workers with low
skills.
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There is little evidence that immigration significantly affects the overall employment
levels of native-born workers. As with wage impacts, there is some evidence that recent
immigrants reduce the employment rate of prior immigrants. In addition, recent research finds
that immigration reduces the number of hours worked by native teens (but not their employment
levels).

Some evidence on inflow of skilled immigrants suggests that there may be positive wage
effects for some subgroups of native-born workers, and other benefits to the economy more
broadly.

Immigration has an overall positive impact on long-run economic growth in the U.S.

In terms of fiscal impacts, first-generation immigrants are more costly to governments,


mainly at the state and local levels, than are the native-born, in large part due to the costs of
educating their children. However, as adults, the children of immigrants (the second generation)
are among the strongest economic and fiscal contributors in the U.S. population, contributing
more in taxes than either their parents or the rest of the native-born population.

Over the long term, the impacts of immigrants on government budgets are generally
positive at the federal level but remain negative at the state and local level but these
generalizations are subject to a number of important assumptions. Immigrations fiscal effects
vary tremendously across states.
The panel's comprehensive examination revealed many important benefits of
immigration including on economic growth, innovation, and entrepreneurship with
little to no negative effects on the overall wages or employment of native-born workers in
the long term, said Francine D.
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/news/2016/06/22/140124/how-
immigrants-positively-affect-the-business-community-and-the-u-s-economy/

Cesar Maximiliano Estrada

immigrants added $1.6 trillion to total U.S. gross domestic product, or GDP. Economists have
found that immigrants complement native-born workers and increase the standard of livingfor all
Americans.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/fact-check-immigration-doesnt-bring-crime-u-s-data-say/
Charis E. Kubrin, University of California, Irvine, and Graham Ousey, College of William and
Mary
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