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Alana Neal Formatted: Header, Right, After: -0.08"
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UWRIT

28 April 2018

Immigration Laws: What Makes an American an American?

In my sophomore year of High School my best friend of five years, Manuela, came to me

with fear in her voice and tears in her eyes. She told me her family had lost their immigration

status. If her dad could not find a job soon, they would be forced to move back to Canada.

Manuela and I were sophomores in High School, everyone around us was talking about the cutest

guy in school, and what to wear to prom, but we were talking about finding lawyers for her dad

and if we could make calls from Raleigh to Canada . It did not make sense to me. Manuela was a

proud American citizen. She had lived in North Carolina for eight years. She was a hardworking

student, she worked a part time job and paid her taxes. Manuela and her family were in America on a

work permit. Her father unfairly lost his job due to cultural differences and a language barrier. One day

Manuela was a deserving American citizen, and the next she was considered an illegal alien.Manuela

had so much pride in a country that ultimately failed her family. One year later, I said goodbye to

Manuela and her family. Watching them leave left me with so many questions, the main one

being: why did I deserve to be in America any more than Manuela did?

Many Americans, specifically right-winged Americans argue that their only problem with

immigration is the immigrants who do not come legally. In an article written by the New York
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Times, Vivian Yee writes that many liberal view undocumented immigrants as "productive, law-abiding Formatted: Header, Centered
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members of society, deeply rooted in communities all over the country, working hard, living quietly,
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paying taxes and raising families." With the new Trump administration, Trump and many of his Formatted: Header, Right, After: -0.08"
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supporters have emphasized that solely being in America unauthorized is breaking the law. While this is

true, most undocumented immigrants and immigrant advocates do not view it as being criminal, but

rather it being necessary, Yee also writes that conservative Americans tend to use the phrase "illegal

aliens" while liberals tend to use the phrase "undocumented immigrants." The phrasing of illegal aliens

tends to be more dehumanizing, as if implying immigrants are not people like them. At this point, you

might be asking yourself "why don't immigrants just come the legal way to avoid being labeled as an

alien. The answer to that is simple, theimmigration process is long, tedious, and expensive. The

first step in the immigration process would be to find out whether you are even eligible for

citizenship. Eligibility for citizenship includes: having a green card for at least five years, living

in America for at least half of that time, having spent continuous time in America, meaning no

long vacations outside of America, having lived in the same state for at least three months before

applying, be at least eighteen years old, you have upheld good moral, you can speak, read, and

write English, and pass a brief test covering U.S. history. If you find that you are ineligible due

to any of these reasons, your immigration process is already delayed, and you will need to either

wait longer or spend money on a lawyer. Once you are deemed as eligible you will need to file a

USCIS Form N-400. This is the form that will get your immigration process started. This will

cost you $640 to file and an added $85 for biometrics. The next step would be to get your

fingerprints taken to run a background check. After passing your background check you will

receive an appointment date and address for an interview with a UCSIC officer. During this

interview you will be asked questions about your N-400 form and about your knowledge on

English and U.S. civics. If you are approved after all these steps, you will be called into a Formatted: Header, Indent: Before: -0.08"

ceremony, in which you will swear your loyalty to the United States. To obtain your green card Formatted: Header, Centered
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and residence in America can take a few years, after that it will take 5 years to be eligible to Formatted: Footer
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apply for citizenship, and six to twelve months to obtain citizenship;If you add all of this up it can Formatted: Header, Right, After: -0.08"
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typically take about seven to ten years and about $725 assuming you did not need to hire a lawyer to

become a citizen, these are years that some immigrants do not think they have time to waste, and

money most do not have to spend

Every year about 1,000 new immigrants come to America, the majority of these immigrants are Formatted: Font: (Default) +Body (Times New Roman),
(Asian) +Body (Times New Roman), 11 pt, Complex
coming from Mexico. There are two categories of migration, voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary Script Font: +Body CS (Times New Roman), 11 pt

migration is when an immigrant simply chooses to migrate to another country because they want

to. Involuntary immigration is when an immigrant has no other choice but to migrate to another

country, most likely because they would not survive in their home country It is important to

understand why these immigrants are coming to America, because the reasoning can influence

how people view them. In an online study conducted in 2014 in the Native Dutch population,

results showed that when people had the perception that migrants were voluntarily migrating

there was a stronger association with anger towards them, but with the perception of involuntary

migration there was a stronger association with empathy. This shows that people are more likely to

empathize with the immigrants who are forced to leave their country in order to survive rather than the

immigrants who come for other reasons. Many immigrants who come from Mexico claim they

come to America to get away from the violent drug and gang activity in Mexico. They come to

America in the hopes of a better life. In an article written in April of last year, the CAP

immigration team found that compared to America, U.S. born children are more likely to go to

college. Thirty-six percent of immigrants are college graduates, which is five percent above the

national average. Immigrants are also less likely to commit crimes or be incarcerated than the
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U.S. born population. In 2017, a study conducted by the CATO institute found that the 2014
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incarceration rate for immigrants, both legal and illegal, ages eighteen to fifty-four, was notably Formatted: Header, Right, After: -0.08"
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lower than that of the U.S. born population. These statistics could be because immigrants Formatted: Header, Right, After: -0.08"
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sacrifice so much to come and have so much to lose if they make a mistake. They come here for

a better chance at education and a world of less crime.

If so many Mexicans are coming to America, we must ask ourselves why. America must have

something that Mexico does not. Mexicans are coming to a country that consider them aliens, there has

to be a good reason for this. In Mexico they have a similar education system as America, starting with

preschool and ending with college, however the quality of their school systems is nowhere close to

Americas. Mexico places last in education among the 35 Organization for Economic Cooperation and

Development (OECD) countries. Schools in Mexico often cannot afford proper meals or supplies for their

students which makes it harder for students to focus and feel motivated to stay. Mexico has an

extremely high dropout rate, many students dropout because they need to start working to help their

family survive. In some areas schools let out early to let kids walk home safely because the crime rates

are so high, and the police control is so low. This helps explain why Mexican citizens are leaving Mexico,

but why are they choosing America? In Mexico the murder rate is 98 percent more than the murder rate

in America. In 2017 alone, Mexico had 29,168 reported murders. Mexico's poverty rate is 44 percent

while Americas is at about 12 percent. Many Mexican citizens find America appealing because of a

better healthcare system, better education system, the close proximity to Mexico gives it a homelier

feeling and a large sense of Mexicans in America a better sense of community, Mexican citizens also feel

as though they have more job opportunities in America. All these positive qualifications of America

make it a good choice for Mexican citizens. In a Mexican's eyes leaving high crime rates, drug trafficking,

unemployment, poverty, and climate hazards is worth coming to a country that may not see them as
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equals. Living in a country that does not accept you is better than living in a country that you might not
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survive in. Formatted: Header, Centered

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The question then remains, what makes an American an American? What made me Formatted: Header, Right, After: -0.08"
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deserve a better life in America and Manuela undeserving? America is a country that provides home

to dangerous murders, malicious rapists, and repulsive child predators, but draws the line at letting in

immigrant families trying to give their chidlren a better life. Depending on who you ask the question

of what makes an American an American can have many different answers. A study conducted in

June of 2015 by Public Religion Research Institute found that 89 percent of Americans found it

important that to be considered American a person can speak English. 69 percent said that

believing in God was an important factor and 58 percent said being born in America was

important. These are interesting results considering that America is a country built on

immigrants, where there is no national language and we practice freedom of religion. In another

study conducted by John Sides called the 2016 Voter Survey, Sides found that a majority of the 8,000

people he surveyed also found Christianity and English language an important role in being considered

an American. However, in this survey Democratic and Republican Americans both came to the same

census that the most important factor in determining if someone is a true American is if "they respected

American political institutions and laws and were accepting people of racial and religious backgrounds." Formatted: Font: 12 pt, Complex Script Font: 12 pt

If you ask me, what makes someone an American is anyone willing to help benefit America and

abide by American laws. Manuela is a hardworking, law abiding, English speaking, Christian immigrant Formatted: Font: (Default) Times New Roman, (Asian)
Times New Roman, 12 pt, Complex Script Font: Times
who came to America to follow her dreams, but none of that was enough for the Government to allow New Roman, 12 pt

her and her family to stay.

Immigrants help the American economy more than people may think. Economists have

found that immigrants create a demand for small business and strengthen the economy.

Immigrants are an important part of the business community. Google was created by a man who Formatted: Header, Indent: Before: -0.08"
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migrated from the Soviet Union, and the Microsoft CEO migrated from India. More than forty Formatted: Header, Right, After: -0.08"
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percent of Fortune 500 companies were started by immigrants or their children. These companies Formatted: Header, Right, After: -0.08"
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brought in more than 1.7 trillion dollars in revenue and helped employ 3.6 million people in

America in just 2010. Immigrants also make up twenty eight percent of small business owners

and are two times more likely to become entrepreneurs than the U.S. born population. Illegal

immigrants also play a part of American economy. Each year illegal immigrants pay about

eleven billion in state and local taxes. Making the immigration process shorter and easier for

immigrants to complete could potentially help the U.S. economy even more allowing the US to

collect more tax from them.. When immigrants come illegally they sometimes are forced to work "under

the table" jobs, meaning they are typically paid in cash and do not file taxes due to them being

undocumented and scared of being deported. With a faster and more affordable immigration process

more immigrants would come the legal way and therefore more of them would be paying taxes.

Without the help of immigrants, America would not be the America it is today and if we turn away so

many immigrants we could lose out on someone willing to continue help America grow in a positive

direction.

Immigration is a complex topic because there are so many factors to think about. While

we simply cannot let everyone into America because of capacity and supply and demand issues,

we can make the process to become a citizen different. If the process was shorter and less

expensive more immigrants would obtain citizenship and ultimately help the U.S. government. In

the studies above many Americans pointed out the common factors they thought were important

to being considered an American were believing in God and speaking English, butone thing

people fail to realize is that no matter what country a person is born in, no matter what language

we speak, or what religion we practice, we are all human, and all deserving of a good, safe, life Formatted: Header, Indent: Before: -0.08"
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full of opportunities. Where someone is born, or their personal preferences should not determine Formatted: Header, Right, After: -0.08"
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being American, but rather someone's morals and work ethic should. This essay explores the Formatted: Header, Right, After: -0.08"
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different reasons immigrants are coming to America. It showed that Americans feel more empathy

towards immigrants who are coming because their life depends on it. I think it is important to realize

that whether an immigrant is coming because they have no other choice or if their coming because they

want to, for the most part these immigrants have good intentions when they come. America was built

on immigrants and it is important to embrace everyone's difference and come together as one to

achieve the common goal of coexisting in this world and making everyday a better day. Manuela's family

may have been forced to leave, but I hope in the future, no immigrant that has done no wrong if forced

out of this county. America prides itself on equaltity, freedom, and love; turning our backs on our

neighbors is not something America should be proud of.

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Work Cited Formatted: Header, Right, After: -0.08"
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Bray, Ilona, and J.D. “Steps to Become an American Citizen.” AllLaw.com, Nolo ,

www.alllaw.com/articles/nolo/us-immigration/steps-become-american-citizen.html.

Cox, Daniel, and Robert P. Jones. “Most Americans Believe Protests Make the Country Better;

Support Decreases Dramatically Among Whites If Protesters Are Identified As Black.” PRRI,

PRRI, 23 June 2015, www.prri.org/research/survey-americans-believe-protests-make-

country-better-support-decreases-dramatically-protesters-identified-black/#.VZQN1EaQ7Co.

Doppelt, Jack. “Jack Doppelt.” Immigrant Connect, 16 Mar. 2017, Formatted: Indent: Before: -0.02", Hanging: 0.23",
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immigrantconnect.medill.northwestern.edu/blog/2017/03/16/why-do-so-many-mexican-

immigrants-come-to-the-united-states/.

Estrada, Cesar Maximiliano. “How Immigrants Positively Affect the Business Community and

the U.S. Economy.” Center for American Progress, Center for American Progress, 14 July

2016, www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/news/2016/06/22/140124/how-

immigrants-positively-affect-the-business-community-and-the-u-s-economy/.

“Mexico vs. United States.” Mexico vs. United States - Country Comparison, Formatted: Indent: Before: -0.02", Hanging: 0.23",
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www.indexmundi.com/factbook/compare/mexico.united-states.

Nicholson, Michael D., and CAP Immigration Team. “The Facts on Immigration Today: 2017

Edition.” Center for American Progress, Center for American Progress, 20 Apr. 2017,

www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/reports/2017/04/20/430736/facts-

immigration-today-2017-edition/.
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Verkuyten, Maykel, et al. “Public Attitudes towards Support for Migrants: the Importance of Formatted: Header, Right, After: -0.08"
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Perceived Voluntary and Involuntary Migration.” Ethnic and Racial Studies, vol. 41, no. 5,

Mar. 2017, pp. 901–918., doi:10.1080/01419870.2017.1367021.

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