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Jackson Poor

Ms Teuscher

English 2010

12 May 2019

Interview

I. The individual that I interviewed is Dr. Daniel Sharp. He knows a lot about the

immigration process and procedures necessary to gain citizenship. He is also a co-worker of my

father, which is how I found out about him. I was able to set up an appointment with him that

lasted about half an hour, in which I had the opportunity to ask him questions relevant to my

topic and see his input and knowledge about it.

II. ​Questions

a. Why do so many people choose to immigrate illegally?

b. On average, how long does it take for an immigrant to gain citizenship?

c. What are some main issues with undocumented immigrants residing in the country?

d. How is illegal immigration costing the U.S. money?

e. Is immigration really as bad a problem as people make it sound?

f. Are there solutions to this problem that benefit both sides?

g. What are some reasons immigrants choose not to get the work done to have them legally

reside in the U.S.?

h. How has illegal immigration been combated in the past compared to now?

i. How much of the problem would a border wall eliminate?

j. What do you think the future will bring to this issue?

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III. Dr. Sharp was aware of every aspect of the assignment and gave consent to be

recorded and published.

IV. ​Reflection

The experience of setting up and following through with an interview was something new

for me that I was able to learn from. My dad told me about one of his co-workers that knew a lot

about the subject and gave me his email address. I sent him an email asking if I could conduct an

interview with him about immigration, to which he accepted. I met up with him a few days later

and interviewed him with a list of set questions I had, leaving room for potential follow-up

questions and explanations. I had informed him that I would be recording and publishing parts of

the interview, to which he gave his consent. I recorded the information through audio recording

and some written notes. The interview took place on May 10th at his office in Logan and lasted

about half an hour.

I gained lots of new insight on my topic through this interview. One question I asked was

whether immigration is as bad of a problem as people make it sound, to which he responded “It

really depends whose point of view you’re looking at it through”. He then went on to explain

that, to the common man, immigration might seem like a very large problem, as there are

numerous articles, talks, and essays published on the matter. In terms of numbers, while they are

quite high, he said that they can often be overdramatized or completely fake. Immigration is still

a large national issue; however, people simply looking up numbers can lead to misinformation if

not gained from a reliable source.

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Overall, I ended up taking lots away from this interview. I’m glad that I had the

opportunity to host an interview, as I couldn’t gain much of the insight that I did through the

interview by just looking online. I enjoyed my time with Dr. Sharp and look forward to talking

with him again sometime.