Dear Future President,

       Immigration can be a great thing, but only if it is done correctly. We need to make sure our own children have adequate school funds, to be aware of the immigrants we allow in our country that have less than a high school education, and to determine why immigrants are more likely to drop out of college. Immigration gives us an amazing insight into foreign cultures and helps us understand the immigrants better.

       Schools can barely afford to keep American children in school, let alone the many children of immigrants. According to James Meza, Jr., the superintendent of a Louisiana school system and the dean at the University of New Orleans College, "We should recognize the stress on American students, who have plenty of challenges of they own, is greater in districts with limited funding and so many undocumented children." He states this in the New York Times: Problem for Some School Districts. We can fix this issue by either not letting in so many families of immigrants or the government can give more funding to the schools with a higher percentage of undocumented children.

       Our country complains that immigrants don't work when they come to the United States. But how are they suppose to work if nobody will hire them? The Atlantic: America's Immigration Challenge states that only 13% of immigrants have gone to college. The article also reports, "1/3 of immigrants arrive in the states with less than a high school education." This makes it especially difficult for these people to find a place that will hire uneducated immigrants. Our Immigration Department needs to check and see if the immigrants they are letting into the Unites States are capable of being hired for a job.

       Another point that ties into the hardship of uneducated immigrants is that, "Latino's are more likely to drop out of college," emphasized in The Atlantic: America's Immigration Challenge. This isn't because they're simply not smart enough because they do score high on standardized tests. The issue is that their parents can't find a job to pay for their child's college and the child won't be hired for a job, either. Our government needs to make sure there are plenty of jobs, grants, and loans available to give immigrants the opportunity to further their education.

     Immigration needs to be a great thing, but our government has to make it that way. Immigration gives not only American adults, but also their children the ability to discover and explore other cultures and ways of life. Our own American children need funding in their schools, our Immigration Department needs to realize most immigrants do not have a high education, and we need to find a way that immigrants can stay in school, which allows for more workers in the work force in the United States.

                                                                                                          Sincerely,

                                                                                                          MacKenzie C.