Dear Future President,

As a citizen of the United States of America I’d like to believe that our name holds true to our actions. Our country should truly and genuinely be “united” not only with those who live in our country but also with those who live elsewhere. This starts with our immigration policy and what we can do to fix it as a nation. I believe that in the future we should fix our existing rules and change them so that everyone, no matter where their origin, is let in and no one will be deported against their will unless they have committed a harmful or terroristic crime.

In the United States it is not uncommon for residents to discriminate or have prejudice towards immigrants. However, having this bias only creates unnecessary drama and irritation. If we treated immigration like it wasn’t a big deal many people would not be as opposed to it as they are. Of course, there are some issues concerning the amount of terrorist attacks we have received in the past years. However that is nothing to base our decisions on. If we want a stable relationship with the countries which surround us, we must not discriminate against them on the account of one or a couple of their people. It’s unethical and the foreigners who have nothing to do with those attacks should not be affected by the terrorists involved. To quote the speech to workingmen of San Francisco in 1888 “Today, every avenue to labor, of every sort, is crowded with Chinese slave labor worse than it was eight years ago.” this is a perfect example of how Americans react to anyone coming in and “taking” jobs that we once had. When in reality just a few years before this we were asking and even taking people from other countries to come work for us.

Currently, the U.S. “provides for an annual worldwide limit of 675,000 permanent immigrants, with certain exceptions for close family members”. Personally, I believe that this is unfair considering the amount of people that want to come to live in the U.S. but can’t because we’ve reached the limit. There are so many people in other countries that need the work and have family in our country that can’t come because of our immigration policy. In an interview with a few Mexican immigrants during the 1920’s a man said “Some of them had worked there a long time but they kept the Americans. It made some of us mad but what could we do? Nothing.” talking about how so many Mexicans had come to America for work and even though the pay was terrible and so were the jobs, they still had to stay because there was not enough work back home. This proves the devotion back then and even today that immigrants have to getting a job to support their family even if it means they have to move to a whole different country.

Right now there are citizens of our country who belong to the religions or races that are being broadcasted on the news as terroristic or dangerous and are scared of being shunned out of the country. No one, no matter race or ethnicity should feel that same amount of fear. As a country we need to stop profiling certain races and realize that just because one person from a certain religion committed a violent act, does not mean that every other person in that religion is violent or cruel. Deportation is one of the most ridiculous ways of dealing with emigration. No one should have to leave this country against their will unless they’ve committed a violent act to harm U.S. citizens or are carrying illegal drugs. Coming from someone who knows a person who was actually deported I can say that there was no reason for her to leave other than she did not have the proper papers to be a “legal” American. She had lived here for years and never was any danger to the society she lived in.

In conclusion, our country should stop making a big deal out of immigration and just let people in. We should embrace everyone into our nation and only push away people if they are harmful to our communities. The United States of America can only achieve peace if that includes everyone from around the world.

Thank You,

Wes