Dear Future President,

I think there should be a substantial increase in border control. The demand for people wanting to live in the United States is incredibly high. With the rising rate of illegal immigrants, the population will increase to a drastic level. If these immigrants are not stopped from entering the U.S.,there will be a heavy burden on the country. We simply can not afford the influx of undocumented people. We need to focus on taking care of our own citizens who are are need of food, shelter, and medical care before we start letting other people into our country.

Our country was made up of immigrants, and I can appreciate wanting to continue diversification. However, the U.S has been lately struggling maintaining its resources. In addition to continue providing aid to our citizens, supplying immigrants with food, shelter, and adequate health care would put another burden on our country. I think we should rethink our immigration policies while taking care of the citizens of the United States.

Many immigrants are coming into our country illegally. The number of these immigrants has been rising over the years and is continuing to grow at an astonishingly high rate. It is impossible to keep track of the exact number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. As of of 2014, there were approximately 11 million undocumented people. Since 2014, about 5.8 million of these immigrants came from Mexico which was 52 percent of all unauthorized entries to the United States, according to the New York Times. We need stronger border control especially along the southern border of the U.S. If these immigrants want to come into the United States, they can come in legally, so that we can make sure they will benefit our country as responsible, law-abiding citizens.

Once we strengthen our homeland issues, then we can revisit our immigration policies. As for the immigrants that are already here, I believe that they should be able to stay, but they must be registered and pay taxes. I don’t think that families should be torn apart and sent back to their home country. This would be devastating for families, especially the children.

As I mentioned previously, we need to step up our homeland security and improve the immigration process. We are putting our country and our citizens at risk due to the potential number of terrorists entering our country illegally. This is why it is critical that we have a strict border control policy. Many of these immigrants come into this country wanting to build families and bring in hard work, but a lot of immigrants are drug traffickers and high crime people. Every person that steps foot on our soil needs to be completely vetted. If there is absolutely any doubt in their documents, they should be turned away at the border. This is actually a customs and immigrations problem, but also must work hand in hand with border control because we need to make sure these people are coming in legally. After the recent terrorism events in our country and across the world, the United States remains a target for terror groups. We must do everything to keep potential threats out of our country.

In conclusion, the United States must effectively deal with our immigration problems. Our policies regarding border control and immigration need to be reevaluated. In order to maintain our status of a world power, we must focus on strengthening within, and ensuring the safety of and well being of all of the citizens of the United States. The future of our country is going to depend on how we handle immigration and border control.

Sincerely,

Michael, 7th Grade Student