To the President of America,

First, I would like to congratulate you on this momentous occasion, I would also like to thank you for taking the time to read this letter. In this letter, I will be talking about immigration and deportation. Immigration and deportation is affecting lives in negative ways because illegal immigrants are getting separated from their families while legal immigrants are finding life in America harder than others.

Illegal immigrants are getting separated from their families because of deportation. This is a problem because a single parent who has children in America is illegal while the kids are legal. When the parents get deported, that leaves the children with an unauthorized parent. According to the Washington Post, “....the effects of losing a parent to deportation are basically the same as what happens when a parent goes to prison: Kids can become homeless, bounce around to different family members, lose focus in school, and undergo long-lasting psychological trauma.” (Defillis) And, according to Elite Daily, “[Illegal immigrants] contribute a grand total of almost 10 billion dollars per year,” (Maxwell). To deport those tax contributors would mean that legal citizens of America would have to pay more taxes. On top of losing tax contributors to deportation, it would also cost a lot of money to actually deport them, therefore taxing citizens even further. Instead, should give illegal families and those who have legal children a chance at being a U.S. citizen. However, illegal immigrants who have criminal records should be deported, as they could bring more people like them into the country. In addition, to lessen the amount of illegal immigrants, the government should tighten security at docks, since most immigrants travel to America by boat.

The second issue I’d like to discuss is the fact that legal immigrants are finding it hard to get a job and proper education. Immigrants, legal or not, all have a similar problem: language. Of course, some immigrants took their time learning English before coming to America. However, that doesn’t mean that the immigrants are good at it. This is one of the many problems an immigrant faces. In addition to language barriers, kids that move here are placed in classes by age, not ability. Making it hard for a child to keep up in a foreign class. At school, kids can be bullied and discriminated against of because of their race and, because their parents can’t speak fluent English, they find it difficult to report to the school. In addition, they cannot help their children because of a language barrier. Aside from schooling, according to Global Issues, “Migrant workers often work longer hours and for lower salaries, and while that is controversial, sometimes exploitive, it benefits the host country.” (Shah). This proves that immigrants are being taken advantage of due to their disadvantage of being in a new country and inability to speak English. As a solution to this problem, the government should provide a better education that is more fitted for immigrant children, placing them in classes based on ability instead of age. And, to stop immigrants from being exploited at work, the government should emphasize worker rights and stand up for immigrants.

I am aware that you have to deport illegal immigrants because they may endanger the country and cause overpopulation and that you’d rather not make a separate schooling system for immigrant children because it would be costly. However, giving illegal immigrants a chance at becoming citizens because, as written on the Huffington Post, “Thousands of other undocumented immigrants have been rejected by their birth country, don’t identify with it, or are afraid to return to it.” (Kalaw) In addition to that, as stated by Time, “Truth is that the nation’s prosperity has long rested on the labor and resourcefulness of immigrants, voluntary and involuntary, free and slave.” (Hahn) Evidently, if we were to take away those immigrants, our economy would inevitably collapse after having lost a majority of its workforce. As for legal immigrants, making a separate schooling system, though it can be costly, will help our country thrive. As mentioned by Harvard, “Immigrant youth frequently are learning two languages, an incredible asset, but one that many schools have yet to learn to support efficiently.” (Tamer) Therefore, we, as a country, should help immigrant children such as those by either creating a separate schooling system for them or making it so that schools can accommodate to the children and help them understand both American culture and theirs.

Therefore, to protect families of both legal and illegal immigrants and to ensure a bright future for their children, we should give them a chance at becoming a citizen before sending them back to where they “belong” as well as helping immigrant youth gain a better education by creating a new schooling system that will accommodate their needs. 

Thank you again for reading,

Daisy

Defillis, Lydia. "The U.S. Has Deported More than Half a Million Parents since 2009. Here’s What Happens to Their Kids." Washington Post. N.p., 21 Sept. 2015. Web. 5 Nov. 2016.

Hahn, Steven. “America is Better Without Borders.” Time. N.p., 1 Nov. 2016. Web, 6 Nov. 2016

Kalaw, Martine. “America Should Think Hard Before Deporting undocumented Immigrants Like Me.” Huffington Post. N.p., 19 Jan. 2016. Web. 6 Nov. 2016.

Maxwell, Erica J. “Why Deporting Illegal Immigrants Will Cause the US Economy to Crumble.” Elite Daily. N.p., 17 Nov. 2015. Web. 5 Nov. 2016.

Shah, Anup. “Immigration.” Global Issues. N.p., 26 May 2008. Web. 6 Nov. 2016.

Tamer, Mary. “The Education of Immigrant Children.” Harvard Graduate School of Education. N.p., 11 Dec. 2014. Web. 6 Nov. 2016.