Dear future president,

I am a sixteen-year-old student living in Southern California who would like to take a few moments of your time to address something that I believe to be a prominent issue currently in this country: Illegal immigration. This is a touchy subject for many people to discuss, because they are afraid that they will be accused of being called discriminatory, or racist, more specifically. However, this is something that needs to be thoroughly analyzed and publicized.

America is very welcoming for those who wish to enter legally, but there are over 11 million undocumented individuals in the US alone, and that number is increasing by roughly 700,000 per year. One of the main issues with this is the increase of crime and domestic terrorism.

In July of 2015, a 32-year-old woman named Kathryn Steinle was shot in the back while walking with her father in San Francisco, California, by an illegal immigrant from Mexico who was supposedly under the influence of drugs. The man, Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, had just returned to the United States after being deported 5 times. He had been in and out of prison several times for felony re-entry into the United States and alleged marijuana possession, but was released after prosecutors decided not to look further into the case. After her death, Steinle’s parents filed a lawsuit against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

There have been many other victims of illegal immigrants with criminal records who roam the streets of America freely. I am not implying that all are dangerous, only that everyone who wants to live in this country should seek citizenship. The problem is that it is very difficult to do so, which should be resolved by making it reasonably easier to become a US citizen.

Another issue is that of taxes and taxpayer dollars. Americans for Legal Immigration (ALIPAC) has stated that “American taxpayer resources worth over $125 billion are stolen by illegal immigrants.” Furthermore, it is the money of taxpayers that is used for healthcare, education, and court/prison costs for illegal immigrants.

I believe that this is something that should be discussed in more detail. As Benjamin Roussey, a writer for USAttorneys.com, said, “while not every illegal immigrant can be tagged a criminal beyond the fact that they entered the country illegally and are possibly involved in document fraud, too many go on to commit worse crimes that are often hushed up.”

It is also important to note that according to immigration lawyers, if the immigration laws that already exist were enforced more, crimes by illegal immigrants would go down by a major percentage.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Madeline K.