Dear Future President,

               I want to congratulate you on your new position and I hope all your decisions are for the best. I mainly wanted to talk about the issue of immigration. For many years immigration has been the way people have been able to escape their countries, fleeing violence, corrupt governments, or maybe they were in hope of a better opportunity. Either way, the U.S. has become a very popular destination to immigrate to. As a country that was developed by immigrants, we need to be more sympathetic towards them in understanding their reasons for coming here. After living in a community with many immigrants I have heard many stories as to why they left, but one thing I usually hear is that they didn't want to leave their country, but they had no other option. Although immigration is a very complicated topic to find a solution for, we must also think about the effects it will have. Whether they came here legally or illegally, any change in immigration can have a big impact on them, which is why immigration is a very sensitive topic. Whether you make a positive change such as giving citizenship to many more immigrants or you decide to increase deportation, which will have the negative effect of family separation and lost opportunities. Whether the change is positive, such as a better chance to become a citizen, or negative, more deportation leading to family separations, it will have a big impact in the city I live in. I live in Los Angeles and according to the PPIC there were 814,000 undocumented immigrants living in Los Angeles in 2013. That number is about 3.5 times larger than the second highest number of undocumented immigrants that reside in a Californian city. Since the population is so high, the whole city will be impacted, not just the immigrants. Now as someone who immigrated to the U.S. and knows the effect a change can have, I please ask you to take the time to understand the reasons for immigration and hopefully your decisions are for the best.

Sincerely,

Edwin Q.