Dear Future President,

I would like to congratulate you on your win as President of the United States. As an upcoming voter in the next election, I am concerned with some of the issues that are very important today, such as illegal immigration. I hope that you will take a look at illegal immigration because it has been the source of many of the problems happening today in our country. Today, there are over 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. While here, not only do immigrants take away jobs from Americans, but they could also be a potential threat to the citizens living in the U.S because no one knows who they are or where they come from. In order to fix this problem, we need to promote a more efficient form of background checks and scannings.

Immigration should be a primary concern to you because of all of the problems that it has been causing in this country. There have been many shootings within the past year, and most of the shooters entered the U.S. as immigrants. One example of this was the San Bernardino shooting in California. In 2014, Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik traveled to the U.S. from the middle east. With little to no background checks, they were able to pass into the United States freely. In fact, Farook became a U.S. citizen. However, it was not discovered that the couple pledged allegiance to ISIS until after they had shot and killed 14 people, and soon after died themselves. The couple had been able to pass into the country and become U.S. citizens, only to commit an act of terrorism. In 2011, 11.4 million immigrants were let into the country alone. Many of the people let in could potentially cause harm to American citizens. In addition, the current unemployment rate among U.S. citizens is about 5%. That’s about 15 million people who are jobless in America today. It doesn’t help that 8 million illegal immigrants are taking jobs from Americans who need them considering that many Americans need jobs that are going to the immigrants.

Ms. Clinton, historically you are too generous to the immigrants entering the country. On your website, you state that you will “Expand access to affordable healthcare to all families. We should let families—regardless of immigration status—buy into the Affordable Care Act exchanges. Families who want to purchase health insurance should be able to do so” (HillaryClinton.com). I believe that rather than expanding healthcare to all of the immigrants entering the country, we should work on improving the health care, as opposed to expanding it. Ms. Clinton, you are a little too lenient with the immigrants. In order to fix the immigration problem, you have to become more proactive and not give the immigrants exactly what they want, rather work on fixing the things that you plan on giving to them once they enter the country, like healthcare. Mr. Trump, the answer to this solution is not to build a wall. Rather than focusing more on border control, though very important, I believe that the way to deal with the immigration problem is not to physically keep them out of the country. Deporting them is not a solution. Rather, increase the efficiency and quality of background checks to make sure that the people entering our country mean no harm. Even though I know that this is what you go against, I believe that to build a wall and deport immigrants is not the answer. These immigrants need our help. The reason that they are entering the country is usually because they are looking for a better life. To simply shut the door on them, or to “Build a wall,” is not the way to deal with this problem. In fact, this will probably encourage immigrants to enter illegally if you continue to deny their entrance legally. We cannot simply turn our backs on these people who need help. Though you may argue with this point, in the Declaration of Independence the founding fathers stated that, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” This includes immigrants, living in the country. If you were living in the country, than you were to be treated equally, regardless of who you are. This entitles immigrants in the country to the same freedoms and equalities that we live by today. To get rid of them that you, Mr. Trump, have said you are going to do, goes against the Declaration of Independence. Running this country is not like a business that you were accustomed to running. These are people, not numbers, and they needed to be treated like U.S. citizens, not immigrants, even if they are immigrants. Many of these immigrants need to support their families, and to simply turn their back on them or deport them is not the solution. What I recommend is a way to ensure more efficient background checks by taking more time to look at people who would like to enter the country. By obtaining more information about these people, it would ensure a better understanding of the person and if they were dangerous or not. Also, monitor them once in the country. This would benefit us greatly, because the U.S. would be able to keep a close watch on the immigrant to possibly prevent another San Bernardino shooting if that were their intentions. 

 To conclude, I recommend that you increase the efficiency of background checks, by making them more detailed or in depth on the person. The U.S. could review their past, as well as view their intentions in the United States. This would help us get a better understanding of the person and why they are in the U.S. Also, it would be beneficial to monitor the immigrants after they have been let into the country to make sure that they will not commit acts of crime. This needs to be done soon, as the amount of immigrants in the country increases every day.

Sincerely,

Luke L.