Quiroz 1

Andrew Quiroz

Professor Moore

ENGL 1302

4 October, 2019

Troubles of Becoming an American Citizen: Casual Proposal Essay

No doubt about it, the immigration system in the United States is outdated and needs to

be updated or exchanged immediately. In the southern region of the United States where we

border many South American countries, is where many of our immigration problems begin.

Many families and individuals trying to come to the United States are leaving their previous

countries to come and seek a better life and opportunity, but the United States immigration

system restricts and delays many of those individuals trying to come. Existing immigration

problems are simply rooted to internal problems in our immigration system and cause many

external problems. Illegally coming to the United States and undocumented immigrants are a

trending topic that is being argued about in the United States. In 2016 there were about ten

million undocumented immigrants living in the United States that’s about three percent of the

entire United States population, so discussing and finding the proper plan to improve illegal

immigration is crucial (Amadeo). Citizens of the United States, families and friends of

undocumented immigrants, and even higher government officials have offered plans and ideas to

solve the illegal immigration problem in the United States, but we are still dealing with the same

flaws in our immigration system. From the mass increase of illegal immigration in the southern

border, families having to wait decades to receive their citizenship in America, the United States

government needs to improve or updated the immigration process by offering job programs for
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those individuals looking for work in the United States and provide assistants to those southern

American countries, to solve many of these problems we see in the southern region on the U.S.

Understanding why so many immigrants are leaving their previous country is a priority

for the United States government, due to the fact that many undocumented immigrants have no

other choice. Many immigrants from the southern region of the United States are fleeing their

previous country due to war, famine, and the lack of opportunity their country has to offer. Gang

violence and terrorism especially in countries such as Mexico, El Salvador, and many more, are

preventing many individuals living in those areas to have any kind of financial advancements.

These rises of violence in central and south American countries are leading to an increase of

immigrants flooding the southern border of the United States. The lack of power many of these

countries’ governments obtain, eventually leading to many of these gangs to take over several

parts of their countries, is causing many immigrants to flood up north to the southern border of

the United States. In the article Left Behind: The Dying Principle of Family Reunification, the

article speaks about the rise of children coming to the United States illegally from the southern

border, and it states “presumably believing that immigration policy toward children had become

more lenient”. With a lenient immigration policy, more children in the southern border are being

encouraged to flee their countries and illegally come to the United States. Between the years of

2009 and 2012 approximately 20,000 unaccompanied children illegally crossed each year, and

the number of unaccompanied children crossings has doubled from 2013 to 2014. (Ortiz-

Maddali) Seeing the numbers continue to increase, the U.S. needs to implement a plan to change

these numbers from continuing to see a rise.

Another push factor leading to a rise of undocumented immigration in the southern

border is the separation and the reunification amongst families once they get across the border.
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This immigration policy allows, particularly for Mexicans, for a male head of household to come

to the United States while his wife and children remained in their country of origin.(Ortiz-

Maddali) This prohibits the advancements for the children and the mothers in these families, thus

leading to undocumented mothers and their children coming to the U.S. illegally. Children that

are left to stay in their country of origin lack any advancements in their education as well as

being socially behind from the rest of the children already living in the United States. Often time

children coming from the southern border are criticized for their lack of knowledge, not knowing

proper English, and many more other problems those children have to deal with. Mothers often

times are left behind by their spouse and have no other option but to migrate to the United States

illegally with their children. With the immigration policy being in favor of the male head of the

household, mothers and their children have no other choice but to break the law. Often times,

families traveling the southern border die before they can even make it to the border due to

sickness, unbearable living conditions, and even found and killed by members of the Mexican

cartel. Finding a proper immigration policy to benefit the entire family and allowing them to live

in the United States is key to decreasing the number of mothers and their children illegally

coming to the United States.

Finding middle ground between the United States and other southern countries is key to

making immigration and migration to the United States safer and easier for immigrants, but as

well benefits and protects the United States and the citizens already living in the U.S. In order to

keep immigrants, save and have easier access to the U.S. we need to reduce the number

immigrants coming to the United States annually. With reducing the number of immigrants

coming to the U.S. we will have more focus for more families and the wait times in coming to

the United States will be reduced drastically. Giving more attentions for families needing the
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resources and jobs the U.S. has to offer will have more hard-working immigrants migrating to

the United States. One way to prevent the number of immigrants coming to the U.S. would be

supporting “immigrant sending countries” by help decrease the push-factors that are causing

immigrants to leave their countries. Obviously finical struggles can be found in most reasons

why immigrants are leaving, and the lack of job opportunities is one of the main reasons of

migration to the United States. Offer programs with jobs for those individuals looking for work

in the United States eventually and providing finical assistants to these countries will ultimately

lead to mass decrease in the number of annual immigrants. With more jobs being offered and the

more people going to work gives opportunity to their children wanting to attend a school.

Education is broken in many southern American countries and those conflicts make another

reason of migration to the United States.

Seeing the immigration process and struggling to obtain a healthy system for the U.S. and

those immigrants needing to come to the United States is a problem the U.S. is yet to fix or

update. With the mass immigration rates from the southern border, the undocumented

immigrants already living in the U.S., and the immigrants illegally coming the U.S. are all

problems generated from the poor immigration system. With the decade long waits to obtain a

citizenship for some individuals and the restricts to many families especially for women and

children, eventually causing them to break the law and illegally come to United States. The

United States government needs to step up and fix and adjust the immigration system

immediately. Needing to decrease the annual number of immigrants coming the U.S. by offering

opportunities for those needing to leave their countries because of the lack of any kind of

advancement. The United States government needs to see the problem is within the system itself

and update the immigration system for the benefit of many families and people.
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Works Cited

Anon, (2019). [online] Available at:

http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=8&sid=10f18e83-8799-4a11-b929-

133d67e7da1c%40sessionmgr4007 [Accessed 11 Nov. 2019].

Progressives for Immigration Reform. (2019). A Proposal for Comprehensive

Immigration Reform — Progressives for Immigration Reform. [online] Available at:

https://progressivesforimmigrationreform.org/a-proposal-for-comprehensive-immigration-

reform/ [Accessed 11 Nov. 2019].

The White House. (2019). Facing the Facts About Our Broken Immigration System | The

White House. [online] Available at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/facing-

facts-broken-immigration-system/ [Accessed 11 Nov. 2019].