Quinones Ch. 1-3 - Blog Entry #1

I support immigration. Millions of U.S. citizens have immigrant heritage. If the process of coming to the U.S. and becoming a citizen is done correctly, I support it. It's the illegal part that is troublesome and gives me a headache when I think about it. There is an illegal immigration problem that has been going on for decades in the United States and we have seen and will continue to see the results of it for decades to come, if not longer. According to The Heritage Foundation (http://www.heritage.org/Research/HomelandSecurity/bg2245.cfm), about 11 million illegal aliens live in the U.S. They also state that, "often", they don't pay taxes. With 11 million illegal aliens comes an astronomical amount of health care and education costs. The Heritage Foundation found that so far illegal aliens in CA cost the state anywhere from $9 billion to $38 billion in "public services", which could include a large number of programs. There is an unavoidable problem.

As an ESL teacher, I love working with my students and helping them acquire English so they can have the best chance at success in their lives, but the question that rises in my mind is, how long is the United States going to be able to pay for this? I love my students, my friends, and my country, but given our current economic situation, and our national debt hitting a whopping $10,000,000,000,000 (yes, $10 trillion) (the number was retrieved from : http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,434704,00.html) recently, I'm worried. Something must be done.

But there's more. I realize this is an old argument, but it's still worthy of repetition: according to Quinones, Bermúdez was deported, then returned to CA a few days later. If anyone that pleases can cross our borders with such ease, what kind of people in the world does that open the door to? Anyone from another country could arrive in Mexico, pay a coyote to smuggle him across the border, and they'd be able to possibly carry out whatever they came to the U.S. to do.

I understand that it's easy to complain, so what are some suggestions for immigration reform? The first thing that comes to mind is adding more security to the southern border, which entails a lot of government/military action. The second is deportation. If a U.S. citizen were to go to a foreign country illegally, they would more than likely be deported back upon being discovered. This is also an issue to look at, although I wouldn't have the best suggestion on how to go about it. But if the borders are left unsecured as they are now, those deported would more than likely return after a short time. Also, if it were easier to become a citizen, then perhaps more people would do it the right way. Changing the laws for naturalization is also an idea that should be considered. Thanks for reading.

INTERESTING SOURCES

1. VIDEO CLIP: GERALDO VS. O'REILLY

Here's a nice controversial video clip from The Factor. It seems they are arguing 2 different things, but in my opinion, Geraldo misses the point. What do you think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7Nt8MQaKko

2. NATURALIZATION PROCESS. I was just curious about the naturalization process, so here's a helpful link if you are too:
http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=ee14b4ac0933e010VgnVCM1000000ecd190aRCRD&vgnextchannel=fe529c7755cb9010VgnVCM10000045f3d6a1RCRD