US immigration

US immigration has been going on since the 17^th century. There are always multiple reasons why someone from another country wants to come to the United States. It could be because they have family in the US, they want a better opportunity to work and raise a family or they plan on getting married to a citizen once they cross over. Despite the reason that immigrants come over to the United States, numbers have done nothing but increase over the years of people coming into the United States. In the last 60 years the United States went from 249,187 in 1950 to in 2012 having 1,031,631 people granted legal permanent resident status. While most immigration comes from Mexico and China there are still thousands of people who come from India, Philippines, Dominican Republic, Americas, Asia, Africa, and Europe.

When reading the books that we have in class including “Crossing the Wire” it made me feel sad about people are crossing the border to survive. Also the fact they are only doing this because they can’t survive in the country that they are from. In my opinion the United States looks at all people that are immigrants as “aliens” and we should not be doing that. Especially in someone has been in the US their entire lives because they came over to the states as a baby and don’t know any other country customs. It reminds me of the part in “Crossing the Wire” when the American man who only knew English paid for tacos with a ten dollar bill and the taco truck man didn’t give him change back until the boys told the truck driver not to rip the guy off. It is cases that follow those lines that make me wonder if the US is always doing the right thing when deporting everyone that they can.

I looked up research on the process of US immigration and found out that it is a very complex process that has to be done in order to become a citizen the legally. There is a limit of 675,000 permanent immigrants with exceptions that enter the US every year. The president and congress determine admissions for the United States.

If there is immigration that is family based then there are three ways that they can get into the country. You have to be a spouse of an US citizen, unmarried minor children of U.S. citizen, who are under 21 years old or parents of a US citizen which you have to be at least 21 years old. Another way to get into the US in employment-based immigration which gives non US citizens temporary visas. There are 5 different types of temporary visas that I found which include transfers, athletes, entertainers and skilled performers, religious workers, domestic employees, extraordinary ability or high skilled employment. These all fall under different categories to allow immigrants to get a temporary or permanent visa.

Through the research I have done and the readings we have done in class it has really opened my eyes about the process and information and struggles that immigrants have to go through in order to become a US citizen.