I've mentioned before that one of my best friends, Priscilla, moved to the United States with her family from Kenya when she was a toddler. While she speaks Dholuo (I have no clue how to spell that) and is very in touch with her Kenyan roots, she always has considered herself to be a member of this country. Her family is well educated, both her parents have great jobs, and she and both her older brothers have been successful. This family fought to obtain their citizenship for the longest time. It was not until her brother Paul chose to join the Navy that they were all actually granted citizenship.
Now, maybe it's just me, but that seems pretty selfish. To me, that's basically the United States saying, "We do not want these wonderful contributing members of society to be a part of this country... Unless it can benefit us directly". I understand that is how the world works. Very few people will do anything for someone else unless they can get something in return. Herein lies the problem with our immigration system in the US.
Republicans and Democrats in Washington are continuously bickering about how to go about fixing this flawed system. Republicans are calling from greater border control and Democrats want the path to citizenship to be loosened. My question is, why can't we have both?
On the one hand, I do think that it is far too easy for people to just sneak in and live normal lives here as illegal immigrants. We have a system of laws set up to prevent this, and for whatever reason, these laws are often neglected. There are far too many people taking advantage of the American way of life without paying their dues. It is not fair for those who work hard every day to make up for it.
However, the thing I don't understand is why we can't just grant them citizenship? I'm not saying anybody who wants to can become a citizen, but the process that we have now is far too difficult. I've seen some examples of the questions that they pose on the tests, and I can say with 100% certainty, if I had to take one of those, I would be deported instantaneously. Why can't we ease up on these tests? People clearly want to be here, that's why they immigrated here to begin with, why don't we reward them for their determination to assimilate to the US? Why did it take my friend's brother's willingness to risk his life for this country before we responded, "Okay, we guess you can stay".
All this being said, I do think that border control has to increase as well. I think both sides have great ideas, but why do they refuse to work together?
As I've said, I grew up in a very diverse town. Everybody I knew, whether they were Brazilian, Puerto Rican, Mexican, white, black, Asian, Jewish, Christian, or whatever, they identified with these ethnicities/religions/nationalities. However, every single one of them is proud and happy to live in the United States. Whether they were legal or not, they considered themselves American. So why can't we allow that to be the case?
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