Immigration in the United States.
Immigration is happening across the world, people from Afghanistan, Iran and other countries. Countries around the world are getting immigrants from different countries that are in war or in poverty. The United States, the land of the free and home of the brave, is a country that people sees as a peaceful, and an abundant country. People want to live in the United States, because either they are scared of living in their homes because of terrorist of fighting in their country, wanting a new life, or some other reason to come to the United States. The process of being a citizen of the United States, is a long and strenuous process. The process of becoming of a citizen of the United States has to be faster, and easier for those to become part of the United States.
The process of becoming an United States citizen, or becoming naturalize for citizenship, is that you must be over the age of 21 (Various sources). The immigrant applying for U.S citizenship have to been in the United States for the last five years consecutively (roatostatus.com). You have to determine if you are already a U.S citizen, then determine if you are eligible to become a U.S citizen if you are not already a U.S citizen. (10NUPBUSC) The immigrant has to show that they have lived for at least three months in the same state or USCIS district where they currently live (BUCHLIP). The immigrant must prepare for the N-400, application for Naturalization and submit the N-400 (uscis.gov). The immigrant goes to the biometrics appointment if his N-400 is acceptable (uscis.gov). The immigrant then has to complete an interview to prove if he or she is allowed, and received a decision from USCIS on the N-400 form (uscis.gov). The N-400 form is usually the main form that people use to become an United States citizen, but there’s different ways to become an U.S citizen. You can apply for spouse of an United States Citizen, son or daughter of an United States citizen, parent of an United States citizen, brother or sister of an United States citizen, and more. There is a downfall of having a lot of different ways of becoming an United States citizen though, the process of this is a long and hard process. You must have had a green card for at least five years or, if you are married to a U.S citizen for three years (HLDUCPT). You will have to do an interview, and the officer will decide if you qualify to become a U.S citizen (10NUPBUSC). The USCIS will receive your application after you sent it in and they will send you a letter scheduling a biometrics appointment (HLDUCPT). A biometrics is where they get your fingerprints, photograph and signature taken. (HLDUCPT) This is to see if you have a criminal background.
The process of waiting to become a United States citizen can take to 6 months to a year or maybe even longer depending on what form you have. There is different ways to apply for citizenship, you have the U.S Citizenship Form N-400, Green Card Renewal Form I-90, Employment Authorization Document Form I-765, Green card for Family Form I-130, Replace Certificate of Citizenship Form N-565. (leena)
If you are the child of a U.S citizen you would use the U.S. citizenship Form N-400 . If you are the child or spouse of a green card holder, you might use the second preference and the wait for a US visa can be five to ten years. (leena) If you are the married child of a U.S citizen and the wait for a US visa is eight years (Leena). If you are the sibling of a US citizen, the wait of this can be affected in different ways (Leena). The US limits the number of family-sponsored visas granted by countries (Leena). If you are from a country where too many people are applying for a U.S visa through family sponsorship, the wait might be longer (Leena). You could apply for citizenship through employer sponsorship (Leena).
The United States has many forms of becoming a citizen, but it takes years to actually become a full fledge citizen. Why do people have to wait to become a citizen if their own countries is in chaos? Why do families have to wait years to have their dreams come true, to live in a country without fear of being shot, where they can make a change in their children's eyes and give them love and send them to school. We are deporting people who are workers, fathers, mothers, and people who want a change in their life. A majority of immigrants are working to feed their families, give them a good life that they don’t have. The United States, is sending immigrants who has worked in the United States, who has paid taxes. Rates of work for immigrants and natives tend to be similar, 70 percent of both immigrants and natives (ages 18 to 65) held a job in March 2015 (Zeigler and Camarota). This proves that some statements that immigrants don’t work, well that is wrong considered that they have the same rate of work as natives. A large share of immigrants have low levels of formal education (Camarota, and Zeigler). Of adult immigrants (ages 25 to 65), 28 percent have not completed high school compared to 8 percent of natives(Camarota, and Zeigler). The share of immigrants (25 to 65) with at least a bachelor’s degree is only slightly lower than natives, 30 percent of immigrants vs 32 percent of natives (Camarota, and Zeigler).
In 2014, 49 percent of immigrants were maids, 47 percent were chauffeurs and taxi drivers. 33 percent were butchers and meat processors, and 35 percent of construction laborers were foreign-born or immigrants. Natives earn a median annual earning of 46,172 dollars between the ages of 25 to 65 (Camarota, and Zeigler). Immigrants get a median annual earning of 37,182 dollars between ages 25 to 65. The difference of the cash to natives and immigrants were 8,990 dollars (Camarota, and Zeigler). That might not seem a lot, but it could be a huge difference in the household.
The U.S immigrant population stood at more than 43.3 million, or 13.5% of the total U.S. population in 2015, the total population of the U.S. in 2015 was 321.4 million according to the American Community Survey data. (Zong, Batalova) In 2015, approximately 51 percent of the immigrants were female. In 2015, fewer than 1 percent of immigrants were under the age of 5. Approximately 5 percent were ages 5 to 17. 80 percent were ages 18 to 64, and 15 percent were ages 65 and older. This proves that the age group that mainly young or old adults are coming to the United States. Approximately 11.6 million Mexican immigrants resided in the United States in 2015, according to the ACS this is accounting for 27 percent of all U.S immigrants. (Zong, Batalova) About 69 percent of the 11.2 million immigrants from Mexico, ages 16 and older, were in the civilian labor force in 2015. That fact distinguish that about 7,728,000 were Mexican immigrants in the civilian labor force. In 2015, 17.9 million children under age 18 lived with one immigrant parent (Zong, Batalous).
In 2015, around 48 percent of immigrants (20.7 million) were naturalized U.S. citizens. (Zong, Batalova) The remaining 52 percent (22.6 million) included lawful permanent residents, unauthorized immigrants, and legal residents on temporary visas. (Zong, Batalova) In 2015, 45 percent of immigrants (19.5 million) reported to having Hispanic or Latino origins.(Zong, Batalova) In 2015, 29 percent (11.1 million) of the 37.7 million immigrants ages of 25 and older had a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 31 percent of native-born adults. (Zong, Batalous).
In 2014, 18 percent of immigrants and their U.S-born children (under 18 years old), lacked health insurance, compared to 9 percent of natives and their children. (Camarota, and Zeigler) This probably comes from by that fact that the annual earning of immigrants are 37,182 which is a 8,990 difference compared to the annual earning of 46,172 to natives. There are 10.9 million students from immigrant households in public school(Camarota, and Zeigler). They account for nearly 23 percent of all public school students (Camarota, and Zeigler). In 2015, the top five states by number were California (10.7 million), Texas (4.7 million), New York (4.5 million), Florida( 4.1 million), and New Jersey (Close to 2 million). (Zong, Batalova)
A U.S. employer can sponsor certain skilled worker who will be hired into permanent job. (TIVP) The United States law limits the number of visas available each year with certain limits by countries (TIVP). A U.S citizen can file an immigrant for: spouse, son or daughter, parent, brother or sister. (TIVP). Widow of a U.S. citizen and you were married to your U.S. citizen spouse at the time your spouse died could have a green card (GCP&P). The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) defines a child as a person who is both unmarried and under 21 years old. (GCP&P)
How can you change a system that is slow, and have people thinking that it’s good? We can change up the system by having shortening the time of becoming naturalized. The process of becoming a U.S. citizen is long, and we should shorten the time. Studies showed that they do work, 70 percent of those immigrants work or held a job in 2015. Immigrants are proving that they want to be in the United States and will be working to become a U.S. citizen, and we should allow them less waiting time to become a U.S. citizen. We can use a system if that you are currently working as an immigrant, you could become a citizen faster. This would make immigrants wanting to work, and do hard work. This would probably raise the rate work of immigrants by 5 percent at least. People say that there is too many immigrants in the United States now but, they make only 12 percent of the population, in 1915, the population was only 15 percent (Stossel). If we can make U.S. citizenship easier, wouldn’t this stop illegal immigration and stop people sneaking in (Stossel).
The United States has a long way to go before making the right decision that immigration should be easier. The United States is the land of freedom and new lives. Immigration was happening all over the world even back in older times. Immigration happened in the beginning of the United States. People back then wanted a new life, away from Britain. The United States is the place that everyone wants to come because we have a good system, we are hard workers, we have good paying jobs, we have things that people don’t have. We should allow immigrants to work for the United States, and get paid. Immigrants are showing that they are willing to work and make a change in there lives. The United States shouldn’t be a roadblock of their dreams but, support them. Immigrants have gave up their lives back in their countries so that they could have a new and a more superior life they had back in their own country. The U.S. needs to stand up and aid the immigrants to their new lives, and that one step needs to be that they need to become a U.S. citizen faster.