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We Are Killing Diversity Nevaeh is a 15 year old student who attends Unity Christian Academy. Nevaeh loves reading and designing. You will often find her reading a great book or hanging out with friends. Immigration is an expansive topic that evokes mixed feelings and opinions. The United States is a melting pot of diverse communities that includes Whites, Blacks, Asians, Puerto Ricans, Afro-Latinos and many others. To eliminate any race would mean erasing parts of our society and be devastating to the economy and immigrants themselves. Immigrants should have the right to live in the United States as long as they possess legal documentation and citizenship. They should not fear deportation simply because the laws set in place to protect them are able to be bent and turned against them. Immigration has been a cornerstone of American history since before the country’s creation. According to the Library of Congress, “In the late 1800s, people in many parts of the world decided to leave their homes and immigrate to the United States.” Fleeing crop failure, land and job shortages, rising taxes, and famine, many came to the U.S. because it was perceived as the “land of economic opportunity.” This quote highlights the key motivation for immigration; the hope for a better life. The
United States was advertised as, “The Land of Freedom and Opportunity,” offering individuals freedom and the ability to make their own choices. These are luxuries that may not have been available in their countries. Birthright citizenship further cemented these ideals. According to Laila Khan in her article “Immigration Impact: The Origins of Birthright Citizenship in the United States,” the Fourteenth Amendment was established in 1868 following the Civil War to grant a person, born in the U.S. or naturalized, citizenship and equal rights. That includes African Americans and freed slaves. It’s been over a century since the fourteenth amendment was ratified. This amendment corrected the 1857 Dred Scott decision, which had ruled that the U.S. Constitution did not provide citizenship to people of African descent. The Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” This ensures that anyone born or granted citizenship in the United States is recognized as a legal citizen. It’s important to understand that the process of obtaining legal citizenship is often complex, expensive, and worrisome. Many immigrants skip legal approaches because they find the system overly harsh, time-consuming, or biased. Despite this, immigrants still contribute
(708) 548-6356 significantly to society. They pay taxes, hold jobs, and play an active role in supporting the economy, just like any other citizen. If we were to make the process for citizenship and legal documentation easier, maybe then immigrants would feel better about the legal process. What would also help is if they were able to just take refuge in places that’ll protect them. In conclusion, immigrants with legal documentation and legal citizenship should have every right to live freely and unbothered in the United States. What’s stopping them from doing so is the legal system and the law. The injustice and cruelty of it. It may seem like it’s working to help them, but that can all be changed in a matter of seconds. Laws can be bent and they would not be able to do anything about it. They also shouldn’t be threatened with violence just because they don’t want to leave. They have lives, people who care about them and vice versa. They deserve to be treated like human beings because that’s what they are. We are all equal. We need to have a little compassion and show them that. This essay is part of a series of perspectives written by students at Unity Christian Academy in South Holland. The topics cover some of the most pressing issues of our times and the opinions are of the writers themselves. We are grateful to UCA English Educator Hannah Morgan for organizing this partnership.