COMMUNITY PROBLEM: LEGAL AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

Community problem: Legal and Illegal immigration

Alexa D. Villalobos Diaz
University of Texas at El Paso

COMMUNITY PROBLEM: LEGAL AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

Abstract
Immigration has become a big issue in the United States of America. Immigration
has been happening in the country since the 1800s. The issue nowadays is that many
people think that the immigrant population is a population that will cause disaster to our
country but not every one of them is like that. Is the idea that every American has of them
and they could change that if they were willing to do so. By letting them know the
culture, by making them feel that they belong to here, by not categorize them, they
deserve the same human rights as everyone else. Immigrants pass through many
problems including sociocultural, socioeconomic, governmental troubles and many
others, but those three are the ones who will be discussed in this community problem.
This days the people has put a certain definition to immigrant people, is time to change
that definition and make one that will really show who they really are and make them feel
like in home. By coming to another country as immigrant they knew that they were going
to face many problems, but the American population does not help when they make the
immigrants life more difficult.

COMMUNITY PROBLEM: LEGAL AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

Introduction
Immigration has been a controversial topic. Immigrants pass through many
difficulties when they start their lives in the United States or any other new country.
These problems could be extended in many topics, such as, culture, economy, language,
norms, habits and social life. Out of all these issues the most pressing are sociocultural,
socioeconomic and norms. Life of immigrants, the major problem that they might face is
integration, by that coming economic and social issue. According to Steven Ridley in his
article published in the New York Times, The real global goal should be economic equity
that can preserve culture while encouraging positive migration in all directions:
essentially, a world without borders.(2015, N.P.) Like Steven Ridley said immigration
more than an economic and geographic problem, has become a socio-cultural problem
since they are not used to the new culture. This issue has affected immigrants lives and
many Americans lives because they see the immigrants as people who do not do well in
our society. They are opposed because by having the immigrants in the United States
means that there is less job for the Americans, less geographic space, and a diversity of
culture that they may not like.
The issues of being immigrant
Before the Immigrant population can come into the United States they pass
through a long, hard and difficult process. The process is worse if they are illegal
immigrants. First the legal immigrants need to pass to a long process of paperwork that
might take months or even years. After that, they need to take several tests knowing the
history of the United States, and they need to understand and speak English to pass that
test. After that, they need to go to court to see if the court approves their citizenship.

COMMUNITY PROBLEM: LEGAL AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

Someone cannot simply ask for a citizenship. They need to have a valid reason (with
written proof) of why they should be granted the citizenship. That is why nowadays there
are many illegal immigrants because of the difficulty to become a citizen or become a
resident in the United States. To enter the country illegally is a much harder, difficult and
dangerous way. This mode of cross the border is very dangerous and many people fall,
have their bodies mutilated, and some die (Sladkova, 2013, pg.2). Become an illegal
immigrant is not called a process, because they would prefer to enter into the United
States legally, but not everyone have the opportunity that is why they pass through all this
controversies. First, they travel all the way to the border of Mexico, there they need to
meet a coyote, which is a person that charges to cross people to the border of the
United States but it is not a comfortable way of passing the border, most of the times they
came into trucks with no oxygen at all, and it is very hard for them to breath and more
when there is 30 people or more in a really tiny space. For what articles and resources
said being immigrant it is a big decision because they are carrying a big package in their
lives.
Sociocultural issues
The immigrant population has been affected with severe problems, they are
having a hard time adjusting in this new country; they are in the search of a new and
better job than the one they used to have in their natal country. What does not help them
is being criticized and rejected by the American society. They make them feel that they
are less and that they should return to their natal home. Alejandro Portes wrote in The
New Second Generation, The countless literary sagas of immigration portray it as the
journey of people who struggle to leave political oppression and destitution behind and

COMMUNITY PROBLEM: LEGAL AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

who seek, and eventually succeed, in rebuilding their lives on freedoms shores.(1996,
pg.1) What Alejandro meant was that the immigrant population comes to this country in
the search of hope and leaving behind the entire struggle and suffering of their past. They
are not pretending to change Americans way of living or take their jobs. They just want
to fit in a new society where they will be able to find a new way of living and hope as
mentioned in the new second generation.

Another point to talk about is that not every immigrant legal or illegal has the
fault or living in here because sometimes it is not his or her choice to come. For example,
the immigrant children, they did not make the decision to come at the age of 2 or 3. They
were brought to this country without their consent. And that action could bring them
consequences in their future because they might face discrimination, rejection, bullying,
or many other things. They live with the consequences of their parents actions. Like
Hiroshi Motumara said in his article published in Harvard Law Review, Lee is right that
arguments in favor of legalization for unauthorized children often assume or assert that
children who were brought to the United States by their parents have claims to belonging
that are much stronger that claims of unauthorized migrants who came as adults. He is
trying to emphasize that those children should not live with the consequences of their
parent actions, even if they were not born here, they have lived his or her entire life in the
Unites States, they are used to the culture, way of living, and many other things. If
someone take that away for them could create issues in his or her life. Integrating them
would improve the situation because they will integrate their families by letting them

COMMUNITY PROBLEM: LEGAL AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

know how the American culture is and that would allow a better balance between
immigrants in this country.

Americans nowadays have a certain

definition of who immigrants are,
they have a definition that is wrong in
many ways. We live in a word with an
advanced technology and we are
improving in many things as a
country, changing the definition of
who immigrant are would reflect that
our society is growing in a sociocultural way. People do not accept someone if is different
they make them feel less just because they are different. Like Maureen Costello wrote in
the scholarly article, Our need for immigrant labor has offset (but not neutralized) the
fear of those who are different. At times, weve celebrated the great salad bowl, and, at
other times, weve worried about assimilation and threats to our ways of life. (2014,
N.P.) Maureen in this article was trying to create consciousness that students should be
aware of what immigration is and what have the immigrants brought to this country, there
has been bad thing, but most of them has been good for the country, in an economic and
socio-cultural way. Giving immigrants the opportunity to live an American life would
prove that they are just as any other humans. If immigrant could work, or study in here, it
would be less chances for them to become criminals. Giving them the opportunity to

COMMUNITY PROBLEM: LEGAL AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

improve as a human would not make any danger to anyone, or anything, is just to let
them prove themselves.
Solutions
Currently these days, there are organizations that help legal and illegal
immigrants. Those organizations gave immigrants the opportunity to work, and to have
an education. They have lawyers which help them to get a work visa, or a student visa.
The organizations might not give them all the rights as a U.S. citizen, but at least allow
them the opportunity to overcome themselves. There is a local organization named Las
Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, this organization provides them opportunities to
those immigrants who had not been so lucky in this country. Their mission is, a country
where all immigrants have access to high quality legal representation based on the
principle of justice and human rights.(N.P.) They provide them a place to stay, a place
where they can feel they belong to, because for them is really difficult to belong to this
country even if they try, they cannot because of the rejection of almost everyone.
Changing the way people think about immigrants would allow us to improve as a society
and as a country.
Immigration is an important topic in our country, with many points of view that
created a big debate. The government has put policies into place to improve immigrants
life but there are other issues that everyone should look at, like mentioned before,
sociocultural, and socioeconomic issues. Changing our way thinking of how we see
immigrants could make a big difference. For example, letting immigrants get into our
culture by involving them and do not categorize them as immigrants but just as any other
person in out society. Another point could be giving them the opportunity to work, and

COMMUNITY PROBLEM: LEGAL AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

not discriminate them for having an accent or for not knowing simple things. Making
them feel that they are at home and that they belong to here would make a difference, and
most important, giving them the rights that they deserve as studying and working. Giving
them the life that they have wish for, they change his whole life because they wanted to
live better and to have a better one, let them have it.

COMMUNITY PROBLEM: LEGAL AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

References
Ridley, S. (2015, March 21). Our Immigration Policy. The New York Times. Retrieved from
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/opinion/our-immigration-policy.html?
ref=topics&_r=0
Sldkov, J. (2014) The guys told us crying that they saw how they were killing her and they
could not do anything": Psychosocial Explorations Of Migrant Journeys To The U.S.
Psychosocial Intervention, 23(1), 1-9.
Motumara, H. (2015). Children and parents, innocence and guilt. Harvard Law Review, 128(5),
137-144.
Costello, M (Summer, 2014). An Educators Guide to the Immigration Debate. Teaching
Tolerance. Retrieved from http://www.tolerance.org/magazine/number-47-summer2014/feature/educator-s-guide-immigration-debate
Rivas, L. (N/A). Our mission. Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center. Retrieved April 6,
2015, from http://las-americas.org/?page_id=37.