Argumentative Essay on Immigration

Introduction

The immigration department has for long been embedded with various problems that have almost effectively crippled its operations. With the American nation receiving several immigrants over the years, the immigration rules have not been as sufficient as anyone would expect of the most powerful nation on earth today. As much as the Americans may hate the debates surrounding the contentious issues surrounding immigration, it is important that this issue is faced boldly in order to develop workable policies that will ensure effective running of the immigration departments. This essay paper, with reference to various sources, seeks to outline the various reforms that the policy makers in the immigration department should consider adopting in order to hasten the immigration services.

Reform is an integral part of any system. Change is always inevitable. New ideas have to be developed, new rules and regulations stipulated and new policies adopted. However, there are those elements that are not subject to change, either because they are too suitable to be changed, or simply because there is no apparent need to change them. This is the same case with the immigration department of the United States of America. There are policies that were adopted in the past and they have worked effectively, living up their dreams. Apparently, gaining the citizenship of the U.S.A is one of the biggest challenges encountering the immigration department. An 1898 Supreme Court ruling stipulated all the requirements surrounding the citizenship of all American people.

The Supreme Court ruled that a person is automatically a U.S citizen if he or she is born in the United States regardless of the nationalities of the parents. This is also commonly referred to as citizenship by birth. The same court went further to state that a person qualifies to gain automatic citizenship by birth on U.S soil even when the parents are illegally staying in the United States of America. These legislative measures within citizenship by birth have no flaws hence they do not require any amendments to work more effectively. It should always remain that any person born in the United States remains to be a citizen unless he or she is mature enough to declare otherwise. The problems facing the immigration department begin with the process of acquiring citizenship for those who are not citizens by birth. This can also be referred to as the mother of all problems and unless the laws governing this particular issue are not closely looked into and reformed, there will be no positive improvement in immigrations. (Feinstein, 2006)

Applying for permanent legal residence is the next step for the people who are not U.s citizens by birth, also referred to as green card holders. Foreign born spouses, minor children and the parents of U.s citizens are automatically eligible to apply to be permanent legal resident. The chain continues to further allow other relatives like brothers and sisters of those who have already acquired a permanent legal resident to also apply. Though there are a limited number of such people who can apply for the permanent legal resident, this is a unnecessary wide extension of allowing more people to gain American citizenship. Critics might argue that America is an open country for anyone who wishes to apply for its citizenship, but the same critics should be made to understand that the immigration department is almost insufficient because the policies and regulations that are in place are not designed to cover a very huge number of immigrants apparently allowed by the American government. There are only two solutions to this problem. One is to make laws that drastically limit the number of relatives of people who are not citizens of America by birth can apply. The large number that is currently allowed by the same government is too high, such that the immigration machinery is insufficient to handle them all within a specified period of time. Reducing this number will ultimately give the immigration department the initiative to operate more effectively and prominently. Second is to maintain the allowed number of people related to the Americans with the permanent legal resident certificate, but devise policies that will effectively and clearly stipulate wide time spans in which the intended people can apply for permanent residence. For instance, only two or three people related to an American citizen with permanent residence can apply within a period of say 10 years. This will take into consideration that a majority of the relatives of American citizens are allowed to seek U.S citizenship but limited by the length of time in which they can do so. (Meyer, 2006)

The lottery system, in which 55,000 people, obviously non-U.S citizens are allowed to apply for American citizenship is another challenge facing the immigration department of the United States of America. These people are randomly selected annually from nations with little rates of immigration to the U.S. It is a subject for another day on what criteria and formula the American government used to come up with this figure, but it is obvious that the government was interested in increasing the number of immigrants to the U.S, successfully increasing the overall population of America. (Kelly, 2009)

This figure can be argued both positively and negatively depending on what angle you choose to argue from. Arguing from an immigration point of view, a large number of arguments are definitely negative. By default, the immigration department is forced to put mechanism into place that will oversee the successful immigration of 55,000 people to the United States of America. This does not in any way suggest that immigrants should not be accepted into the U.S, but new policies should be developed taking into account how this number affects the effectiveness of the immigration department, and whether this number can be revised. Of course it is imperative to either lower the number to a more decent figure like 20, 000 people annually, or if the number has to be retained, the frequency in which the lottery programs are made available need to be drastically revised. For instance, the same number of people can be allowed American citizenship through the lottery system, but be subjected to a frequency of two or three years. (Meyer, 2006)

Conclusion

Conclusively, the reforming arguments clearly outweigh the forces opposing change with regard to the immigration policy. Therefore the United States of America immigration has to be reworked in the best interest of the U.s citizens. It is utterly meaningless to have immigration policies that are not only ineffective, but do not serve the interest of the American Citizens. Critics of the current immigration policy even argue that the same policies are so ineffective that criminals or people with questionable character are allowed to infiltrate into the American nations, hence ending up in putting the lives of the law abiding citizens at unintended risk. The policy makers in the immigration sector should indeed approach this issue with a sober mind, have the interest of the American citizens at heart, make wide consultations from professional and other government officials, or better still seek the advisory reforms contained herein, then draft new policies that transform the immigration department from near ineffective to near excellent. This way, the American people will gain pride and confidence in it. Anything less of the reforms proposed in this paper will be extremely gross and disappointing.