Provide the path to Citizenship

By: Andrew Pongtananon

The Reasoning Behind the Right

When you are in another country with a job, would you want to have the right to stay? Everyday more and more immigrants arrive in the U.S. just to get  jobs and have enough money to support their families back in their countries. It is claimed that in the U.S., almost all immigrants have a job and pay taxes just like the U.S. citizens. The argument continues that if they have a job and an education, and pay taxes, then they should have the right to stay the country.

In this image, you can see that Americans earn more money but they pay fewer taxes than the undocumented immigrants

Who Is Involved

One organization that work for this ideal to become true includes Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act , along with similar supporters such as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

DREAM Act is one organization that tries to help illegal students receive money to attend college and become U.S. citizens. It is a bipartisan legislation, and it mainly focuses its support upon immigrant children. It was introduced by Senator Dick Durbin  in 2009, a Democrat pushing for humane and supportive treatment of young immigrants.

DREAM Act’s belief is that their program will not only help undocumented immigrants, but that it will help the country as a whole. They advocate that it would give students an opportunity to contribute back to the country that has provided for them, as well as a chance to utilize their hard earned education and talents. DREAM Act’s  goal  includes helping those individuals meet requirements, so they may have an opportunity to enlist in the military or go to college and  become a citizen.

DREAM Act influences the undocumented that they strive to provide success for, and the Americans who believe that immigrant youth, documented or undocumented, should have opportunities and futures that are not currently accessible. DREAM Act works to create an idealistic world for immigrants to use their potential, without harming American workers.

President Barack Obama, a Democrat, advocates for humane treatment toward immigrants, and responsible and fair behavior from immigrants. He was a community organizer, civil-rights lawyer and teacher before pursuing a political career. He was elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996 and to the U.S. Senate in 2004. He was elected to the U.S. presidency in 2008, and won re-election in 2012.

President Barack Obama’s interests include is for governments He wants for immigrants to not be looked and suspected because of their ethnicity. He wants to take away blame that is stuck to immigrants, stereotyping them as generally bad people. Because of these interests, Obama wants law enforcement should be charged against real criminals, and not innocent students trying to discover a future in the United States.

“We didn’t raise the Statue of Liberty with her back to the world, we did it with her light shining as a beacon to the world. And whether we were Irish or Italians or Germans crossing the Atlantic, or Japanese or Chinese crossing the Pacific; whether we crossed the Rio Grande or flew here from all over the world — generations of immigrants have made this country into what it is. It’s what makes us special.” — President Obama, November 21, 2014 — Barack Obama’s ideas are expressed in this quote as traits that make America unique in its diversity. He wants to give help to people, to immigrants, who make this country more diverse.

President Obama influences are Latino voters, during his last election, immigrants want to have a reform laws, and Obama states his idea to help them by saying if you, immigrants, vote then he would have lots of to help to enforce the humane immigration reform.

“Si se puede, si votamos. Yes we can if you vote,” Obama said.

One other politician who supports immigrants legally residing in the America is Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton attended Yale University, and married another law school graduate  Bill Clinton in 1975. She later served as first lady from 1993 to 2001, and then as a U.S. senator from 2001 to 2009. In early 2007, Clinton announced her plans to run for the presidency. During the 2008 Democratic primaries, she conceded the nomination when it became apparent that Barack Obama held a majority of the delegate vote.

Concerning access of citizenship for immigrants, Clinton states that she supports a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants because deportation of millions is impractical. She has also said, however, that the undocumented who have committed crimes in the U.S. should not be tolerated to reside here. While Clinton was running for the 2008 democratic presidential nomination, she found grants to support the path to the citizenship for illegal immigrants who do the right thing: pay taxes, have jobs, and contribute beneficially to the economy.

Clinton influences her democratic supporters, as well as Obama’s supporters. She attempts to influence feminists and those standing up for women’s rights.  She wields her power  with her support of President Obama’s beginning on immigration reform, and emphasizes the American values in immigrants in order to bring about humane change.

Case Studies

Providing space for immigrants to settle down results in their contributing abundantly in taxes, an argument that organizations that these politicians strive to emphasize. This organizations therefore attempt to advance the circumstances of these paying immigrants.

According to The Fiscal Times, undocumented immigrants paid 11.8 billion dollars to a local taxes in 2012. Because of this large contribution, President Obama tried to execute an order to assist and protect those workers from deportation.  He created an immigration plan  in 2014 that protected about five million undocumented immigrants from deportation, and a program called  Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)   that similarly assists youth and provides for them opportunities for employment.

President Obama’s push for legislation to fix our broken immigration system support both among the public and in the Senate and addressed all of the core problems our system faces. He spent over year giving House Republicans room to act on the Senate bill or their own version of legislation to fix the system. Unfortunately, House Republicans refused to give the Senate bill an up-or-down vote.

Continuing with these enforcements, President Obama wants to work with both the House and the Senate to enforce an immigration reform that will help secure the border with focus upon catching actual criminals. It will enforce a criminal background check necessary for undocumented immigrants to have. He also claims that these immigrants must do their part and pay their fair share of taxes.

Conclusion

The current goals of obtaining an easier path to citizenship are similar to the current reality in Thailand. In Thailand, if a person gets themselves a job, then they become permanent residents because they pay taxes to the country. These organizations support this kind of future in the United States as a path to immigration reform. The current result of the illegal immigrants’ path to citizenship is that illegal immigrants who are granted temporary legal status under the president’s plan could be eligible to apply for up to three years of retroactive EITC credits (Earned Income Tax Credit), worth thousands of dollars. In theory, the payouts could total billions of dollars. If they have a job and an education, and pay taxes, then they should have the right to stay the country.