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IMMIGRANT CITIZENSHIP
By Daniel Vidal, The Big Apple News
Updated 3:09 PM ET, Mon May 2, 2022
What is preventing the U.S. to allow more immigrants into the U.S? The United States has always been a country that views itself as helping other countries in need of help. However, when it comes to immigration certain laws were put in place to dramatically reduce the number of people that can come here legally and made it so the process is prolonged and takes up to a couple of decades.
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As of 2020, fifty-one million immigrants were reported living in the United States. These people try to come here because they are left with no choice and coming here legally is impossible for them with their current living conditions.
The United States has always been trying to determine which people we allow in and which to not let in. The first law in 1790 was implemented only for white people who came from Europe and excluded African Americans and Native Americans already living here for centuries. Then in 1882, the U.S. prohibited the Chinese from coming here, and then congress introduced the immigration act of 1924 which reserved the majority of visas for people from Europe.
Looking at these laws that the United States has put in place one can clearly see that the U.S. has always had issues with foreigners getting citizenship and had no issues for people in Europe which was made up of white people. Even if people were born in the United States like the Native Americans and African Americans who were living here for centuries. It wasn’t until the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 that the U.S. got rid of those racist and discriminatory quotas. Doing so allowed for immigrants to get legal status if they had spouses, siblings, or parents already in the United States.
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The Immigrant Quotas act of 1952 had 154,657 total visas and Europe had the majority with 96.7% of the visas reserved, unlike Asia which only had 1.9%, and Africa and Oceania with only 1.3%
Many immigrants who have lived in the United States for more than 10 years won’t be able to become citizens for as long as they stay here. As stated before there are only three ways for them to get citizenship either employment, family reunification, or humanitarian resources. Those Immigrants who don’t have any of those options even if they pay their taxes and work hard won’t be able to get legal status. The only other way for them to get a visa is through the annual diversity which only makes about 50,000 visas a year.
According to an article on why people don't apply for citizenship. “People from countries with high levels of immigration to the United States—Mexico, China, India, and the Philippines—generally have the longest waiting times for immigrant visas. For example, the married and unmarried adult children of U.S. citizens from Mexico, and the Filipino siblings of U.S. citizens, must wait between 19 and 24 years for visas to become available.”
This situation is a disaster because someone who would want to get citizenship legally is not able because of the options they have. The United States makes this process hard for people to get it fairly resulting in people coming here illegally. People who are struggling with their living situations cannot wait 10 or more years. The U.S. should make the process easier for people who want to work hard and make living for themselves.
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