Immigration Persuasive Speech

Did you know America is a nation built on immigrants? (Schwartz,2017). Immigration is a very popular topic right now and it's important to talk about it. Keeping innocent people out of our country based on fear is not right. Immigrants and terrorists are two different words, but some people may believe it is one. It is not right to keep immigrants out of our country based on religion, gender, or ethnicity. My reasons are immigrants are in need of help, we need to stick to our values, and they make a contribution to America. As you keep reading you will understand why.

Firstly, Immigrants are in need of help, and help is what we should be offering them. America is known as the land of opportunity, but how are we giving immigrants chances to live in America when we are banning them from it? Refugee Patrick Ngalamulume says, "This is why I have this strong belief that the United States is the ‘land of the free', and

the land of opportunity as well". Patrick and his brother immigrated to America for a better life, and to succeed in their occupation. Immigrants should be able to be free and live their lives to the fullest where they know they can be safe. America has already hindered immigrants before, so why keep doing it? Now is not a time to turn our backs on them, but to help them. Robert Krakow said "Ultimately, it's all grounded in the human condition. It's grounded in human need and suffering, and here's a case where we can do something". There is a huge refugee crisis and America's immigration bans are not helping that what so ever. Therefore, we should be helping immigrants, not pushing them away.

Secondly, Immigrants make a contribution to America. Many of them work in basic service jobs that help us, like hotels, restaurants and more. These sort of businesses need workers anyway so they are not taking our jobs but helping us. In 1868, America invited Chinese to work over here, but twenty-four years later we turned them away. This was called the Chinese Exclusion Act. This shows that America can be on the line for immigration. But for those twenty-four years those Chinese immigrants were working for us, building the American Transcontinental railroad which helped us carry and trade goods to farther distances. Also, immigrants have enriched our communities with their culture. How would we learn about different songs, art, and food if everyone in America was just born here, and no one was different and unique? In fact the U.S was founded by Immigrants, English voyagers founded the place where you and me call home. We have benefits with immigrants living here in America.

Lastly, America needs to stick to one of their very known values, equality.

Making sure everyone has equal rights and freedom is crucial to people's lives. Accepting people into our country shouldn't be based on their skin color or religion, but their criminal record and if they could truly be a threat to us. In fact the immigration and nationality act of 1965 says, you cannot discriminate an immigrants visa based on their gender, race, place of birth, or nationality(Bier, 2017)."We cannot allow terrorists to intimidate us into abandoning our values and humanitarian obligations"(Clinton). These refugees are trying to get away from the same terrorists that we are facing, so why force them to stay in their country where their lives could be at stake? The U.S immigration laws are what kept the Frank family from coming into America, and look how terribly they were treated. If only we could have noticed that these innocent people were not spies but people trying to save their life. Overall, we need to realize our values and start acting upon as they

say.
Lots of people are scared that if we let in all these immigrants that terrorists could come in with them. They could just pretend to be Syrian refugees and then come into America and do who knows what. If we do let in lots of immigrants that could possibly be illegal immigrants, what do we do with them. "Most likely, illegal immigrants will probably end up on the streets in big cities with no money for a long time"(Ethan, 2016). It is something to think about.

In conclusion, immigrants should be welcomed into America no matter their gender, religion, or ethnicity. They are not a threat to us because these immigrants are not the terrorists that we are fighting against. We need to think of these refugees and immigrants as people trying to save their lives and making a better life for their family and themselves. The reasons we shouldn't let these immigrants in are they are in need of help, we need to stick to our values, and they do make a contribution to America. We need to think and ask ourselves, is America, America without Immigrants?