The Pros And Cons Of Immigration To America

The United States of America started out as a haven for refugees and immigrants. A place, The New World, where people came to escape persecution in their home countries. Some came to America seeking a refuge from political persecution, others were escaping religious persecution, others just wanted a new place to start their lives again with a clean slate, others still came as slaves and prisoners expelled from home to go and survive in the wilderness of the new world or die all together (Haines xi).
However, in recent years, the tables seem to be turning against new people trying to enter and settle in America:
In April 2010, Arizona’s governor, Jan Brewer, signed a law requiring police to check the immigration status of anyone they suspected

This apparent conflict of interests, centred around some Americans welcoming refugees and others seeing them as a nuisance to be expelled, begs the question: Is America a land of refuge or a land that creates refugees? Many different individuals have varied motivations for coming to America. The majority come simply to seek greener pastures or for leisure, while others come to see the great things they have seen and heard from various sources such as American tourists in their countries, music, television, and movies. Such individuals are at times granted a “green card” such as that which Kenney thought he had acquired….
Occasionally, it pays to check the mail. The state department’s notice alerted me that I was just one step away from receiving a visa that would allow me to remain permanently in the United States…. (Kenney and Schrag

These refugees are sought from a pool of people in refugee camps, mainly supported by the United Nations. Chief among the reasons for these individuals finding themselves in these camps is expulsion from their home countries because of war. The second allowance created by this law, and most important to people seeking asylum, is the clauses that state that any individual coming to America, with or without a visa, seeking asylum and with proper evidence to prove this, shall be admitted to the country and given a safe haven, until such time as they feel comfortable returning to their home country. Better still, they may work towards gaining American citizenship through the appropriate channels. This is one of the key reasons that many 21st Century Americans believe their country would not be party to the expulsion of people who actually need a place to stay for various valid reasons, especially if such an expulsion and forced return home would be detrimental to their wellbeing. In the early days of America’s formation, even before the Revolution, there weren’t many restrictions on admission into the United States. Laws on the same were non-existent and no one even counted how many immigrants came to the new world. Some might say that for, almost 200 years after the country’s inception,