The Rocky Path to Citizenship

            Immigration into the USA has recently become a contentious issue in the national debate which confused me a lot when we started the discussion on immigration. My first thought about immigration was allowing undocumented immigrants to live in the United States and be able to work and not fear deportation. While writing the first paper, my sources said that most undocumented immigrants who come to the United States are highly-skilled and innovative. According to the article, U.S. High-Skilled Immigration, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship: Empirical Approaches and Evidence from the Harvard Business School, article writer and professor, William R. Kerr explains that Immigrants make up for our U.S. workforce and the highly skilled immigrants promote "knowledge and foreign direct investments to their own countries"(Hanson). I thought to myself, Why wouldn't the US want to provide citizenship to these highly skilled and educated people? What I didn't realize was that there were thousands of undocumented people living in fear of being found and possibly deported, and many of them were children. I realized I need more information about these undocumented immigrants and their struggles.
             After hearing about Obama's Executive Order called The Dream Act, , I was happy to learn that Obama is finally taking action towards reform for young undocumented immigrants so they can have a path towards citizenship. This Act will allow them a chance to live without fear from deportation and become active American citizens. I also learned that most undocumented immigrants who come to the United States want to live the American Dream. They want to pay taxes, get a job, support their family, buy a car, and vote in elections. According to the Center for American Progress, "If these migrants are given work permits and brought into the system, they will contribute $45 billion over five years in payroll taxes to the United States economy" (New York Times).