Immigration Reform- Ava B.

     Many Americans have posed the anti-immigration argument based on the idea that these undocumented workers take American jobs, but Maria E. Enchautegui of New York Times has a different view: "immigrants are replacing, not displacing U.S. born workers" (www.nytimes.com. Because the emphasis on having a high school diploma and even more so, a college education, is so high in the United States, Enchatuegui argues that immigrant workers are taking the low paying, hard labor jobs that the vast majority of Americans  do not want or need because they are over-qualified. Enchatuegui is pointing out why others cannot blame a lack of Americans with jobs on immigrants' "stealing"of them to help stop hatred against immigrants who need to make better lives for themselves in this country. Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton is on the same page as this writer. Clinton, too, does not have an anti-immigration, pro-deportation attitude; she aims to establish a pathway to citizenship for "law-abiding immigrant families who have enriched America for years" and enforce immigration laws in a more effective, less barbaric manner (www.hillaryclinton.com). As of now there is no pathway to citizenship, or at least no pathway that is simple and not filled with hundreds of obstacles, and this is a huge problem. Over the past centuries when people from all over Europe and the other continents flocked to the United States, they could become citizens if they showed they were productive members of society, and that's the way it should be today. Clearly we do not want criminals and trouble makers coming into our country, but the majority of immigrants arrive to make their own lives or families' lives better than they could ever be in their home country by working or even establishing businesses. I think that a pathway to citizenship is necessary but also beneficial in 2015 because we will have more people paying taxes and investing under documentation into our economy that returns to our federal government to run social programs and improve our community's roads, schools, and more.