Should the Immigration Reform be passed?

There have been many topics going on in America recently. For example the health care plan, gun control and universal background checks. But another topic that has been up for debate has been the Immigration Reform. This bill has been up to debate as to whether we should pass it as a law. This bill was proposed by the "Gang of Eight", who are "A bipartisan group of senators who has agreed to an immigrationreform framework that includes a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented, asignificant step toward a sweeping overhaul of the nation's immigrationsystem."  Now if this bill is passed, it could give many immigrants the chance to have papers to get a job, get to live legally in the United States and will be granted the desired path to citizenship.  However, that would take some time. In an article called “Immigration Reform News: What to Expect in the2013 Bill” written by Laura Matthews, stated that “Immigrants can apply for lawful permanent resident status (i.e. green card) after 10 years.”
                Now one may wonder, Why apply if you’re going to wait that long? . Well my opinion is that immigrant have been living in the shadows and with fear of facing a police with the chances of getting deported. They can’t drive peacefully because they don’t have a driver’s license. So one could imagine that this is bill is worth the wait. But other people think differently. I read another article called “ Some Say Immigration Bill Is Bad Deal for the GOP”  who was written by Charles Babington ,stated that “ Many conservatives are scared to death that the Republican Party is committing suicide, that were going to end up legalizing 9 million automatic democrat voters”  Now with all that said, this bill wont “automatically” legalize immigrants for their green card.  Further reading into the article, Senator Marco Rubio, a leader of the bipartisan team, had this to say “Not all 11 million illegal immigrants here today will qualify to become citizens, and not all of the 11 million illegal immigrants are Hispanics” this statement shows that this bill won’t just be rewarded to just any immigrant, they apply and earn it. And I believe it is good because many people who are in Mexico are associated with the drug cartel and we just can’t give automatic citizenship to anyone. They also have to go through a background check to see any crime activities that they have been involved with.                                                                                              

Many citizens don’t know the type of suffering and hardship one has to go through to get to America. I was born here in the United States. However, my parents were both born in Peru. My parents crossed the border so they could have a better life here in America. Since America is considered the land of the free. Many immigrants come to the United States to have a better life. But in the quest to come here, they cross the border. In the process, people get robbed, raped, drugged and even killed to get here. I know that nobody forces them to come here, but they see America as a place of many opportunities that can’t be offered anywhere else that makes them want to come here. It’s hard to be apart from your family and having to go in a hostile environment that you have no idea lurks there. That is why I believe that this bill should be passed because it could give many immigrants those opportunities they always wanted, so they could live a better life.

Here is also a link to Sen. Marco Rubio being interviewed further about the immigration reform.

Gun Control

My colleague, Kiara Woods, brought up a good topic that has been going on in America for a while now. Ever since the shooting in Newtown happened, the topic about gun control has been brought up a lot by citizens.  Kiara’s question is “Will guns help society?” I believe that guns can help society against criminals, but also that it can kill innocent people, which don’t help society. People say that guns kill people. Well if that was the case then that means that, pencils misspell words, cars make people drive drunk and spoons make people fat? I think not. I also read the article that was posted in New York Times that was written by Joe Nocera. He states that “Is it possible to commits cold – blooded murder, in broad daylight, on a busy Manhattan street full of witnesses, and even a camera recording the shooting? It sure starting to look that way” with Nocera saying that , he says that people who have a gun can practically kill anyone as easy as 1,2,3. It sad to know that innocent people die from gun shots every day, and the government isn’t doing much about it. I for one am for the second amendment. I think people have the right to defend and protect themselves and their home from anyone that threatens them, but I don’t think anyone should use a deadly weapon. I believe we should have a universal background check whenever someone purchases a gun. I agree with Kiara that these incidents cannot go on any longer as well. Kiara goes straight to the point with her thoughts that “if the government thinks passing a law to allow people to carry guns around will be a big mistake.”  I recommend my colleague to go further more into explaining about how guns can affect society besides killings. But overall, it was a good post and I agree with what she is saying.