Day 5 - Naturalization Process

As shown in the 30 Days documentary, many illegal immigrants coming to the United States are doing so due to the poor, unlivable conditions in their own countries of origin. Rather than coming to the US illegally, the government has always been advocating coming to the United States legally – or with documents that allow one to reside in this country.

However, with the conditions that were shown in the video, it is truly easy for a family to face disease, famine, and overall poverty when living for a certain period of time in their own countries – as for those who come to the US for better opportunities and living conditions. Why don’t these immigrants apply for citizenship and wait like everybody else?

This calls into question America’s immigration policies and the steps one from another country must take into becoming a legal citizen. Are they convenient? Should they be changed? If yes, how so?

According to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (source), there are many factors that go along with qualifying an immigrant to permanently reside in our nation or become a naturalized citizen. Character and criminal records are checked and reviewed, fees in the thousands have to be paid for citizenship applications, interviews need to be gone to, one needs to know how to fully speak and understand the English language, have a good understand of American history and government, be married with an actual American citizen or be residing in the country for a long period of time (both are not necessary), and take the Citizenship Test which reviews one’s overall knowledge of the country and its past.

The naturalization process may take years, even decades to complete for immigrants from other countries. This is an issue that needs to be solved – since there is no doubt that many immigrants cross the American-Mexican border illegally due to their lack of money, knowledge, or time to go through the naturalization process. This process seems to be extremely inconvenient due to these three factors. The government has recently begun charging illegal immigrants they find with felonies, and deporting illegal employees that employers have hired in workplaces.

In order to come up with a solution to the inconvenience of the naturalization process, it is up to the government’s decision with what they plan to do next regarding the illegal immigrants already in the United States, which will later be observed.