Criticism on "Illegal Immigration"

   Mr. Garcia gives his opinion about the issue of illegal immigration that occurs in the United States of America and how illegal immigration actually helps the U.S. economy and that it brings other benefits such as culture and diversity. Illegal immigration is a topic that I can relate to in that many people from my culture, Filipinos, are struggling with immigrating to the United States. Many of these Filipinos end up taking work visas and/or student visas to come to the U.S., but after their visas are up, some of them end up staying in the country illegally. Though I can sympathize with the argument that immigrants bring a cultural and diversity aspect to America, I do believe that one should become a citizen of the United States the legal way, instead of dodging the federal government process and exploiting loop holes in the system.

Mr. Garcia backs his argument that people complain that illegal immigrants do not have to pay taxes and that if the United States Government would give these illegals green cards that it "would have contributed an average amount of  $34-$47 billion in the next decade." There is this view that illegal immigrants do not hurt the economy but facts point that illegal immigrants who take jobs actually undercut and under wage the job market in America. According to The New York Times, in their article titled "Do Illegal Immigrants Actually hurt the U.S. Economy?", labor economists have concluded that undocumented workers have lowered the wages of U.S. adults without a high-school diploma — 25 million of them — by anywhere between 0.4 to 7.4 percent.  

Being a citizen of the United States has many benefits and freedoms. It is only right that people from other countries wanting to live in the U.S. should become a citizen. By becoming a part of the system, I personally believe that people are able to have a greater voice in American society, but not saying that those outside the system don't have a voice...Theirs is just a lot smaller because of certain barriers they face. Illegal immigration is one of those issues in America that has been in the spotlight for many years, but if we continue to allow it to happen, what will become of the citizens of the country? Will we have our rights taken away so that those outside the system may prosper? It is a hard stance, but by following the process set by our government officials, we as a nation are able to set fair and balance laws and policies...Otherwise, what is the point of being a citizen of the United States? 
  
 

The Debate of Gun Control

      
In recent days, weeks, months and years, the United States has always come to the great question of Gun Control. Just this past week, the LAX Airport in California was a place of gun violence that rages the country every year and not even a month earlier the news and media was reporting about the Washington Navy Yard being under attack by someone wielding a 12 gauge shot gun. Many news and media sources have opinions about what we as a people should do about gun violence.

For example, Sanjay Sanghoee, The Huffington Post, believes that "gun control, for sure, is going nowhere fast — if at all." From his statement, I get the sense of pacifism that the issues of gun control will never be resolved, but he does continue stating that we as people need to come to understanding of how guns actually create violence rather than just being the convenient instruments of it. Another writer by the name of Rebecca Leber, Think Progress believes that "the NRA will likely argue that this shooting (LAX shooting) is more proof gun restrictions should be weakened, not strengthened in public areas, since a bystander could intervene in a shooting. All the best research points to this being even more dangerous." Leber's statement seems to be going the route of saying that we need stricter gun laws. The usual topic is that we should either make stricter gun control policies or that we should lessen the restrictions on gun control. Government officials are given the pros and cons of each side of the argument and it is from the evidence produced that they are able to come up with rational gun control policies, but the question is...Are these Government Officials really making the proper and necessary laws to keep gun violence to a minimum?

In my personal opinion, I do not believe that the U.S. Government does enough to keep guns off the hands of bad people and that the simple state and federal background checks need to be re-worked and revised to keep guns from falling into the criminally minded people. It is too easy to go into a firearms dealer and purchase a gun in the United States. From my own personal experience, it took less than ten to fifteen minutes for the whole process in acquiring a firearm. There is something to be said about that process in that there are not enough safeguards in place within the system to keep loopholes or rather exploitations from occurring. It is too easy to pass those backgrounds checks and as long as people have the money, there is no stopping them from purchasing a firearm.

Statistics show that 65% of Americans and 59% of gun owners in America support the limiting of handgun sales to one per person per month. Another statistic shows that 79% of Americans, 69% of police chiefs, 61% of gun owners, 59% of NRA members have support for registration of handguns. Through these figures and studies, it definitely shows that the people of the U.S. do agree in having stricter gun laws. Some other statistics show that  “No background check” sales account for an estimated 40% of gun sales in the U.S. and that in one year, at least 30,000 guns are “lost” out of gun dealers inventories. These statistics scare me into thinking we need stricter gun laws. Its hard to believe that these things really happen in our country and what its says about our country is that we are too relaxed. I'm all about having the "right to bear arms", but if that right would eventual lead to early death...than to hell with it, we need stricter gun laws to keep events like LAX shootings or the Washington Navy Yard from hitting us to close to home.