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"Send me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, your wretched refuse on your teeming shores...send these the homeless the tempest tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door..."

What does it take to immigrate to the United States legally? Why do we have so many people sneaking into our country? Why can't they just go through the legal channels like the other immigrant do? Most of us have no idea what it takes to immigrate to this country. It used to be that all a person had to do was have someone sponsor them. This is no longer the case. Gone are the days of ships coming into New York harbor with immigrants with dreams of coming to America...gone. Today to come to this country as a legal immigrant, a person must have the following:

1. Marry and American Citizen and prove to the government for the next five years that yes, you really are in love. If you are not, then you can both be fined very seriously and the immigrant deported.

2. Win the Green Card Lottery. This is very few and far between...and even if you win, it is no guarantee that you will be able to immigrate because the fees are very expensive. You must file several forms and each form filed has a fee of several hundred dollars.

3. Have talent that is extraordinary. Sammy Sosa, Celine Dion, Alex Trebeck can immigrate to the United States.

4. Start a business in the United States that brings in a couple hundred thousand a year to the USA and you can immigrate.

5. Be from Cuba and step on dry land

6. Be persecuted by your government and in danger of death.

7. Have a work or student visa

All of these cost money to get. All of these are very expensive. How in the world are the poor people supposed to be able to immigrate here to the United States?

If an illegal immigrant commits a crime, yes arrest them and let them serve their time in our jails and then ship them back to their original country.

We are the richest nation in the world. We are the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Let us tender our decisions with mercy.

Learn more about this author, Renee Dawson.
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