“Times have changed from when I got my citizenship till now.” Ruben Mayorga states, “all I had to do was apply as soon as I can, and wait.” and in no time Mr. Mayorga became something that he always wanted. A citizen. But that was back then… in a time that getting to citizenship wasn’t as challenging as it is today.
Immigration in America has been a very controversial topic to touch upon, that topic of immigration is able to make people on a team end up being on opposing sides. All in all, immigration law in this country is a very challenging topic to talk about as a whole.
A broader aspect of it all. The most important process of immigration is the citizenship process.
Many agree on why they believe the immigration system is broken is that we have a whole lot of people who live and work in the country without legal status and overlook the obvious. People of this country think the best way to fix the system is to make it easier to immigrate here and to provide a way for the people who are here without status to get legal status. The other main cause change is that the best way to fix it is to be more aggressive and enforce the law, tighten border security, and stop tolerating illegal immigration, sending them home.
For some, this can come to be such a challenge for many to become a citizen in The United States, but for the “lucky” ones, obtaining citizenship was fairly easy. Ruben Mayorga, a citizen for 30 years now here in this country, was able to be given citizenship because he entered the country around the time when Ronald Regan was President.
“I don’t know whether or not I call it luck, but my dream was to come to America and to be able to have a chance at a much better life then what I could have been offered back in my village in Mexico,” Mayorga said in an interview. “Ronald Regan was my hero at that time, he was able to give me citizenship and for that, he has become my favorite president here.” The immigration and reform act of 1986 granted amnesty to a great number of immigrants around that time. In which the act was able to make it illegal for companies to employ immigrants. And legalized undocumented people before 1982.
“In a couple of months, I was able to become an official U.S citizen here, and thanks to God I’ve been able to see what the American Dream truly was, which is now my life,” said Mayorga.
Mayorga couldn’t be any happier on the way his life turned out, he has been blessed throughout his life and was able to be called a president through great timing. “It never hurts to try to be a citizen before actually being a citizen, just knowing how to behave well should sure help show people that you are worth being a citizen of this country.” when asked about any advice he has for those that can use it. Ruben Mayorga has been a citizen for over 30 years. Now though, in the 20th first century, times changed and laws have changed.
In 2017 President Donald Trump made a more suppressing change in the already restricting immigration crisis. He brought executive orders, titled “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States.” in which all it did was make immigrants coming to our country just that much more difficult.
Although for most, being able to reach citizenship in this country is a challenging obstacle to overcome. For other more recent immigrants, it has been a much more difficult journey, Julian who prefers to use an alternative name to keep his status safe.“I’ve been living here for a while on an expired visa that expired in 2015, I’ve been trying to become a citizen since I first placed foot here. Many tries and many fail, but I keep trying because I still have faith in the process, says Julian, whose name has been changed for this story in order to protect them. ” Julian says his life as an undocumented immigrant is terrifying, never knowing when his time in the United States might come to an abrupt end. “I’ve been living with eyes in the back of my head for some quite a while now,” he said. “I have no one in Mexico, I would have no clue what to do if per se I was deported back to my country.”
In 2014 Obama was able to help out millions of immigrants from being deported. Though it wasn’t a ticket to stay in this country illegally. What Obama did was able to just state “we are not going to deport you”. 7 words were able to help save lives.
“I have a family here in this country and I am the only one that is considered an “alien” here, my biggest fear if I do get deported though is leaving my family here alone.” Said Julian isn’t the only one to suffer from not being able to receive citizenship here in this country. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, in 2014 there were 1.75 million undocumented Mexicans living in the state of California. In 2014 immigration increased by 39 percent, which was reported by the census that there were 3.1 million new immigrants between two years, at that time. That’s a huge increase in what it was before. Having much more of a reason to be way tougher on immigration.
Sophia Ahmad, a tax immigration lawyer in the Bay Area, states there are many reasons why people get denied citizenship, such as having a criminal record or traveling outside of the country so many times, even applying too early is sometimes a reason someone is to get declined to citizenship. For such reasons like that and others, it’s not false news when you hear about how hard it is for one to be able to be called an official American here in what is known as the greatest country in the world.