When it comes to immigration, my standpoint is simple — the more the merrier.

The United States has been described as a melting pot for hundreds of years, blending together dozens and dozens of cultures that have given us the diversity that we have in our society today.

That is why it frustrates me when people say they are against immigration, and feel the need to build “the wall” bigger.

With so many depressed countries in the world I do not understand why people in the U.S. are opposed to immigration.

Migration has been part of human history forever, and it will continue to be so.

I think there will always be a need for people to move out of their respective countries if necessary.

The International Organization for Migration estimated in 2006 that the number of foreign migrants worldwide to be more than 200 million worldwide.

North America had more than 45 million immigrants.

According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, in order to become a legal U.S. citizen immigrants must be eligible for the following. First, they must be 18 years of age or older.

Second, immigrants must be a permanent resident for a certain amount of time, which is between three to five years.

Third, immigrants must be considered to have good or moral character (I would like to say there are Americans in the U.S. who do not have good or moral character).

Fourth, immigrants must have a basic knowledge of the structure of the U.S. government.

Fifth, immigrants must have a permanent residence in the U.S. for a continuous amount of time.

Finally, sixth, immigrants must be able to understand or speak basic English (there are exceptions for this rule however).
If all of these apply, immigrants will then fill out an N-400 to apply for naturalization.

Where people get into trouble is when they lie or fail to relay information to the U.S. government or border patrol officers. These lies can cause a number of consequences such as not being able to enter the U.S., or to ever obtain a green card or visa.

After reading all of the requirements to become a U.S. citizen I feel like they are fair, and relatively easy to obtain.

New York University online reported that to apply to become a U.S. citizen the application for citizenship costs around $680, the application fee costs around $595 and the fingerprinting fee costs around $85.

In hindsight I feel this is completely reasonable.

Everyone has to pay for citizenship in one way or another.

New York University’s online website also reported that reasons why immigrants might be barred from citizenship could be if any immigrants were convicted of a crime, have lied to an immigration officer, have married solely to obtain residency status, or if immigrants have ever been arrested.

Again, I feel these reasons make sense in the eyes of the law. I am for continuous immigration but feel that the repercussions for breaking citizenship or visa regulations should be harsher.

For more opinion follow anaroseguenther on Twitter.

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