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Immigration | The Impact of Legal and Illegal Immigration in The United States | Sandra Jakobsen |

The United States is a combination of people from the whole world. Every year millions of immigrants enter the borders in hope of a better life living the ‘’American Dream’’. The opportunities and freedom the nation can provide motivates these people to leave everything they have and do all it takes to start a new life. The majority of ethnicities that are highest of the country’s immigration status are Europeans, Asians and Latin’s, but the people behind the border to Mexico dominate these statistics. Legal or illegal these people have a huge impact on the American society and many reforms have been proposed and experimented to solve the problem of illegal immigration, unfortunately not many seems to work. As John O'Sullivan once said; “More people want to come to America, and if we don’t allow them to do so legally, they will do so illegally.” Today there are approximately 11.1 million illegal immigrants in the country and this controversial issue has become a great burden for the American people and American society. There are however solutions to this problem. New immigration laws must be implemented in order to establish equality, justice and opportunities in which American citizens and immigrants both benefit.
Legal Immigration
12.5 percent (2010) of the US population is considered legal immigrants (US Census). The people that are considered legal are divided into two categories: Short-term and long-term residents. Short-term immigrants are visitors, students and business visitors that all need a legal visa with a purpose of their stay. Exceptions are people from Western Europe and Japan that can come without visas because the United States has a free border agreement with certain countries after World War II (US Immigration).
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