Twelve million people live in the United States unauthorized by the government. That amounts to 4% of the population that lives in this country. They are people. They are illegal aliens, aliens not in the meaning of the word as if they had come from another planet. They come from another land, another country, were registered at birth in another territory and now they reside in the United States. These citizens of elsewhere have built their lives here. They have not left this country in many instances in over ten years, since if they did they would not be allowed to come back. Through hard work, outstanding determination, willingness to serve people of this country, and above all driven by the dreams and principles on which this country was first built: “all men are created equal… with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” illegals chose to stay. The internationally heard-of “American Dream” has brought here so many in search of a brighter future.

These 12 million citizens of elsewhere are here without a chance to change their immigration status. Today their hearts and dreams are here and they will, as all other immigrants have in history, do their best to build a stronger country for themselves, their children, and everyone else around them.

Undocumented immigrants seek to be given a chance to get out of this hole, not to only be a class of people set aside by government and society, but to fully live the freedoms and obligations that are results of residing. Comprehensive Immigration Reform would generate a safer country, strengthen the labor force and create an economic incentive for growth in the United States of America.

There is much talk about what Comprehensive Immigration Reform would actually consist of; the Republicans want to focus on securing the borders while the Democrats claim to be willing to help the people in need of a path to documentation. Both sides of the argument do agree on one point: there is need for change. The large amounts of unrecorded inflow and outflow of people for so many years is what has caused the situation to become overwhelming as it is now. Many claim that undocumented immigrants have broken the law, and are some kind of criminals for staying here, but when they first get here there are no limitations on what they can do. Federal laws say they have to get out of the country but there is no difficulty as far as matriculating their kids in schools, or renting homes, participating in free English classes, finding employment or even getting driver’s licenses in some states. Mother America welcomes immigrants and makes them feel comfortable. There is no need to make people less welcome to visit America but when time is up people need to be strictly asked to leave, or the implicit message is that they can stay, as they have all these years.

Reform would give people their documentation in this country—people that are law abiding, people that are willing to pay taxes, speak the language of the country, people that can prove they have developed roots, are studying to better themselves, are currently working here, and have been living here for many years and can participate effectively and positively in this country. The other choice would be massive deportation, which is very costly, and would take away the structure of the lives of many undocumented people as well as American citizens who have developed employment, emotional, and economical relationships with this “second class” population. While it is illegal for undocumented immigrants to live in the United States, it is not illegal for them to get an ITIN number and pay taxes, to send their children to school, to attend and graduate college, to sell goods and services to them, to give them credit, for them to buy a car, open a bank account, and even buy a house. If laws are not enforced they will not be obeyed.

Comprehensive Immigration Reform would generate a safer country for many reasons. In most states, after the September 11 attacks, laws have been changed making it impossible for someone who does not have a valid social security number to get a driver’s license, and therefore to insure a car. But most people still do drive, and the consequence is a five hundred dollar fee if stopped by the police while driving without a license.

There is also danger in the future of the youth. According to Dr. Marcelo Suarez-Orozco, a co-founder of the Harvard Immigration Project who has studied the psychological impact of immigration status on young people, he says about undocumented students: “The schools look the other way. They have a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy. But the clock is ticking, and in a few years these kids will graduate high school and try to enter the labor market. It’s a train wreck waiting to happen.” Another useful insight is from Eduardo Penaloza, who works at the Mexican consulate dealing with the stories of troubled children: “As teenagers discover their status, it can lead to a severe loss of motivation. The mothers say, ‘Don’t worry about that today. Shut up, go to school and work hard.’ What we’ve found, though, is a growing number of Mexican students where the desertion rate is getting higher. We are observing the weakening of the family bond.” The Urban Institute estimates that 65,000 undocumented young people graduate high school each year. If there is no hope of a better future in this country they know as home, the tendency is for them to revolt against the system they live in. Many will conform to doing what they have watched their parents doing for many years. Some will even go to college, only to find a brick wall at the point of graduation, with no jobs without a social security number, without a green card. Others will rebel against their parents who have brought them here, against the government that does not recognize them as citizens of this country. The criminal implications will come; it is a matter of time. Whereas, if given a chance, these young people with hearts full of dreams and minds full of innovative ideas can help build a better America.

It is very scary to think that in a country as powerful and respected in the international arena as the United States, there is no control of who is in the country. The immigration system is so backed up. Some people get here on tourist, working, or student visas, and just overstay the time they are told to leave. Others simply cross the Canadian border or the nearly 2,000-mile southern border, where the largest amounts of undocumented immigrants come from. There is not enough staff, control measures in place, and laws to enforce the notion that the United States is closed to new arrivals. It is the negligence of many that have made this country as vulnerable as it is today.

The ease of living here without being “checked in” shows why the country has become an easy target for terrorists and for internal plotting from people who want to hurt the American system and its people. The ones who are here and have nothing to hide live a functional life and are easy to find, but the ones that are here to hurt America are the ones that need to be found and controlled. That should be a priority of any administration: to account for every person. Mother America needs to be loved and cherished and protected, and not be subject to violence and disrespect. Let the people who live here know that and not take for granted the fact they are here; let every person be held responsible for their share of nourishment and care for the land they are enjoying and making a living at, and not be instigated to destroy it.

Comprehensive Immigration Reform would strengthen the labor force. It is known by the government where most undocumented immigrants live, at least the ones who have built their lives here. It is known where they work, where their largest communities are; they fly planes, they attend schools, they are not hiding in basements or abandoned homes, they are very easy to track. Illegality is not a secret. The implied message is that you can stay as long as you know where you belong and your limitations; you are here to serve capitalist America. And then the conflict comes in, between the wishes of capitalist America and Mother America.

Many immigrants arrived here from Europe in the late 1800s and beginning of last century, screened when they got here, as we can see in the museums at Ellis Island—a very good experience for one to realize the hardship America was built under. These Europeans came here with nothing to offer but their labor and will to build a better life, much like the immigrants that are here today. One wonders why there is such a difference in the way immigrants are being received by Mother America. Would it have to do with the “class” of people that are migrating here today? Would there be a difference if they were all Europeans, blond with blue eyes? Would the immigrants be worthy of being educated and invested in if that was the case? According to research done by the Pew Hispanic Center, 78% of the undocumented immigrants that lived in the United States in 2005 were either Mexican or from another Latin country.

According to Pew Hispanic Research, unauthorized immigrants account for 28% of the foreign-born population and there are 7.8 million unauthorized immigrants in the labor force, 5.1% of the total. While it is very convenient for the capitalist country we live in to keep this huge amount of workers with no rights to health insurance or to contribute to a retirement plan, to work off the books, to be denied the same rights and obligations an American worker has, eventually these people will get older, will have health implications, there will be need for more than just a cash job, and that is where this could cause many implications, because they have not worked towards being ready for those outcomes. It is better to legalize them now while they can work and contribute into social security, while they can better themselves for their future, than to leave them living in this limbo, or “sophisticated modern slavery.”

Mayor Bloomberg is leading a group of representatives of states where the largest number of undocumented immigrants live, making a case for Immigration Reform. In a meeting with the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law he said: “The more difficult we make it for foreign workers and students to come and stay here, the more likely companies will be to move jobs to other nations… Just look at what’s happened in Silicon Valley. Many companies that have not been able to get workers into the country have been forced to move jobs to Vancouver, Canada… We know that our businesses need more high- and low-skill labor than we are letting into the country. Right now, there are one million high-skill jobs that companies cannot fill, because they can’t find workers… Just as troubling, more and more foreign students are reporting plans to return home because of visa problems. We educate them here—and then, in effect, tell them to take that knowledge to start jobs in other countries. That just makes no sense whatsoever.”

Comprehensive Immigration Reform would strengthen the labor force by giving young people, who still have many years to work hard and contribute into social security—maybe even help solve the baby boomers issue—a chance to prepare themselves for better jobs, to bring new ideas and assets into businesses, to make unions stronger. Undocumented immigrants are not enemies of the American workers; they are a slice of the pie of American workers, and if legalized they will join with the same requests that any other worker has.

Comprehensive Immigration Reform would create an economic incentive for growth in the United States of America. Undocumented immigrants are babysitters, waitresses, landscapers, construction workers, housecleaners, salad preparers, cooks, busboys, secretaries, hairstylists, car washers, high school and college students. They purchase clothes, food, iPhones and iPods, high-definition television sets and pay sales taxes; they get their hair and nails done, go to restaurants, to the movies, travel to other states, purchase cars and homes, rent apartments, start businesses. Therefore they are active members of the economy that runs in this country today—that cannot be denied. If legalized they will certainly feel more confident, and more confident consumers purchase more of those goods and services. It is also estimated that much of the money they make is sent to their countries of origin; according to the article “Immigrants Send Money Home in Record Numbers,” last year Mexico received about seventeen billion dollars in remittances. All that money, as well as all the resources from all immigrants, could have been invested here if they had a guarantee they could truly live here.

Mayor Bloomberg, in the same speech, also affirmed that “immigrants pay more in taxes than they use in benefits. Immigrants come to America to work… they create new companies that produce jobs.” He also argued that in the states with the largest concentrations of immigrants, such as New York, the recent economic difficulties have had less impact on the economy.

In conclusion, the issue has become so important that it can no longer be ignored. It is time to take control of the situation because this could turn out to be a disaster—the implications of keeping people in the shadows, with unequal rights, denied an opportunity, can never create good results. Let’s be logical, get organized, and solve the problem by creating a system that puts in place the control measures of the country’s population, makes every person that lives in the land assume responsibility for their own debts to the country, and lets people grow and add to the country as immigrants always came here to do. As a result of that, America will prove to still be the “Mother of Exiles,” the “Land of the free” where it is truly believed that “all men are created equal,” and be greatly positively impacted by it in the many years to come.