Make naturalization laws simpler

Taylor Leathers Albemarle County
Published: May 29, 2008

Our Citizen’s Action Project at Monticello High School delved into immigration issues and came away with a new perspective after interviewing an Hispanic family in Charlottesville.

Their eye-opening stories provided us insight about how the process really works.

While living in Mexico, this family felt their children had less opportunity. Also, due to demands on the husband and wife to earn meager wages, they found they had less time to spend with their children. And so they dreamed of a better life for themselves and their family.

After two days crossing the border between Mexico and the United States, and then staying with several family members throughout the country, this family was finally able to start the naturalization pro-cess.

Unfortunately for them, this process would take seven years, more than $1,000 and countless trips to Washington, D.C., for them to even receive their green cards.

The contrast between living in the United States and Mexico is like day and night. According to the family, one earns $50 a week in Mexico, as opposed to $50 a day in America. As for the schools, most children drop out in their second year of high school in Mexico, whereas here the students are encouraged and their individuality valued.

While many American citizens take material wealth for granted, immigrants have to work incredibly hard. Often-times, they don’t even reach what we consider a standard.

The immigrants enter this long and arduous process of naturalization blindly, with little or no help, struggling on their own through the system. This Charlottesville family could hardly be called lucky, but by comparison, many others are far worse off.

It’s obvious the family we interviewed worked hard to earn their place in the United States — but perhaps they had to work too hard. Let’s not make the same mistake with other innocent families; let’s make the naturalization laws simpler.

The endearing words from this passionate family are what sparked our Citizen’s Action Project on their mission to make a change in streamlining this process, and they hope that their words can spark the same fervor for improving the system in our country.

This letter also carried the names of Corinne Oberg, Amanda Long, Amanda Bower, Nick Yellman, Malcolm Gibson, John Carrington, Schuyler Crenshaw.