Immigrants have always been a part of the United States – and some would even go so far as to say that we are a country that was founded by immigrants. From the very first days as a nation, the United States has accepted immigrants from all around the world and today there are more than forty three million people living in this country who moved here from another, making up nearly fifteen percent of the total population of the United States. These foreign born people are often hugely positive contributors to our society, but immigrants all too often get a bad rap, and the process of applying for citizenship has become more difficult than ever before. Because this process can be so prohibitive and can take so long, there are many people who have filed for citizenship, for a green card, etc, but are still living here illegally in the interim, while they wait for their paperwork to go through. For these people, hiring immigration legal help in the form of an immigration lawyer in Pasadena CA (or really in another other part of the country) will be hugely helpful, and can even help them to protect and retain the life that they have built here, the life that has sustained them and often their families as well.
First, it is hugely important to take a step back and understand where some of the resentment for immigrant peoples (and often the following need for immigrant and immigration legal help) comes from. Starting way back in the year of 1965, the immigrant population has been steadily increasing – quadrupling even. By the time that we reach the year of 2065, a full one hundred years later, the total immigrant population of the United States is expected to see as many as seventy eight million immigrants making there home here. Combine this with the fact that immigrant home ownership is on the rise, jumping by more than two percent in the just over twenty years between the year of 1994 and the year of 2015, while the home ownership rates of natural born citizens did not climb at all, and you see a recipe for resentment beginning to brew. Many people are quick to cite the dangers of illegal immigrants invading our country – without taking a step back to take a look at the facts.
To start, the prejudice against illegal immigrants is a harmful and often unwarranted one. Many people are brought here from other countries as children and being undocumented is something that is very much out of their control, even after filing for citizenship. And, as has been addressed above, many people file for citizenship or to renew green cards and the like – only to get caught up in bureaucracy and have their papers expire before they can be removed. For those who have only known life here in the United States, going back to their country of origin, where they don’t know anyone or anything and sometimes don’t even speak the language, is simply not an option. Fortunately, immigration legal help at the hands of an immigration attorney can be hugely beneficial and even life changing, and can help such people get ahold of the needed documentation in a faster and more efficient way than ever would have been possible otherwise.
With immigration legal help, more people are able to move and immigrate here legally than many people are aware of. In fact, the vast, vast majority of immigrants to the United States are, in fact, already legal immigrants by the time that they move here, with legal immigrants making up as much as seventy five percent of the immigrant population of this country. This means that illegal immigrants only make up around twenty five percent of the total immigrant population, and many such people are in the process of actively pursuing legalization or even citizenship, with more than sixty six percent of illegal immigrants getting their necessary papers by the time the year of 2015 rolled around.
The bias against immigrants is real, but immigration legal help can start to make a change. Immigration legal help can help those looking to immigrate, but immigration legal help can also help those living here illegally.
