Efren Portillo                                                                                                      03/08/24

Period-8th

             Should immigrants who have committed crimes should receive asylum or punishments?

As we enter the new year we expect things to change tochange as to get better but unfortunately that isn’t the case here. Ever since Joe Biden has opened up the border it has caused a huge border crisis affecting America, bringing all negative things with it like, scamming, stealing, even killing. As a person living here in Chicago we have been impacted majorly by this issue, even in the areas of low-income are getting affected by this crisis. Migrants or Immigrants should receive punishments like jail time, community service, even deportation for doing crimes like assault, stealing, hurting other people, because it isn’t fair on how the police are just letting these people go with no punishment or asylum which is destroying many communities in Chicago. 

Date back to 1900 to 1914 was the highest amount of immigrants that arrived to the U.S at about 891,086 immigrants which is a crazy amount of people to come in just those 14 years (Vinicky). Mostly every immigrant that came to the U.S followed by the “American dream” which motivated these people to come to the U.S. But specifically now in 2024 in a city like Chicago we don’t have that much space for so many immigrants, now we have about 35,000 more immigrants that are currently livingcurrently here living in Chicago because they are overpopulating and especially half of the number just came to cause havoc to make a living for their families. 

Researches say of how it is now a crisis now because back then we had immigrants coming but they had to take a long journey that could put their lives at risk just to make it heremake here to the U.S and to also get no help from the government. Bbut now most of these migrants are coming through in vehicles without trouble since Joe Biden is letting them come through, while they are also receiving a bunch of benefits and the immigrants just take it for granted (Venezuelan migrant arrested for the 3rd time under his 3rd nameCWBChicago). This gives them the confidencet to do such terrible acts affecting cChicago because they believe that since they are being helped by the government and that aretheta re illegal that nothing would happen to them which is the problem we are experiencing that must be stopped. 

With the whole border crisis issue going on it also brings another issue which is happening almosthappening like almost everyday is the fact that they get arrested then sooner or later just get released with no consequencesconsenquences which i think is a major issue because that is just leaving the immigrants to continue causing havoc. To follow up with my statement as of last year there has been a certain Vvenezolano that has been arrested 3 times what even is more crazier is that he has changedchaged his name several times just for him to get away from the acts he committed like stealing, faking identity(Venezuelan migrant arrested 3 times since arriving in Chicago 3 weeks ago CWB Chicago). This is a terrible situation happening in Chicago because of this it influences more migrants to try to do the same because theythye believe nothing would happen to them. 

Because of this another issue follows up which is the growth of immigrants in Cchicago which of manymny people adults, children are now sleeping from the floors of police station lobbies and it'sits sad to see this knowing children are also going through it being stuck in a police station lobby with about 450 to 500 immigrants, about 70 familiesfamileis which is awful.(Venezuelan migrant arrested 3 times since arriving in Chicago 3 weeks ago CWB Chicago) After getting all these benefits there still seems to be not much space to be able to take care of everycare  every single migrant or immigrant that will be showing up in Chicago. 

Not only did the growth of migrants and immigrants riserose in Chicago, so didChicago so did the crime rate., Oover the last couple years since the summer of 2022 in Chicago when the immigrants have broken the Americanamerican immigration laws multiple times, it has caused many robberies, deaths, and manymany more crimes (Chester). Which answers to one of my questions I had earlier to why most immigrants of now have mostly designer clothing and they  just sit there most of the day doing nothing. 

nNow I know they either have stolen it or gained money from the government that has allowed them to be able to purchase these things which I'm jealousim jealous of because I don'tdont even have that much money to afford those new clothing they have.  The sad part about this is that of now of how these crimes burden the citizens of Chicago as in the police departmentdepartnment and the businessesbusiness that lose money from shoplifting (Chester). 

If this keeps happening now in 2024, it can shut down many small businesses because of this and the people who own the stores are the ones who suffer the consequences. As of this t This also brings invasion in the homeless shelters causing many fights that can lead to weapons being brought and others hurting each other physicallyphyically really badly. This has made also one of the communities in Chicago “Brighton Park” to come together and protested in frontinfront of a construction site where they are building a migrant shelter saying “it violates the Chicago zoning laws (Cox). 

I have Hhad many conversations with friends and family members and I know of how bad it is in some othersomeother parts, forparts for example like around the high school “Kelly. Theythey were planning to make a migrant shelter around there and that caused huge protests because people knew how risky that would be because it can endanger the student’s safety. This also isn’t right because of how much they are alreadyarealready taking for granted to even have free transportation and still don’t decide to look out for a job or anything to make some type of income( Cox). 

I also see this as unfair because when my parents came from mMexico to the U.S they had nothing no shelter to go to, no free transportation, barely any opportunities for jos, and this gets me upset because how is it that after everything they receive theythye don’t go out looking for some type of job but instead continue to steal and complain on how they still need shelters to helphep them live in Cchicago. 

To know also that most of these migrants and immigrants do come to the U.S to better their lives for their family and kids it'sits just that it also brings a bad part of it which is the issueissu we face.  Although some experts may say that most of the migrants that do come here are really willing to work, but because of overpopulation of migrants and immigrants it has caused them to wait longer for a permit to be able to work (Loria). The issue that always comes  back that isn’t able to fully help out the migrants and immigrants is still the amount of people that overpopulatedoverpupulated Cchicago. Becausebecause of this, Chicago'sthis Chicago’s legal aid advocates worry that  it is getting overwhelming to give more than 10,000 migrants and immigrants to which they probablyprobably which they won’t be able toableto accomplish that (Loria). 

To close out this essay I hope soon Joe Bidenbiden comes to realize how much of a mistake it was to open up the border for that amount of time becausefor it has caused many negative effects in the major parts of the U.S. As for the next steps is to just try to deport all the new migrants and immigrants that have caused crimes or have a criminalcrminal record from before and to also to get us much of these people employedeployed into anything at leastatleast because it'sits better to have them do something then just to sit around and think they will just get everything handed to them, then from there it would make most lives of there migrants more better because there would be less crimes rate due to that making Chicago a better environment for everyone to feel safe in the major parts like downtown.