The current presidential elections have brought the hot topic of immigration to light once again. Illegal immigration is generally more talked about than legal immigration. However, if we look at why people are trying to immigrate illegally we find the root of the problem, difficulty of legal immigration. I am interested in this topic because not only is it a hot debate topic but it prevalent problem that effects the entire world. This problem affects my values because I believe that everyone should have a chance to better their lives (in a legal way). This topic hits close to home because in high school I tutored kids and worked with people who recently immigrated to the United States (both legally and illegally). I was able to listen to their stories,struggles, and goals. My family is also very opinionated on this subject. As conservatives, they agree with the viewpoints of Donald Trump and believe we should further limit immigration. However, I believe if they were more educated about immigration and the countries these people are coming from, it would alter their point of view. I am qualified to write about this topic because I am passionate about it and have seen both the positive and negative effects of legal and illegal immigration.

The article "Path to U.S. Citizenship Costly, Tedious" by Romy Ribitzky for ABC News discusses just how difficult it is to get a visa to legally live in the United States. The article claims that 140,000 of 900,000 immigrants are granted permanent residency.  But to achieve permanent residency one must spend thousands of dollars, ranging from five thousand dollars up to fifteen thousand. The process takes years and leaves people feeling helpless. The question this article allows us to ask ourselves is "should we make immigrating to our country this difficult"? This article also allows readers to step into some one else's shoes. If you knew that immigrating legally would be this difficult would you attempt to do it illegally? This author is credible because they write for a well known and credible news source. However, their writing could be exaggerated or swayed more toward one party's viewpoint to better interest readers.

The article "Waits for immigration status -- the legal way -- can be long and frustrating" by Moni Basu for CNN also illustrates how the United States immigration system is flawed. It gives an example of a woman who has waited for a green card for 17 years so she could be reunited with her family. The article shows that people either think the legal immigration system is either letting to many people in or not enough. Stating that the congress is deadlocked.  Basu claims "The four countries with the longest wait times for family- and employer-sponsored visa applications are Mexico, India, China and the Philippines. That's because the limits on green cards are the same for large countries like Mexico as they are for small countries like Denmark. Each year, the United States grants 226,000 family-sponsored green cards. The limit for employer-sponsored permanent visas is 140,000. The law prescribes a per-country limit at 7% of the total." Is this justified? Should we change the limit of visas per country based on their size? This author is also credible because he writes for a credible news source but as said before the article could be bias for news purposes.

The article "Immigrants applying to enter US legally facing longer waits" by William La Jeunesse for fox news discusses how people who attempt to enter the country legally tend to wait a longer time people than those who enter illegally. The article gives an example of a man from Argentina who has struggled getting a visa. The article states that "some have been on the list for more the fifteen years". It discussed what the US is and isn't doing to fix this problem and a spokesman of USCIS told Fox News "we're working on it". This article allows people to see that the US isn't doing as much as they should be to fix this problem. As much as the Obama administration says they are working on it, we're not seeing results. In credibility and bias, this article is similar to the articles above. 

This research question of "Why legal immigration should be easier" is arguable because conservatives argue why it should be harder and have understandable reasons but there is also another side of the argument that has under stable reasons and evidence as well. Some disagreements and different perspectives of this topic are that immigrants tend to cause problems in the united states. Some may argue that they make the job market more competitive, create more crime, and don't pay enough taxes. I might need to revise my research question my narrowing it down to latin american immigration. 

