With a quick glance around any busy area in America today, one would notice the many different races of people. Almost everyone who now resides in the United States is a descendant of an immigrant from another country. During the 1900-1920s, people migrated to the states by the thousands. At that time, the major port of entrance was Ellis Island. Immigrants were made to take a 29 question test that included things like name, age, sex, and if they were literate or not ("Ellis Island" sec 2.). It is estimated that between 1892 and 1954, 12 million immigrants were processed at Ellis Island. Today, more than 40 percent, or over 100 million, of all living Americans can trace their roots to an ancestor through Ellis Island ("Ellis Island" sec.1). The Ellis Island port was then closed due to heavy migration into America.

Immigrants came to the United States for many of the same reasons they do today; many want the chance to become wealthy, or to create a better life for their family then the one they had in their own country. Others seek freedom, freedom of speech and life. While the American government agrees that others should be allowed the chance to liv

Ellis Island. Home Page. 2 February 2000. The Ellis Island Immigration Museum Society. 20 April 2000. http://www.ellisisland.org/ellis.html.

Have you ever wondered what your tax money is being spent on? The money taxpayers hand over to the government goes to many things: the building of public streets, paying for public services such as police and firemen, and paying for illegal immigrant's welfare checks. Not only do illegal aliens displace over 659,000 American workers each year, at a cost of $3.5 billion a year, but they also cost the taxpayer. Under a legal device invented by the courts, many illegal aliens are allowed to receive welfare without fear of deportation. Other illegal aliens get welfare the say way they get jobs: document fraud. In many cities, false documents can be bought on the street for as little as $40. With false documents, an illegal alien's "right" to work or welfare goes unquestioned. With the cost of displacing American workers, the cost of giving welfare to needy illegal aliens, and the cost of providing them general services, it is estimated that the annual cost of illegal immigrants is $19 billion (even after giving credit for their tax contributions). Despite the attempted ban on welfare to new immigrant and illegal aliens, immigrants are nearly twice as likely to be on welfare as natives. Furthermore, welfare use rises when native Americans are underemployed or are displaced from their jobs by immigration ("Illegal Immigrants").

In an effort to decrease the number of illegal residents, the Clinton administration just recently proposed to offer legal residency to more than 500,000 illegal immigrants that were already in the United States. By revising a law that once offered all immigrants who ha

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