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As of recently, there is an increased support for the restriction of immigration into the United States; the two primary groups of these restrictions being Mexicans and Muslims. Trump has supported this method of restriction by promising to build a wall along the U.S/Mexico border and temporarily banning foreign Muslims from entering the country.

I personally remember him making these claims, especially since both of my parents are major Trump supporters.

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Many Americans also disagree with President Trump’s actions, saying that immigrants grow the economy by taking low-income jobs no one else wants. Hillary Clinton has even said that a ban on Muslims “goes against everything we stand for as a country.”

I believe that immigrants do help the economy, but there has to be some sort of middle ground between both viewpoints.

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These issues with immigration is not something new, considering that this country has a “love and hate relationship” since its founding.

If this is the case, then why haven’t we found a solution to this issue that works?

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Even at the beginning of our country, when the declaration was signed, Thomas Jefferson argued that Britain’s king was obstructing the laws for the naturalization of foreigners.

Initially, the country was all for immigration.

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Back in 1783, George Washington was quoted saying the U.S. was open to “the oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions, whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges.”

The reason the United States was because people wanted to escape oppression and receive freedom, but now times have changed.

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Immigration was necessary at this time. Most of the country was empty, and immigration was needed to fill it up.

So, immigration was a vital contribution to modern American society.

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Back even before the United States’ independence, people were weary of foreign peoples that immigrated here.

This shows that issues with immigration has lasted longer than the country itself has.

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Immigrants alone increased the population of the US in the 1830s, most of them being Catholic Irish and German people.

This brought Catholicism to the US, which is today very popular.

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Protestants didn’t like the abundance of Catholics in the country, and resulted in them attacking catholic schools and churches.

This is an example of religion causing issues among people, which is something that happens today as well.

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An anti-immigrant party candidate won 20% of the vote in 1856.

This shows that there have been politicians in the past that have been against immigration as well.

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The Homestead Act of 1862 allowed people large plots of land west of the Mississippi if they lived there for 5 years, which attracted thousands of Germans, Scandinavians, and Irish people to move west. This is when these groups were finally accepted as Americans.

This shows that the government was for immigration throughout the 19th century.

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In the mid-19th century, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed to prevent Chinese people from immigrating to the country after an abundance of them came and took jobs from Americans.

This shows a time where regulations were put on immigration, similar to now with Trump and Muslims.

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In 1921, even more laws passed in Washington restricted immigration even more. This was caused by the concerns that immigrants were taking jobs and sparking crimes.

This is also similar to now, where people are stereotyping other races to be more violent than others.

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In the 1960s when the civil rights movement took place is when these quotas were abolished, reclaiming the idea of America being a nation that accepted immigrants.

This is most likely the reason why there are conflicting view points today on immigration, Old reasoning vs. new reasoning.

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Concerns about immigration are still the same now as they were a hundred years ago: sovereignty, jobs, security, and traditions.

This shows that people’s views haven’t changed since then.

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One of the largest issues involving immigration has to be the 11 million undocumented people living here. There have been bills created to try and get these people to apply for citizenship, but they all failed so far.

This exhibits one of the downsides of allowing open immigration.

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There have been attempts to protect young people that were brought into the country illegally from deportation, specifically by Obama in 2012. However, as of recently, even perfectly legal immigrants from Muslim countries are posing a threat.

This shows that both legal and illegal immigrants can cause issues for the US.

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Obama and his administration accepted 10,000 refugees from Syria to relocate here, but 31 state governors refused to allow them in their state.

This shows the internal struggle between not only people and the government, but within the government as well.

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How things are going to be dealt with depend on who leads are country next, whether immigration will be favored or gone against.

This shows the uncertainty immigration has been dealt with for the entirety of the US’s lifetime.

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No matter what, the US will always be a nation of immigrants.

This is true with the amount of immigrants that still live here to this day.

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Immigrants will eventually be accepted as Americans just as previous groups have.

Essentially, the cycle will just keep on repeating.