Immigration Persuasive Speech

Cortni Willard

Hns. English 10

Per. 3

5-24-06

Persuasive Speech

I.

A. “Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” These words are engraved on the Statue of Liberty that was assembled in 1886. The statue was meant to be a beacon of hope for all immigrants that enter the U.S. Do we still agree with what those words say?

B. There has been so much controversy about immigration in the last few months that I became interested in how immigration affects our lives. I have researched immigration for the last 2 months now. I’ve read Internet articles, newspapers, and watched the news. So I became very informed about the subject of immigration.

C. 850,000 legal immigrants have been coming to the U.S. per year since 2000, plus the number is rising. This doesn’t take into account the 275,000 illegal immigrants that come to the U.S. every year. In total, that amounts to over 1 million immigrants..

D. Today, I would like to inform you about the serious problems immigration could cause. First, by giving you all the facts, and by explaining how immigration, if continued, will affect our lives.

Transition: I’ll start by telling you about immigration and its history.

II.

A. Americans have always been realistic about immigration, but if it continues at the rate it is, we will be in trouble.

1. The biggest issue is the fact that the U.S. is in the middle of another great wave of immigration.

a. Nearly 1 million immigrants are coming to the U.S. every year.

b. The immigration Act of 1965 was made to reunite and grant freedom for refugees.

1. The law nearly tripled the rate of immigration from 297,000 in 1965 to 850,000 in 2000

2. This is not including illegal immigrants, which are estimated around 275,000 per year.

3. During the 1990s there was an economic boom in which the number of illegal immigrants more than doubled, hitting 8.7 million.

B. Did you know that there were immigration issues with the hijackers that caused the terrorist attacks on September 11?

1. 3 of the 19 hijackers were in the U.S. with expired visas, the other 16 illegal immigrants were allowed to roam the country.

a. At least 2 of the hijackers were on the government watch list.

b. This should have at least raised some suspicion, but for some reason, it didn’t.

C. Illegal immigrants are a great danger to America. According to the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, more than 50% of illegal immigrants that come to America break laws, steal, rape, murder, form and join gangs, sell drugs and engage in the trade of illegal weapons.

1. In 2002 illegal immigrants cost the federal prison and court system over 1 billion dollars

2. 95% of outstanding warrants for homicide in Los Angeles are for illegal immigrants.

D. I’m not against all of the immigrants that travel to our country and want to start a better life here by becoming legal citizens. I’m against the millions of illegal immigrants that come to the U.S. and cause trouble and make things harder for the legal immigrants that are already here.

Transition: If proper steps are taken to reduce illegal immigration, we will see a great improvement in our society.

III.

A. President Bush has just proposed an idea of distributing the National Guard among our country’s borders, in order to decrease the amount