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Naturalized citizens: Your thoughts on immigration reform
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Path to Citizenship
As a naturalized Vietnamese American, I owe all of my benefits in life to my father, who sacrificed everything to bring his family to the US. He gave up his medical practice in order to give his children a better life.
I came over when I was 5 years old in 1967, unable to speak English and excited as any child would be to explore a new land. I am who I am today due to my father's ability to risk everything as other immigrants have done to start a new life so I do understand the reason many illegal immigrants have come here.
However, I believe as immigrants, we are under the obligation to assimilate in order to better ourselves and to contribute as citizens. I think English is mandatory , so as part of the pathway to citizenship, every immigrant should show some minimal level of proficiency.
I hope we can find a way to give a path to the 11 million illegal immigrants, but we should not take this lightly. They must earn the right to become a US citizen. It is a great honor which should be respected. It took me 16 years to become one and I will always remember taking the oath alongside my hero, my father.
I came over when I was 5 years old in 1967, unable to speak English and excited as any child would be to explore a new land. I am who I am today due to my father's ability to risk everything as other immigrants have done to start a new life so I do understand the reason many illegal immigrants have come here.
However, I believe as immigrants, we are under the obligation to assimilate in order to better ourselves and to contribute as citizens. I think English is mandatory , so as part of the pathway to citizenship, every immigrant should show some minimal level of proficiency.
I hope we can find a way to give a path to the 11 million illegal immigrants, but we should not take this lightly. They must earn the right to become a US citizen. It is a great honor which should be respected. It took me 16 years to become one and I will always remember taking the oath alongside my hero, my father.
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