Note: Students from Chestatee High School wrote letters to the editor to The Times on a number of subjects as part of a social studies class project for teacher Ernie Davis. More of their letters will appear on Monday's Opinion page.
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President Barack Obama recently passed a bill to spend $600 million to increase security on the border. The country is currently more than $13 trillion in debt, a number estimated to be increasing more than $10,000 a second. Needless to say, we can't afford to send 1,500 more soldiers to the border along with loads of new technology.
We should be saving to pay off the war debt instead of spending money we don't have to keep out hard-working immigrants who do the jobs most Americans are too high and mighty to do themselves. It was proposed that the government raise visa fees in order to pay for the increased security, but that's just making it even harder to come into America the legal way.
The "need" to increase border security was sparked by the controversial issue of the Arizona laws which require immigrants to carry their papers with them at all times and police to question anyone who could possibly be in the U.S. illegally. The laws make racial profiling mandatory and make immigrants who did somehow find a way to come into America as a citizen feel like they aren't really part of this country, even though they work hard and pay taxes unlike some Americans who were born here.
There is also the question of whether or not the attempt to decrease illegal immigration is genuine or if it is just an attempt to get on the good side of the Republicans who still aren't satisfied with the new security measures. Either way, it's a waste of money.
Samantha Fey