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Bush Heads for the Border
President Bush visited the U.S.-Mexico border recently to talk about one of the country's hottest topics - immigration reform. Each year, thousands of people come to the United States to find work, join their families, or go to school. Last year, over one million people from other countries became legal residents of the U.S.
But not all immigrants have permission to enter the United States. Millions of people sneak across the border. They are called illegal aliens and politicians disagree on how to handle the issue.
Most illegal immigrants come from Mexico. They cross the border into states like New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Texas. In 2005, the border patrol caught 1.3 million people trying to enter the U.S. Just over one million of these were Mexicans.
Today there are over 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. Illegal immigrants do almost a quarter of the farming jobs and 17 percent of cleaning jobs. The fact is that our country depends upon these immigrants to do both important and necessary jobs.
President Bush wants to strengthen border security. But he also wants to give illegal aliens already here permission to stay as guests and work. Some Republicans think that they shouldn't be allowed to work in the U.S. at all. Republican Representative Brian Bilbray of California believes that Bush's plan rewards people who broke the law.
Some Democrats, like Senator Edward Kennedy from Massachusetts, would like for Bush to go a step farther and grant citizenship to all illegal aliens.
I'm Ben and that's what happened in our nation this week!
Most illegal immigrants enter our country from the south. Let's play Pinpoint and locate some of these areas on the map!
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