Dbq for Immigration

Dear Ana, Hello, my name is ______. I am now finally an American Citizen. I am from Greece. I met your sister Maria on the boat and she told me she would not have time to write and asked me to tell you what America was like. I think American is more gilded than golden. Gilded is when something is gold on the outside and (for example) iron on the inside. America seemed like an ideal place to come. At least till I got here… On the long trip to America people were discussing that if they were turned down they would sneak across the America-British Columbia border. At first Maria and I didn’t know what they were talking about. We learned that if you are unhealthy you can not enter America till you get rechecked. Most Asians snuck in that way after they were not allowed to enter because of certain laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Gentlemen’s Agreement. We were confused at first about why that was so bad. Another thing Maria and I learned was that if you come into America by “hopping a border” you are in the country illegally till you get papers from the government saying you are allowed to be in America. You are also able to get kick out for being here illegally. The government here calls them illegal aliens. (Documents 10&6) When our ship finally arrived Maria and I saw the statue of liberty. It was beautiful! On the pedestal of the statue there was a poem called “The New Collous.” The line stated that all people are welcome into the country no matter what. The excerpt from the was “Give me your tired your poor. Your huddled masses yearning to breath free The wretched refuse of your teeming shore Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
I found this a little ironic because waiting to be admitted was forever. People kept getting turned away or sent to a different place till they were healthy enough to come. The worst part was seeing