The history of the United States began in 1607 when the English successfully settled in Jamestown, Virginia. Soon afterward, people began to come to live on this stolen land and in the process brought diseases that killed 90 percent of the Native American population. When the nation broke free from English reign, it began to expand westward. It purchased vast amounts of land from the French for low prices, forced the Native Americans to leave their homes and pushed them westward, and won land from Mexico. Europeans came into “unclaimed” territory and made the new land theirs. Now in 2016, an ongoing battle rages on in regards to “illegal” immigrants. Some want to build a wall to keep them out; others claim that they’re murderers or taking money and jobs from U.S. citizens. Families have been torn apart, others live in fear of getting caught, and some who are actually trying to get citizenship aren’t able to because of how long they have to wait.

For example, actress Diane Guerrero (“Orange Is the New Black” and “Jane the Virgin”) wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times in 2014 where she talks about being a citizen daughter to immigrant parents who were deported when she was 14. Her parents had moved to New Jersey during a time of instability in Columbia, and throughout her childhood, her parents tried to become legal citizens but lost their money to people they believed to be attorneys. Guerrero was constantly haunted by the idea that one day she would walk home and find no one there. And one day, it just happened. “Not a single person at any level of government took any note of me. No one checked to see if I had a place to live or food to eat, and at 14, I found myself basically on my own.” Friends of her parents took her in and she continued her education. She now actively speaks out on immigration reforms and hopes that one day she can bring the topic to light on one of her shows.

Guerrero’s story is a common occurrence to children in the United States every year. In 2013, ICE carried out 72,410 removals of immigrants who had one or more U.S.-born children. Guerrero’s parents, who actively attempted to gain their citizenship, were faced with several obstacles posed by the U.S. government. For instance, when applying for a Green Card you have to be eligible for a certain category. The fastest way to get a Green Card is by being an immediate relative of a U.S. citizen (spouse, parent, child, stepchild, etc.) and in many cases, most immigrants don’t have anyone. So many apply for the Preferred Employees and Workers category, which offers only 140,000 Green Cards a year to people who had a job offer and are better suited for the job than a citizen. And since it’s in the preference category, it can take years before they even get their Green Card. And that just makes it easier for them to get deported.

Immigrants are trying to start a new life and provide for their family, and are often criticized for taking jobs from hard-working Americans. Most immigrants, without a high school diploma, work as cashiers, carpenters, truck drivers, janitors, construction laborers, agricultural work, cooks, and maids or housekeepers, to name a few. According to a study made by the Urban Institute,

“immigrants and native workers with low levels of education may be competing for different jobs and even could be complementing each other. Immigration status can constrain a worker’s job choices, but many immigrants are working different jobs from natives because they have limited English language or technical skills, or because they have insufficient exposure to the US workplace. If undocumented immigrants become authorized to work in the United States, that still may not be enough to increase competition with natives for low-skilled jobs.”

They are getting the jobs done that we often overlook. People look at immigrants and assume that they get a free pass to an easy life, which isn’t always true. Sure, there will always be that one person who lives on food stamps and government support, but that one person is not the voice of all the immigrants living in the U.S. And to all the people who assume that all immigrants are rapists and murderers and drug dealers: My white neighbor is just as likely to be any of that as an Arab or a Mexican or an Asian-American or Native American. Anyone living in the United States right now is capable of committing those crimes and preventing people from living here because of the chance that they do potentially become criminals is atrocious. People need to stop seeing immigrants as an entirely different species. They’re just people. They’re mothers, fathers, students, doctors, teachers, anything they want to be and they want to come to the United States to get that opportunity or to live a better life but have to overcome obstacles in order for that to even happen.

There’s no easy solution to this problem, but building a wall to keep everyone out, or locking them up, is not it. Legislation like Arizona’s “show me your papers” law doesn’t help either; instead, it continues to encourage racial profiling. We need to ensure that law enforcement officials are held to the constitutional standards we value as American, protecting public safety and the rights of all. President Obama announced a series of executive actions to crack down on illegal immigration, which included:

• Expanding the population eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to people of any current age who entered the United States before the age of 16 and lived in the United States continuously since Jan. 1, 2010, and extending the period of DACA and work authorization from two years to three years.
• Allowing parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents to request deferred action and employment authorization for three years, in a new Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents* program, provided they have lived in the United States continuously since Jan. 1, 2010, and pass required background checks
• Expanding the use of provisional waivers of unlawful presence to include the spouses and sons and daughters of lawful permanent residents and the sons and daughters of U.S. citizens
• Modernizing, improving and clarifying immigrant and nonimmigrant visa programs to grow our economy and create jobs
• Promoting citizenship education and public awareness for lawful permanent residents and providing an option for naturalization applicants to use credit cards to pay the application fee

These initiatives have, yet, not been implemented, and once Obama’s presidency ends, we need a president who will implement them, who will help immigrants live a good life in the United States. We need a leader who supports a path to full and equal citizenship.