Karen Brown the manager of a local Jewellery store in San Diego says ‘I can’t blame the people for coming to a country for a better life’ Brown did not have any problem with undocumented citizens coming to the US for more opportunities however, she did not feel it was fair that amnesty was offered to them as well.

“‘I have a problem with people getting amnesty while others have to go through a legal process,” says Brown. Brown was not too sure about how this affected the economy but she was hopeful that it would be in a positive way.  

As of April 11th 2013, there were 11.1 million undocumented citizens in the United States.

The issue of Immigration has been a major issue for quite a while and has been an ongoing debate with the members of congress for some time. In the 52nd district of California, San Diego, the issue is being dealt with by congressman Scott Peters. He feels that there needs to be tough border security in order to prevent people smuggling guns, drugs as well as other people across the border.

He believes that the only way to fix this will be to improve commerce between the two countries; the United States and Mexico. He feels that improving the technology that protects the border can help speed up the ‘legal commerce’ and that will in turn prevent people from wanting to move across the border. 

An employee at Superior Pool, Jessica, said she did not feel very strongly about the new immigration reform. But she did say that it was unfair because the job opportunities would be given to undocumented citizens rather than people who have been a citizen for their whole life or at least most of their life.

She said, ‘If approved, for small businesses like us, we don’t get opportunities, we’re the last to get opportunities and it’s not fair’ She feels that, many people will take up construction as a business knocking them out of the market as said ‘Lots of people will take up businesses like construction which is what we do and it will not be good for the economy."

 District Fact Box

Total Population: 673,893

White: 73.8%

Black or African American: 4.5%

Asian: 7.5%

Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander: 0.9%

Average Household Income: $30,715

Current Voter Regrsitartion: 1,465,269

Democrat: 41%

Republican: 29%

No Party Affiliation: 21.3%

 

Reach Guest Contributor Tania Dawood Here