English Project January 14th, 2013 | Page 2

FEATURED ARTICLE

Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor

WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA- Today, July 4th, 1864, Congress has passed an Act to help immigrants arriving to the United States from European countries gain a stronger footing once they reach America. It is officially titled the Act to Encourage Immigration, and will pass many new restrictions and regulations on the many immigrants that are traveling to the US from many countries.

Congress is currently controlled by the Republican party, who was in favor of the new act. The House of Representatives and Senate both voted in favor of the act considering that both sections of Congress are heavily Republican. The main thing that the new nationwide law changes is that the President of the United States will now be able to hire a Commissioner of Immigration. The subject who holds the position will remain in the spot for four years on a clockwork cycle similar to the President’s, and will be subject under the orders of the Department of State. The position will pay a handsome $2,500.

The other big thing that the new law enacts is to establish an office on Ellis Island in New York City, New York, that will be known as the United States Emigrant Office. This is where all new immigrants will receive their visas and register to be in the United States legally. Anyone who is not a citizen on the eastern coast of the US that has not passed through the USEO is classified as an illegal citizen and can be put in jail.

Hopefully the new act will enable the United States to do what they were meant to do according to the Statue of Liberty: ‘To accept their tired, their poor.’