Help with speech?

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AiryBri

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I am giving this speech on illegal immigration for a school contest. Any help/feedback would be great appreciated. The topic is: Illegal immigration: state rights vs federal rights.

[FONT=&quot]Protect our borders: Make LEGAL immigrants possible! [/FONT]​

[FONT=&quot]There's this guy I know, Edgar Gonzales, he's an illegal alien. How dare a smelly Mexican illegally come to our country? I don’t care that he was brought here as a kid by his parents! He comes here, uses are schools, our doctors – and we’re paying for it! He certainly can’t. If I had the means too, I’d ship him back to his country, without a second thought. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]We're scapegoating the immigrants, in a closed minded way. Yes, the immigration system in our country is inherently flawed. However, the recently passed Arizona laws and state laws like them will do little to resolve the issue. The federal government needs to address the issue, not the states, because this isn’t just about our economy, it’s about protecting innocent lives.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Illegal immigration is a detriment to society and a deeply flawed system. However, the way we have been trying to address the issue, through state-led mass deportation and border protection, has not, does not, and will not work. Wasn't it Albert Einstein who defined insanity as, “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?” (1) We're pretending to do something by handing it over to states to deal with. No, this isn't about 'giving states rights,' at all. It's about giving the responsibility to control and defend the borders, a constitutionally governed federal issue, to states because the national government isn’t doing enough. Passing along the responsibility will not solve the root problems; instead it creates more victims. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]There are already enough Mexican victims. The U.S spends 3.5 billion dollars a year to prevent illegal immigration, but only 700 million dollars to aide Mexico. (2) [/FONT][FONT=&quot]We're treating Mexico like a plagued country. Why invest so much into building walls separating us from a nation that could one day relic Canada as a great neighbor? It's awful to assume Mexico doesn't want to better itself. Let's look to our past. The Great Wall of China. The Berlin Wall. How well did those segregation efforts work out? [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Right now, in Mexico, the drug cartels are running the country: it's a frightening reality. Well-armed cartels enter border towns, slaughter and behead citizens, and, thanks to corrupt police and government officials, disappear without a trace. Since 2006, 30'000 people have died in the Mexican drug war, this number increases annually, and the daily death toll now exceeds that of Afghanistan and Iraq combined. (3) Why have we spent over one trillion dollars on those wars overseas, but only 1.4 billion dollars on an equally serious war going on in our own backyard? The Mexican government recognizes that 20 to 25 percent of the death toll is completely innocent bystanders; that's 7'500 innocent people who have died in vain. (3) Where a person is born should not dictate whether they live or die. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Citizens of Mexico are not the only people at risk from this drug war. Shannon O'Neil, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, says, "Our security is intricately tied with Mexico's security, and so we should be investing in our relationship with Mexico. It's in our own self interest to do so.” Failing to properly address illegal immigration threatens American security in a number of ways: the violent Mexican drug cartel battles are spilling over to Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California; international terrorists can use the weakened borders as an avenue to enter the country to attack; and about 90 percent of the cocaine and much of the marijuana that enters the U.S. comes through Mexico. (5) This is why I agree with Representative Dan Burton, who said, “This is a federal government issue, it shouldn't be left up to the states." It was made clear by our founding fathers that protecting the borders is a national issue. States cannot be expected to defend their borders with little support from the federal government. The only ability states have, because of these laws, is mass deportation. It's obvious that deportation will do little to solve the main immigration problem: the drug war in Mexico. If the drug war was stopped illegal immigration would be drastically reduced. The federal government needs to show stronger leadership by addressing the main issue of immigration, and not leave it to states that can do little to resolve the issue. We're counting on it for the safety of both innocent Mexican and American lives. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]As I said, in the past two years our federal government has only attempted to aide Mexico with 700 billion dollars a year, for a total of $1.4 billion dollars. At the same time, it would cost an estimated 285 billion dollars to deport the 11 million illegal immigrants currently living in the U.S.(4) Do the math: if we continue to favor state-led deportation, instead of federally funded aide, every $4 spent aiding their country, a $1000 will be wasted to deporting immigrants. That completely lacks logic! By handing off the responsibility to the states to deport immigrants we will spend a third the total cost of the health care bill, and only cure the symptom of illegal immigration.(3) [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Why don't we spend the money to cure the problem instead? Imagine if we shifted all or most of that money to aide? If we took drastic steps, we could end the drug war in Mexico. This would not only end the atrocious killings, but also reduce the number of illegal immigrants who are forced flee to America. Since the number of illegal immigrants would decrease drastically, more immigrants would be allowed to enter legally. Legal immigrants give back greatly to our society, both culturally and financially; generating income and paying taxes would boost our economy, and greatly decrease the amount we have to spend on deportation. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Reducing these numbers would also allow us to focus our defensive attention where it needs to be: Against terrorist attacks. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]During 2005, Border Patrol apprehended approximately 1.2 million illegal aliens; of those 165,000 were from countries other than Mexico. Of the non-Mexican aliens, approximately 650 were from special interest countries. Special interest countries are those “designated by the intelligence community as countries that could export individuals that could bring harm to our country in the way of terrorism.” [/FONT][FONT=&quot]How many actual terrorists have crossed is unknown, but we do know that we can stop more from coming. Drug cartels are assisting terrorist cells, and their weapons, across the border. Which is why we need to focus our energy to ending the strong hold drug cartels have over Mexico, this would not only end most of our illegal immigration issues, but could also prevent a second 9-11. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Statistics don't tell the story of immigration, people do. Remember Edgar Gonzales? He is a 16 year old boy, best friend, fully fledged officer of the FFA, neglected by his parents, and legally blind. I used to watch Edgar appreciate every day and opportunity, as an illegal immigrant in America, and happily face challenges I couldn't possibly imagine. He inspired me tremendously; I learned more from him then anyone I've ever met. And if we continue to pass harsh illegal immigration laws, I'll never meet another Edgar. We've blamed immigrants for many of our problems for too long. And forgotten that at one time or another, we were immigrants too. It's time to stop giving national problems to states. It's time to stop treating the symptom and start fighting the cause. It's time to break free from the past and move into a brighter, sustainable, future; by thinking outside of the box. Because as Albert Einstein also said, "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." [/FONT]
 
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