Did you know that there is an estimated number of 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States of America today? That large number shows that immigration is a pressing matter in our country, and in the surrounding countries that are filled with people that have the desire to come here. People all around the world come to the U.S. for various reasons. Some come for tourism, visiting family, business matters, temporary work, or for a permanent place to work and to call home. You can do all of those things while still abiding by the law, but it might not be the easier route to take. To travel to the United States for a short amount of time, you must have a passport. To temporarily be employed in this country you must obtain a working visa and leave within the allotted time. Lastly, to receive the right to live here permanently, you are required to have a green card and extensive background checks done. Becoming a permanent resident of the country entails a very lengthy waiting list. Immigration has been going on and evolving for centuries. In fact, that is how the United States became a country at all. All because people from other countries sought a better life and better opportunities. That aspect of immigration has not changed for the most part. However, the tranquil way of coming to the U.S. changed as time passed. For around 60 years, Ellis Island in New York City was a main spot for immigrating into the country. You had to be inspected for diseases before being allowed to enter, and as the years went by, more restrictions were added on. Around the year 1910, a " ¦federal law is passed excluding persons with physical and mental disabilities, as well as children arriving without adults  ("Ellis Island ). More and more restrictions are added, including the literacy test. There were many different acts that prevented a plethora of immigrants from coming into the country; for example, the National Origins Act of 1924 only allowed 165,000 immigrants into the country annually ("Ellis Island ). There were other changes made at Ellis Island after the Great Depression and World War II that led to its close in 1952. There were a few acts passed in the following years, but one of the most noted was the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. This act gave unauthorized immigrants the chance to gain citizenship if they met certain requirements, and it promised better secured borders. However, immigration to the United States just increased. By the 1990s there was an annual count of 2 million attempted illegal entries, and those were only the people that got caught (Alden). Then came the biggest shock in the United States of America's history: 9/11. This event exposed the lack of national security that we had at the time, and it became the government's priority to secure the country's borders in air and on land. Since 9/11, our country has been on a long road to try to fix this problem. In President Obama's last five years as president, he has, " ¦overseen the deportation of nearly 2 million undocumented immigrants  (Altman). He has since brought, " ¦Hispanic lawmakers to the Oval Office to express his regret about that record ¦ , and he is working a new immigration policy. We have seen so many changes in immigration in the past century, and that leaves people to wonder what we as a country should do about this national and global issue. There is constantly an argument going on about immigration. There are people who think that all illegal immigrants should be deported, and some that think they should be able to stay. There are people that think we should allow anyone in our country and that we should reduce the border control. On the other side, people think we should secure our borders even more than they already are, and that the people entering our country should be regulated closely. As you can see, there are many different aspects of this topic. There is