The Face of Legal Immigration

Memphis, Tn - The word immigration has become a divisive lightening rod in recent months, from controversial calls for reform to the president's confrontation with the Governor of Arizona just last month.

Most of the clamor has been centered on illegal immigration. But, painting all immigrants with a broad stroke that conjures up images of late-night, illegal border crossings is hardly fair to the hundreds of thousands of people who go about becoming a part of the united states, the right way.

Anywhere from 400-800 thousand people become naturalized US citizens every year.

But, coming to this country the right way, is a long and arduous process. There are background checks, mounds of paper work, and the cost can range from the thousands, to the tens of thousands of dollars including attorney's fees. The process can take five to six years or longer.

"Today is like a graduation ceremony. It's like getting your bachelors degree of learning about democracy, and individual liberty and how human beings should live," said newly certified immigrant and Fox 13 employee Waheed Alqwasmi. "Actually, I came here, I flew by myself, I was 12-years-old, I flew from Jordan to Memphis."

He's 24 now and has spent the last 6 years as a legal resident, working on his citizenship.

"You have to write essays of why you should become a citizen, and you have to fill out applications and obviously you have to provide proof of eligibility to become a citizen."

Those eligibility requirements are not easily met.
--one has to be 18 or older.
--have been a green card holder for at least 5 years.
--have continuous residence in the u-s for those 5 years.
--be able to read, speak, and write English.
--and be a person of good moral character.

Those requirements are tough enough, but many of the new citizens we spoke with told us the recent under-current of negativity against illegal immigrants, mostly by politicians, has made their legitimate road even tougher.

Alqwasmi said, "They don't see people like me who are actually working professionals in the country that are here legally. They just think of everyone with an accent as being an immigrant that's here that's taking jobs away from Americans, and that's not true. A lot of us do contribute to our society. Most of all of us pay taxes. I've been paying taxes since I was 16 and I got my first paycheck."