In 2017, the then President of the United States, Donald Trump, signed an executive order to suspend the entire refugee admission program for 4 months, while also banning citizens from seven countries including Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen from entering the U.S. for 90 days. He believed this new move would protect Americans from terrorism, and throughout his term, he consistently called for the U.S. to expand the wall at the U.S.-Mexico border to prevent illegal immigration. Up to the current administration, President Joe Biden has proposed a new law that prohibits most migrants who have passed through other countries on their way to the U.S.-Mexico border from seeking asylum in the U.S.

At the beginning of 2023, the Biden administration even expelled hundreds of Latin American immigrants illegally from the country. Overall, the United States is being very strict and is making efforts to build both a physical and an invisible wall to block the flow of refugee immigrants coming from everywhere. The reason given is to ensure peace and social stability, implicitly avoiding the risks of social evils that may come from immigrants, as well as preventing terrorists disguised as immigrants from threatening the security of the United States. Ultimately, is America justified in implementing this policy, and is having fewer immigrants good for the U.S.?

Historically, the people who are truly considered indigenous to the United States are the Native Americans, who lived here thousands of years before European colonizers arrived, starting with Christopher Columbus discovering America. Over the centuries, many empires such as England, Spain, France, the Netherlands, and Portugal have poured in and divided the territory here. However, those events happened a long time ago, and now white people of European descent are considered the indigenous people of America. Today, white people make up nearly 60% of the population, still the largest ethnic group in the U.S., while African Americans, who have deep roots as descendants of black slaves brought to America for plantations over many generations, can also be considered indigenous people.

By definition, immigrants include Latin, Asian, and Arab descent individuals, and even white people from Europe living in the U.S. for less than three generations can only be considered immigrants.

In 1952, a Syrian man named Abdu Fatahzan Dali came to the U.S. as a political science graduate student. This Arab boy quickly fell in love with a white American girl named Joann. Two years later, she became pregnant, but due to Joann's father disapproving of the relationship, they eventually went their separate ways. Joan gave birth to the baby but decided not to raise it and put it up for adoption. She didn't even have time to name it; the child was given to the family of Paul and Clara for adoption and was named Steve Jobs. At this point, you probably know who I am referring to, right?

That is the technology legend who changed the world, Steve Jobs, the father of Apple with the iPhones - the one who always led the trend in phones, devices like the iPad, computers, laptops, and the ecosystem that is still favored by the world today. The Apple corporation he founded remains one of the most valuable brands in the world, and he is the biological son of a Muslim immigrant from Syria. A former partner of Steve Jobs, who co-founded Apple with him, is Steve Gunia. Gunia is the child of an immigrant from Ukraine, meaning he is only the second generation in America. Looking at Apple's competitor, Google, we also see a similar picture; one of the two founders of the world's largest search engine, Sergey, was even born in the capital of the former Soviet Union, Moscow, which is now part of Russia.

In 1979, at the age of 6, he immigrated to the U.S. with his parents. If Trump's immigration restrictions had been announced half a century earlier, perhaps America would have taken much longer to have e-commerce, as the founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar, would not have been able to immigrate to the U.S. This man's background is quite complex, as both of his parents were Iranians who immigrated to France and then gave birth to him in Paris. He once had a very Iranian name. However, it was later changed to Pierre for easier communication in France. Pierre Omidyar then followed his father, who was a surgeon, to the U.S. to work for Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Maryland. He received an education from both France and the U.S. This foundation led to the creation of the world's largest online shopping platform, eBay, which later laid the groundwork for modern e-commerce.

Further back, if we had banned immigration, there would not be the world's leading commercial aircraft manufacturer, Boeing, as its founder, William Edward Boeing, was the son of a true German. And of course, we cannot forget Nikola Tesla, one of the greatest scientists and inventors of all time, whose works on alternating current and induction current changed the world, laying a solid foundation for technological development up to the ongoing 4.0 industrial revolution.

Today, many of Tesla's timeless ideas are being applied very effectively, contributing to changing human life, and surely many people know that Nikola Tesla was of Serbian descent, born and raised in what is now Croatia in Europe. It can be seen that without immigrants, there would not be a great America as it is today; they have the right to choose to stay and contribute to their homeland. However, they ultimately came to America, which offers them a better life and more opportunities for development. Of course, on the flip side, America also benefits as many talented individuals contribute their intellect through projects that can be said to change history.

However, today America has a policy of restricting immigration; naturally, everything has its pros and cons. But let's look at how major American corporations, the creators of prosperous America, speak about immigration. In 2017, when Trump's executive order was signed, foreign employees of Facebook and Google had to immediately return to the U.S. to avoid being banned from entry, especially those immigrants from Muslim countries.

The world's leading tech corporations like Apple, Facebook, Google, and many others drafted a letter to express their concerns about the U.S. president's executive order. They stated they would be willing to fund efforts to address the situation of 750,000 undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. The letter stated that they share the president's goal of ensuring national security through the immigration system, keeping the country safe. However, they are concerned that the U.S. president's executive order will affect many visa-holding citizens who are working very hard in the U.S. and contributing to the success of the country. The CEO of Google wrote on the internal page as follows: It is heartbreaking to see our colleagues suffering the harm and costs imposed by this order, including those of Indian descent who are successfully running the world's leading company, Google.

The CEO team of Apple sent a letter to employees stating that his company would not be able to exist without immigrants and also mentioned the Syrian origins of co-founder Steve Jobs. He vehemently opposed the ban on Muslims for security reasons. He also reiterated that we may come on different ships, but we are all in the same boat right now. The CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, posted on his personal page that his great-grandparents came from Germany, Austria, and Poland. His wife's parents are immigrants from China and Vietnam.

America is a nation of immigrants, and we should be proud of that. Like many of you, I am concerned about the impact of the recent executive order signed by President Trump; we need to keep this country safe, but we need to do so by focusing on those who are truly a threat. In response to this, President Donald Trump, who issued the immigration ban, also said: I am not against immigration; my mother immigrated to this country from Scotland in 1918 and married my father. My grandparents came here from Germany in 1885; it is thanks to millions of people like them that this country has become so great and successful. I love immigration.

Immigrants come to this country wanting to work hard, to succeed, to raise their children, and to share the American dream. However, he clearly expressed his dislike for the concept of illegal immigration, stating that illegal immigration is unfair to others, including those who have been waiting in line for many years to enter our country legally, and that the flow of illegal immigrants crossing the border is becoming a dangerous issue. America is the only country in the world with an immigration system that places the needs of other countries above its own.

The cost we pay for illegal immigration is enormous. Once again, we must affirm that everything has two sides; immigration brings valuable talent from all over the world and contributes to tremendous development when provided with abundant labor. However, it also brings consequences, as there are high-skilled immigrants as well as low-skilled ones, good people as well as bad ones. Good people build the country, while bad ones destroy it. Sometimes, the enemy within can be more dangerous than the enemy outside. Nevertheless, a policy cannot be good for everything and everyone if it comes at a price that must be paid.