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We need to close our border with Mexico. Immigrants, especially illegal ones, are stealing our jobs and ruining our businesses. Have you ever gone to McDonalds, try to give your order, only to find out the cashier doesn’t understand English? It’s annoying isn’t it? I mean, these “people” come to our country, steal our jobs and don’t even bother to learn our language. And you know what else? On top of everything else, these “people” start collecting welfare, unemployment, they even get Medicare! Come on. They’re taking the money needy people are supposed to get.

But wait a second. Let’s think about this for a moment. Why are these people coming here anyway? Are they so desperate that they come all this way and work for two dollars an hour? Stealing our jobs? Yeah... you wouldn’t have trouble finding a job if you were willing to work for two dollars an hour.

Maybe we should open our borders, make becoming a citizen easier. That would solve some of our problems. I mean, if immigrants started becoming citizens, just think about what would happen. They wouldn’t be working for two dollars an hour any more. They’d be getting at least minimum wage. That means employers won’t save so much money by hiring immigrants. Which means they won’t be taking so many jobs. I think that sounds pretty good. Of course, quite a few people don’t agree with plan. Of all the arguments I’ve heard against this policy, my favorite has to be, “If we start opening our borders a flood of immigrants will come over and steal our jobs.” I’m glad we we’re not opening our borders. Could you imagine a bunch of people coming over from Mexico, stealing our jobs, working for two dollars an hour? I’m just glad we averted that crises.

Of course, there’s the whole “they don’t speak our language” argument. Personally, if the Constitution didn’t say English was America’s official language, I would think that was a ridiculous statement. There’s a statistic I’ve been hearing on television lately that says in fifteen years more people in America will speak Spanish than English. Does that mean we all will have to learn Spanish? I hope not. I suck at Spanish.

Then there’s the welfare issue. Every time I hear this topic come up I hear someone say immigrants will just collect welfare, overburden the system, and suck out all of our money. I don’t see the problem. They will work just like everybody else, they will pay taxes just like everybody else, and they will collect welfare just like everybody else.

Let’s be realistic, the problem isn’t immigrants, the problem is the bum everybody knows. The guy who hasn’t done an honest days work in his life. The kind of guy whose idea is getting out of the house to get the welfare check. The kind of guy who would have children just for the tax breaks and welfare bonuses. They are the problem.

I think it’s ironic that this country has almost always been anti-immigration. Just think, those first settlers started their colonies. They start feeling pretty good about themselves and then more people started coming. When they realize they don’t like the new people they said, “You can’t come here. This is our land. We stole it from those Indians fair and square.”

...you make some nice points, but there are a few points that could easily be taken as offensive.

Also, your general thesis is very, very vague. You should start the essay/speech with a very, very direct statement about what you think on the subject. You seemed to start with one, but entirely move away from that opinion by the end of the essay. Start with a powerful opening paragraph that briefly mentions all your major points, and finish [the opener] with your overall statement on the subject.

I agree that it is very vague. Ther are no actual facts of statistics that could be in any way used to support the benefits of immigration. Personally, if someone's going to b***h to me about a subject, I prefer they actually know something about it.
When listening to an argument I really don't care what your stance is, or if you agree with me or not. The thing that makes the difference as to wether it's effective, and how deeply I'll consider your stance is supporting evidence.

For instance (this is all fictional, so don't b***h at me) I said. "There are way too many people coming into this country!" You're much more likely to pass it off as whining (and hence, ignore it and not commit it to any sort of long-term memory) then if I said something like. "There are too many people coming into this country for the economy to support. The GDP of the country has fallen by 6.8 percent in the past ten years. Coincidently, there has been a porportional increase in imigration of 7 percent. If you look at madeupstatisticalwebsite.com, it clearly shows the trends of economy related to inflation of immigration."

See what's different in the second argument? I'm not just whining out my eyes any more, I'm actually putting forward a few peices of evidence to support my claim.

Also, I'm tired of people bitching about us taking the land from the Indians and then changing their rules... Of course we changed all of their policies. We were an invading force, that's what invading forces do. They take things, and them make them the way they want.