I openly applaud President Barack Obama’s current policy that has been making him a critical target in this election – his desire to stop the deportation of many illegal immigrants that meet a certain level of requirements, instead offering them a chance to become naturalized citizens.

Most of those applying for deferred deportation are students, much like you and me, who came to the United States before their 16th birthday and are still under the age of 30. They came to this land with their parents to seek a better opportunity, and I can say that many of them are working toward keeping that ideal strong in their hearts.

These students want to be full citizens, just as their parents wanted to be when they first crossed the border. As a nation created by immigrants, who are we to destroy their hopes and ambitions for a better life? We cannot throw them to the side and tell them to find a better education somewhere else while claiming to be the greatest nation in the world. We can either embrace both, or reject both.

By trying to force them out, we only show our own weakness in these trying times. We outwardly blame all others for our problems, forcing them to evacuate our land before they have a chance to use the knowledge they have gained from our institutions. As citizens, they, too, would be working to make this country better. We cannot, in our right minds, deny them their desire to better us all.

As many of us plan on being future educators or workers within a corporate world, we have to see the good that can come of this action. They are given a chance not to work toward staying here, but rather a chance to show how hard they work. We should be supporting them, helping them with whatever they need in order to stay here and obtain the ability to claim themselves as naturalized citizens.

These students work their hearts out, going to either high school or college full time and work multiple jobs in order to support themselves and their families. They deserve to stay, some even more than those of us born here. After all, with spirits like that, they embody American ideals and the American spirit far more than most of us.