Do-It-Yourself Deportation

This article was written by a seventeen year old boy named Antonio Alacron. He moved to America from Mexico when he was eleven years old, and he explains the difficulties he's had to face as an immigrant. For a seventeen year old, I was pretty impressed by this article. The appeal to pathos is definitely the strongest; imagine how difficult it would be for a teenager with no money who can't apply for college scholarships, no matter how intelligent or otherwise talented you are. Since he is writing from personal experience, there is also a lot of ethos. He uses logos too, explaining his parents' hours and wages when they were in the United States, and comparing Romney's image of "self-deportation" to the reality. It was supposed to be a "kinder" method, but Antonio's parents left because they couldn't find decent jobs anywhere, and now they are separated from their moneyless teenage son.
I've always thought of immigration as an interesting problem. If we keep increasing the population, then it makes sense that poverty and unemployment will increase. However, if I lost a job opportunity to an illegal Mexican immigrant, I wouldn't be able to convince myself that I had been unfairly beaten. If someone came from a more difficult situation than I did, and managed to work harder than I did in order to be a better choice for the job, then I think they deserve it more than I do. Plus, I don't think we should stop talented people from fulfilling their potential. I would rather be taught by an exceptionally talented doctor who was born in Mexico than a mediocre doctor from America. In the article, an intelligent girl named Guadalupe who wanted to study psychology was unable to do so because she was an immigrant who couldn't apply for scholarships. Well, if I ever see a psychiatrist for something, maybe I'll wonder if I could have gotten better treatment if immigrants could go to college more easily. My point is that people should be rewarder for their hard work, abilities, and how well they can accomplish a task, not for having the good luck to be born in America.

Article