Mexican immigrants

After interviewing an immigrant, I found it truly fascinating to just listen to what she had to say. The immigrant I interviewed was from Mexico, which is where the majority of immigrants that come to the United States immigrate from. In the last 5 decades the single largest origin groups of Latin America have come from Mexico. In 2011, nearly 11.7 million Mexican American immigrants resided in the United States, which is about 4% of the US population. California has one of the highest, if not the highest rate of Mexican immigrants.
http://www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?ID=935

Proposition 187 Illegal Aliens

Proposition 187 made illegal immigrants ineligible for public social services. Illegal Immigrants were denied public health care services, and public school education at elementary, secondary, and post secondary levels. This act left many illegal immigrants uneducated and ill prepared for life in America. Various state and local agencies were also required to report suspected aliens to the California Attorney General and the Immigration Naturalization Service. It also made it a felony to manufacture, sell or use false citizenship or residence documents. We need our children to be educated for the better of our future.
http://migration.ucdavis.edu/mn/more.php?id=492_0_2_0

Immigrants working the fields

In both California and Texas, agricultural employers have been hiring illegal immigrants since the World War era and before. Nowadays farmers depend on immigrants to harvest the fields, because most Americans have moved away from agriculture. The only ones farmers can rely on now are the immigrants. The immigrants come here for a better life, because back where they are from there is no hope for a greater future. Many immigrants come from far and there journey here is rough. It's expensive for workers to come to the U.S. Immigrants pay thousands of dollars for border experts to bring them here, and the walk here is tiring and dangerous.  

http://www.voanews.com/content/us-farmers-depend-on-illegal-immigrants-100541644/162082.html

Puerto Rico was annexed by the United States in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War of 1898. Puerto Ricans are not, strictly speaking, immigrants. Few Puerto Ricans migrated to the United States after World War II. There was extreme poverty in Puerto Rico. The postwar developed cheap airline fairs between Puerto Rico and the United States, about 50 dollars, two weeks' wages. Cheap fares enabled 10's of thousands of Puerto Ricans to come annually.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/us-takes-control-of-puerto-rico

Immigration Act

Between 1952 and 1960 about 45,000 Japanese immigrated to the United States. 40,000 of them (85.9 percent) were woman who married non-Japanese soldiers and former soldiers. After the early 1960's immigration slowed. Later in 1965 the Immigration Act was passed, opening the doors for many Asian ethnic groups. The Japanese desire to come to the states after the Act was passed was not high.
http://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/ImmigrationAct

The Gold Rush of 1849

The Gold Rush of 1849 attracted many immigrants to California. Immigrants came from all over to get a part of this luxurious finding. There were immigrants from Mexico, Chile, and other parts of Latin America flooding California to get some gold. Even the immigrants that were scattered throughout the United States were leaving where they were at to come to California. About $81million was pulled from the ground within the first 3 years of mining, and would continue through the years. Even to this day it is said that there is still gold out there for the mining.

http://www.history.com/topics/gold-rush-of-1849

Ellis Island

Ellis Island was an "island of hope" for most immigrants and an "island of tears" for the minority of immigrants coming to the states between the late 1800's and early 1900's. For those who were not admitted or those being deported, Ellis Island served as a detention center and would later serve as an internment center for many enemy aliens. Ellis Island has a broad history, which stands as one of the bigger gateways to the United States of America, where more than 12 million immigrants came through.
http://www.ellisisland.org/genealogy/ellis_island_history.asp