Through the eyes of immigrants: for these teens, immigration reform isn't just a hot topic in the news. Whatever is decided could change their lives.

Karina Montenegro, 14, was born in Ecuador, a small country on South America's Pacific Coast. When she was 2, her parents emigrated to the United States illegally. They left Karina with her grandparents.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Karina didn't "meet" her parents again until seven years later. She was able to get a visa to visit the U.S. But instead of returning to Ecuador as required, she stayed in New York City as an illegal immigrant, like her parents.

Karina spoke no English, and had a hard time adjusting to her new school. "When I first came to public school, the kids were mean," Karina tells JS. "I felt awkward. It was a strange new environment."

Eventually, she came to recognize the advantages of her new home. In Ecuador, Karina says, "I would see people and kids begging for money and doing what they can to stay alive. Here, you can get a job and learn skills."

Today, Karina's father is a steelworker, and her mother is a substitute teacher. Karina, who now speaks perfect English, is an eighth-grader at Incarnation School in New York City. She is proud to be on the honor roll.

Karina is also excited about having obtained legal residency. She is looking forward to becoming a U.S. citizen.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

No Easy Answers

Who should or should not get official permission to live in the United States? Karina was lucky to be granted legal status after starting as an illegal immigrant. But an estimated 12 million immigrants living and working in the U.S. today are undocumented.

The U.S. Congress has tried, again and again, to reform the country's immigration laws. The question, many Americans say, isn't so much whether to regulate immigration as how to do it. Establishing rules for who stays and who goes is a tough challenge. With national elections coming up in November 2008, the debate isn't likely to cool anytime soon.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Unlike most political topics, the immigration issue doesn't split Americans into the usual opposing camps. The clash is not necessarily Democrats vs. Republicans, or liberals vs. conservatives. For instance, many Republicans oppose establishing a guest-worker program. But President George W. Bush, who heads the Republican Party, supports such a plan.

Many lawmakers who reject the guest-worker idea see it as granting illegal immigrants amnesty (forgiveness for something done wrong in the past). "The way you stop illegal immigration is not to start by announcing that you're going to reward illegal immigration," says Representative Brian Bilbray (R, Calif.).

While Congress debates, illegal immigrants wait and worry. Will they have to return home, then apply to re-enter? Will they be granted guest-worker status? If undocumented parents are deported, what happens to their U.S.-born children, who are citizens?

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"We want a bill, we need a bill," John Trasvina told The San Francisco Chronicle. Trasvina is president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. "Every day without a bill is a day that families can be separated, [whenever federal immigration officers] decide to raid a workplace or a neighborhood."

A Family's Worry

Yaneth, 13, worries that her family could be split up at any time. (She asked that we not use her last name.) The seventh-grader, who lives in Dallas, Texas, is a U.S. citizen. Like her mother, she was born and raised in Dallas. But her father, Jose, is an illegal immigrant. He has tried to gain citizenship legally, but has not succeeded.

"My dad came over from Mexico when he was around 3 or 4, with his brothers and sisters," Yaneth tells JS. Before Yaneth was born, he was arrested in Texas. He had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and was deported back to Mexico. Then he returned to the U.S., illegally crossing the border again.

"Knowing my dad is an illegal immigrant, and then thinking how other people's parents actually had to go back [to their countries] because of immigration [laws], it is scary," Yaneth says. She believes that immigrants who have good jobs and are raising their families, like her father, should have a chance to become citizens. "Just because they made one mistake," she says, "I don't think it's fair to send them back from where they came from."

City of Immigrants

Like Karina, Kevin Erazo, 14, is from Ecuador. When he was 7, his father left home for the United States. It took him five years to establish legal residency. As soon as he did, he sent for his son. Today, Kevin lives with his father in Union City, New Jersey.

"I was very excited to come here," Kevin tells JS. "I feel very safe here." He recalls Ecuador as a place where innocent people lived in fear of being robbed or killed. Kevin says that many immigrant parents, like his, try to get their kids out of danger by bringing them to the U.S.

When he first arrived in New Jersey, Kevin says, he didn't know English very well. He was not alone. More than 82 percent of Union City's 67,000 residents are Hispanic. Some of them are second- or third-generation Americans, but more are recent immigrants. "Everyone in my class is an immigrant," says Kevin, "or their parents are immigrants."

After only two years, Kevin has mastered the language. He says that he speaks English so much now, "I'm starting to lose Spanish." He is in the honors program at Union City's Jose Marti Middle School. (Marti was a hero of Cuba's fight for independence from Spain.) Kevin isn't a citizen yet, but he and his family are in the process of filing the official paperwork.

Estefania Bermeo, 14, is one of Kevin's classmates. She, too, was born in Ecuador. She came to the U.S. when she was 2 years old.

"My dad came [here] first, then went back to Ecuador for my mom and me," Estefania tells JS. Other family members did the same. Estefania and her mother received visas to enter the U.S., but remained here illegally. After four years, they were able to get residency cards. Then, when Estefania was 12, she became a U.S. citizen.

A Risk Worth Taking?

Estefania has lived in the U.S. for so long, the country of her birth is like a foreign land to her. She visits family in Ecuador over the summer, but to her, the U.S. is home.

She says that her family has been able to make it in the U.S. "all because of a newspaper route." Each of her family members has a paper route in New York City. "They all work at night and take care of families during the day," she says.

Finding a way to make a living and provide for their families is a struggle for the millions of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. Yet, says Estefania, it is a risk they are willing to take. "I know they come here illegally," she says, "but they come for a better life. They think of their families, not the consequences."

Words to Know

* guest worker: A foreigner who is allowed to work in a country on a temporary basis, as for farm labor.

* undocumented: lacking official permission required for legal immigration or residence.

* visa: official permission to enter and travel within a country for a limited period of time.

Write It!

How do you think the United States government should deal with illegal immigration? What should new laws say about guest workers and border security? Express your opinion in a letter to your Congressional representative. (You can find contact information for your area's U.S. representative at house.gov.)

COULD YOU PASS THE CITIZENSHIP TEST?

Applicants for U.S. citizenship must undergo a long process of fees and paperwork. They also have to pass a test. Here are a few questions from the current citizenship test. How many can you answer correctly?

* What do the stripes on the flag mean?--

* What is the introduction to the Constitution called?--

* Who elects the President of the United States?--

* Who said, "Give me liberty or give me death"?--

For more, see msnbc.msn.com/id/13442226

* They represent the first 13 states. (There are 13 stripes.)

* the Preamble

* the electoral college 

* Patrick Henry

Note: For all 96 current questions, see the links at www.uscis.gov /civicsflashcards. For questions from a revision proposed for 2008, see usgovinfo.about.com/library /blinstst_new.htm.

Lesson 1

* Objectives

* Reaching an informed opinion on a major issue in the news.

* Understanding arguments for and against immigration reform.

* Before Reading

Since last December, federal officials have raided a series of companies that hire illegal immigrants. Undocumented workers have been jailed or deported, sometimes separating parents from children who are U.S. citizens. Last summer, Congress's most recent attempt to pass an immigration bill died after acrimonious debate in the Senate.

Reading prompt: Why are so many people willing to risk imprisonment or deportation in order to work in the U.S.?

* During Reading

(1) How does Yaneth's situation differ from Karina's, Kevin's, and Estefania's? (Yaneth was born in the U.S.)

(2) What is amnesty?

* After Reading

* Make inferences: Have students reread the article's subhead (p. 9). Discuss: Why is immigration reform more than "a hot topic in the news" to these kids? How might new laws change their lives?

* In the know: Have students answer, then discuss, the sample citizenship test questions (p. 11). Are the answers important for a citizen to know? Explain.

* Keep It Going

Three of the four teens in our article come from Ecuador. Present the stats below to students. Then discuss: Which of these figures, if any, might influence Ecuadorians thinking of migrating to the U.S.? If you were an Ecuadorian official trying to keep your people from leaving, which would you focus on improving? Can you infer anything else about Ecuador from these figures? (All figures are from the CIA World Factbook 2007.)

Population: Ecuador, 13,755,680; U.S., 301,139,947 * Per capita GDP: Ecuador, $4,500; U.S., $44,000 * Share of GDP by work sector: Ecuador, 6.3 % agriculture, 33.5 % industry, 60.2% services; U.S., 0.9% agriculture, 20.4% industry, 78.6% services * Population below poverty line: Ecuador, 38.5%; U.S., 12.0% * Population under age 15: Ecuador, 32.6%; U.S., 20.2%

RESOURCES

* INTERNET

* Current Numbers. Of legal and illegal U.S. immigrants. cis.org/topics/ currentnumbers.html

* Reports and Fact Sheets. Information on immigrants and migration. pewhispanic.org/reports /report.php?ReportID=44

* Spanish's Gift to English. Vocabulary and etymology from Library of Congress Immigrants site. memory. loc.gov/learn/features /immig/mexican_voc.html

* BOOKSHELF

* Colors of Freedom: Immigrant Stories, Janet Bode (Scholastic Library Publishing, 2000). Interviews with teens new to the U.S. Grades 6 & up.

* Immigration From Central America, Romel Hernandez (Mason Crest Publishers, 2004). Grades 5 & up.

* Life as on Immigrant, Iris Teichmann (Smart Apple Media, 2006). Experiences of immigrants to the U.S. and other countries, from various parts of the world. Grades 6 & up.