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READING LEVEL 6

Do People Feel Safe Enough?

Shenayder D. Occius

In the U.S., there are many different people from all over the world. Some of them feel afraid be- cause they do not have documents. It is going to be difficult for the census to get an accurate count.

Last year, a friend from my country had a dream to live in the U.S. He left Haiti and went to Brazil. He worked there for six months and made enough money to travel.He took a bus from Brazil to Mexico and then he crossed into California.

Now he is in this country without any documents, but he is not the only one who comes to the U.S. this way.Millions of other people come to the U.S. this way. How will the census count all of these people? I say that this is an impossible feat.

I think many of these people will not feel safe enough to fill out the census. Anyone who is an immigrant probably feels uncomfortable. Physically you are in this country, but you may not be a legal citizen.Even if you are a legal citizen, some people treat you like you are not welcome here.

I feel that if more people understood the purpose behind the census, they may consider being counted, although not likely.

Shenayder D. Occius was born in Haiti. He lives in Lauderdale Lakes, FL. He attends Atlantic Technical College and is obtaining his GED. He lives with his parents.

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