[media-credit id=21 align=”alignnone” width=”400″][/media-credit]

It was expected to be a normal day; people going to work, getting kids off to school, people just doing the normal routine of living life and looking forward to the future. However, on March 11 in Tohoku, Japan, the earth shook.

In an instant thousands of lives would never be the same.

As a melting pot, we are a nation of immigrants and cultures.

According to the U. S. Government Census, Facts for Features, we have grown from a population of 2.7 million at the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 to a nation now over 300 million people.

Through Ellis Island under the shadow of the Statue of Liberty and its inscription, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” another 22 million immigrants entered America, as quoted by Ellis Island Immigrant History Association. According to The

Immigration Law Foundation and The History of Vietnamese Immigration; the fall of Saigon and the Vietnam War added 530,000 immigrants, to our nation.

History shows that America and its form of government provides opportunity for people to thrive.

America is good for immigration, a place where people can develop and reach their full potential. Immigration is good for America as people contribute to its innovation and its manifest destiny.

It is now time to reopen Ellis Island and our borders to invite the displaced people of Japan to come to our shores.

People of Tohoku, come to our shores, and allow us to be your new home.

Your future is not at an end, but rather at a crossroads; America provides you with tremendous opportunity.