May 26, 2009, President Barack Obama announced his pick to
replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter—federal
judge Sonia Sotomayor. If confirmed for the high court's seat,
she would be the nation's first Hispanic justice, born to
parents who migrated to the United States from Puerto Rico
during World War II. Living in the Bronx of New York, her father
did not speak English but held a job as a tool-and-die worker
before he died when Sonia was only nine. Her mother worked as a
telephone operator and then later became a nurse. As was true
for North America's earliest settlers, people have migrated to
the United States from a variety of homelands and for a variety
of reasons over the years. Most have come looking for a
different life than they had at home. Some have come for
employment, some to be with family members already living here,
and some to avoid political persecution in their native country.
No matter what the reason, the fact is that about one million
people every year legally migrate to the