...Time for a Change With over 12 million illegal immigrants in this country, most Americans can agree that our immigration system is definitely broken. The problem is that we cannot agree on how this system should be fixed. On April 23, 2010, the Governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, decided that she would attempt a solution to the problem. She signed into law one of the nation’s toughest bills focused on illegal immigration in her state. This law re-ignited the immigration debate all across the United States and brought out many protestors from both sides. Some of the issues at hand are amnesty, healthcare costs, and the increasing crime that illegal immigrants bring into our country. To begin with, does amnesty encourage illegal immigration? Secondly, what does it do to our already fragile health care system? Thirdly, what kinds of crimes are being committed by some illegal immigrants? In my opinion we need to do whatever we can to secure our borders and only allow those who come in legally into our country. Amnesty, in the case of illegal immigrants, is to grant legal status to those who have entered our country illegally. It forgives the fact that they have entered the country illegally, and forgives other illegal acts such as driving and working using false documents. In 1986 under President Ronald Reagan, our country granted what was supposed to be a “one time only” amnesty for approximately 2.7 million illegal aliens. At that time, Congress also enacted a new set of...
Words: 2133 - Pages: 9
...Amongst Illegal Immigrants Illegal immigrant creates a drain on the U.S Government. The total impact that illegal immigrants have on the United States is that Immigrants are causing a financial deficit. Illegal households created a net fiscal deficit at the federal level of more than $10 billion dollars in 2002. The illegal aliens imposed more than $26.3 billion in costs on the federal government and only paid $16 billion in taxes. Which show illegal immigrants are causing the United States to be among a crisis? Among the largest cost are Medicaid ($2.5billion); treatment of the uninsured ($2.2billion); food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC and free school lunches and etc. Illegal immigrants don’t pay payroll taxes; they are getting citizens benefits without paying taxes. Also citizens are being charged higher tuition then immigrants to attend college. Illegal immigrants are coming over to United States to get an education and to obtain employment. Immigrants obtain employment when citizens of the United States are out of work and unable to provide for their families. How can we help others when were in a crisis ourselves. Illegal immigrants are able to get the best of both worlds such as coming to United States for education and working without paying taxes. So why are they able to get the same benefits as citizens? Why would illegal immigrants want to become citizens if their able to work and get education without paying taxes? There are a lot of Illegal immigrants...
Words: 980 - Pages: 4
...they can go to the United States to earn a better wage. In the homeland of immigrants, they have poor health care compared to the United States. Similarly, the protagonist Lourdes, from the novel Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario, faces the difficult choice of leaving her family and immigrating to the United States illegally. The prospects of obtaining a better paying job, allowing an individual’s child to continue his or her education, and the opportunity provide a better life for one’s family exemplify reasons why struggling individuals immigrate to the United States. The first reason why immigrants come to the United States is to search for better paying jobs. In the article by Daniel Stein, he states that the presence of a large illegal workforce discourages Americans from seeking those jobs. This allows the immigrants an opportunity to achieve a better paying job. Many immigrants were professionals back in their countries. Immigrants would get ahead of themselves and believe that the United States would provide better paying jobs, but they were wrong. Immigrants become desperate to find a decent job to send money back home, such as clothes and food. The novel Enrique’s Journey, Lourdes states “she fills a wooden box with gum, crackers, and cigarettes. A good job is out of the question” (Nazario 4). Immigrants came here to the United States to better themselves and their families, but they...
Words: 738 - Pages: 3
...help our country to thrive. Most illegal immigrants come to America for good reasons, to live the “American Dream” and help their families, but most don’t know that they are putting the U.S. in greater debt and putting all of its citizens in danger. “More than 10 million undocumented aliens currently reside in the U.S., and that population is growing by 700,000 per year.” Illegal immigrants put our security at risk, raise the costs for the US, and raise crime rates; they fill up prisons, get free education, and get free emergency medical services, even though they are not citizens. Background: Most claims-makers who believe that illegal immigration is good for the country are economists looking at the economic factor of having illegal immigrants. These economists agree, “that the U.S. economy is larger, and growing faster, due to the supply of illegal immigrants, and that most Americans with higher job skills are better off for their presence” and that without them the country’s workforce would decline a few percentages. They want to prove that it is good that we have illegal immigrants in our country and that they are helping our economy, but that is only a small aspect of how they effect the United States. The fact is that “About 85.5 of every 100 new workers are new immigrants in this decade” and “we've ignored that illegal immigration has put a lot of young adults into economic jeopardy.” Even the claims-makers who see illegal immigration as a good thing for our economy...
Words: 1699 - Pages: 7
...tiffany williams Politics Professor Albano 04/30/2012 Illegal Immigration Illegal immigration in the U.S. is a major concern to the government and it’s citizens. This was not a major concern until lately in the past twenty years. There has been an alarming increase of illegal immigrants in the U.S. A debate has arisen over the amount of action that has been exerted on the behalf of the national government to control the amount of illegal immigrants in the country. This debate has brought up a controversial topic about if the national government or the state government should be in charge of controlling illegal immigration. Most of the illegal immigrants at this time are coming from Mexico, which means the bordering states are the major concern. Some of the illegal immigrants are not people that sneak into the country, but rather those that overstay their visa limit. Most of the visas over stays are for work purposes. The greatest concern at this time is Mexico. Smuggling aliens has become more frequent every year. The smugglers are willing to go to great steps to smuggle people across and are escaping before they get caught. Very few are actually caught and the illegal immigrants enter this country and disappear. Some people believe that the state government should have the control to limit their own immigration. This could be positive or negative depending on the case. If the state had control many things would get done that are not getting done by the national...
Words: 847 - Pages: 4
...Illegal Immigration Maricela Vega CJA 446 May 2013 With over 11 million immigrants in the United States illegally (as of 2011), the issue of illegal immigration continues to divide Americans. (ImmigrationProCon.org, 2013) Illegal immigration has become a major concern to the government in the U.S today. This was not a major concern until lately in the past twenty years. There has been an alarming increase of illegal immigrants in the U.S. A debate has arisen over the amount of action that has been exerted on the purposes. There are immigrants coming to America from all over the world today in search of the American dream. However, the greatest concern at this time is Mexico. Smuggling aliens has become more frequent every year. The smugglers are willing to go to great steps to smuggle people across and are escaping before they get caught. These smugglers are making hundreds and thousands of dollars to get these immigrants across the borders. Very few are actually caught and the illegal immigrants enter this country and disappear. Most of the illegal immigrants at this time are coming from Mexico, which means the bordering states are the major concern. When it comes to the topic of illegal immigrants or anytime the term “illegal immigrant” is brought up it is safe to say that many, or most Americans conjure up images of desperate migrants sneaking across the Mexican border. There is another side to America’s immigration problem, however, that most know very little about;...
Words: 2114 - Pages: 9
...Illegal Immigration “Nearly thirty billion dollars is the average dollar amount that illegal households cost the US federal government”(Illegal). Through all of America’s history, immigration has been a key factor in ways that are good and bad. The United States has been a country that has welcomed people from different countries with open arms, but recently this issue has become a national debate. Illegal Immigration has been an underlying cause of many of our nations problems today. Many citizens of the United States are becoming more and more aware of the impact that illegal immigrants bring to our country. Not only are they welcoming themselves into our country, they are also welcoming themselves to our jobs, our economy and taking advantage of our government’s flaws. All over the US citizens from all ages are trying to find jobs that will fit their lifestyles. What many people like to point out is the fact that illegal immigrants take the menial lower waged jobs that most legal Americans wouldn’t. This is very true partly because non-skilled subordinate pay jobs do not require illegals to show proof of citizenship; therefore, they have a way to get money to support themselves. This is obviously better for the employers financially, because then they don’t have to pay their employees as much, and they get to make more revenue as a company. In this case, many middle-class Americans are struggling, because most low-wage jobs do not provide the money lawful citizens need...
Words: 1531 - Pages: 7
...Illegal immigration Should the US make it easier for illegal immigrants to legally live and work there? Yes, why shouldn’t other people have a chance at the American dream, when almost all of the US citizens who live there today are also immigrants? I do not think that they should open the border completely, but I think they should make it easier to get an US citizenship. Not all immigrants are bad people. I think that they should make the process of immigration easier. However, they should close the door on those who come here illegally. Illegal immigrants are not all bad people. All they want is to come legally to do the jobs the Americans don’t want, but their broken immigration system doesn’t allow that to happen. If there were legal channels for these immigrants to use, the government could concentrate on catching the bad people. Instead, the government is wasting money and manpower trying to keep out the immigrant workers the US economy needs. Does It Really Matter? If they pay taxes, and aren't criminals. How are they any different than someone who are born in the US? The US was founded completely on immigration. Tax payers have to pay for all of the illegal immigrants who are being sent to jail. This is money that they could save by just simply giving immigrants an easier way of becoming a citizen. Make the process of immigration easier. Immigration benefits the US. The economic advantages are remarkable. Many immigrants are natural entrepreneurs, establishing...
Words: 423 - Pages: 2
...Children Growing up in Unauthorized Homes Illegal immigration is a topic widely uncomfortable subject that most people really have barely any knowledge about. Yet, it’s one of the major political conflicts today. Stuck in this vicious cycle are the kids of these illegals, who have no say in what happens to them or what they do. There are the children that came here with their parents when they were young, and then there are the children who were born here, but are nonetheless growing up suffering the consequences of their parents’ unauthorized status. There are about 11.5 million illegal immigrants living in the United States today. Illegal immigrants are define as those who live within the country without legal authorization to do so. There are many ways one can became “illegal”, such as overstaying the time period specified on a tourist or student visa, or entering the United States without inspection, like crossing the border (Hoefer et al). Research has shown that, the population of unauthorized migrants is larger now than at any time since the United States began trying to regulate immigration in the early twentieth century; while the United States represents five percent of the world’s population, it has approximately twenty percent of all unauthorized migrants in the world. Although “illegal immigrants” account for about a fourth of the overall U.S. immigrant population, they dominate the immigration debate and are at the heart of the politic debates. As a result...
Words: 1446 - Pages: 6
...Illegal Immigration “Households headed by illegal aliens imposed more than 26.3 billion in costs on the federal government in 2002” (“Illegal Immigrants Create a Drain on the U.S Government” 1). Illegal immigration has been a heated debate topic for a long time. But what is it and why is this, such an important part of our lives. An Illegal immigrant is an alien who has crossed national borders and is in violation of that country’s immigration laws. Therefore everything he or she does wail in that country is illegal. Immigrants are entering our country illegally draining our society; if police do not strengthen, our country is in jeopardy of becoming third world. I believe that the bad outweigh the good when it comes to illegal immigration. They are a drain on our society. However the problem is not just the people directly crossing into our borders, it is also the children they have here in America. Any illegal child who is born in America is automatically given citizenship. For example, according to the article “Illegal Immigrants Create a drain on the U.S. Government”, “Many of the costs associated with the illegals are due to their American-born children, who are awarded U.S. citizenship at birth” (1). However in recent times the Democratic Party has been trying to legalize an illegal way of life as practiced by the immigrants. It’s more then just rights that the democrats are fighting for. They feel that illegal aliens should also be given the same privileges that American...
Words: 812 - Pages: 4
...Do Illegal Immigrants Threaten American Unity? Oscar Banuelos English 221 N1 Diane Williams 07/25/2013 Abstract: Immigration stems from multiple factors all converging including; getting pulled over just by their skin color, stereotypes that are not true like just because they are Mexican they are criminals, but also immigrants have a big effect on the economy. Whether the effect of illegal immigrants is positive or negative they still contribute a lot to the U.S. and also reflect on how immigrants take the jobs that Americans probably won’t take like working on the fields with the extensive heat, or be worried about going outside because they are scared that maybe they can get arrested and be deported. I think its time to put an end to this because families are being harmed with the current immigration situation. The government has to pass an immigration reform soon because this is a major problem in the whole country. Because immigrants are in America, we should be treated equally as U.S. citizens, because we are hardworking people. Illegal Immigrants came here to start a better life. Illegal Immigrants are not a threat to American society. America was founded by Immigrants. Even though some citizens don’t want us here, we are their support with the economy; we have invested billions of dollars in U.S. soil. Mexican Immigrants should be allowed to immigrate illegally and stay in the U.S. without being separated from their families or be afraid in their daily life...
Words: 2570 - Pages: 11
...| Illegal Immigration: The Story Behind Amnesty | Is Amnesty the Answer? | University of Montevallo | Lachera S. Huntley | 3/12/2012 | Although thousands of immigrants come to the United States Illegally, most of them are in this country for the jobs that Americans will not do. That is why so many illegal immigrants come to the United States. However, everyone that breaks the Immigration Law should be punished, even if they are not citizens of the country. According to Perez (2001), “In 1986 Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act that, among other things, granted amnesty to illegal immigrants who could demonstrate continual residence in the United States prior to 1982” (Perez, 2001). Because of this law, millions of illegal immigrants can use this act to become citizens of the United States. | According to Mirram-Webster (2012), “amnesty means that the act of an authority (as a government) by which pardon is granted to a large group of individuals” (Mirram-Webster, 2012). Therefore, amnesty is unfair and unconstitutional because all of the illegal immigrants that come into the United States are pardon after they have violated the laws in this country. Why do we continue to allow these illegal immigrants to go unpunished? If it were some of the U.S. citizens breaking this law they would not be granted amnesty; they would be treated differently, so why illegal immigrants should be pardoned? Robert Byrd (2001), a West Virginia senator, says, “Illegal...
Words: 1845 - Pages: 8
...Tawana Jackson Monday 6-9 April 27, 2010 Illegal immigrants should not be deported Path to citizenship or deportation? First and foremost, I want to make it perfectly clear, that I am not voting for or in agreement with free citizenship to all the illegal immigrants that are currently in this country. This is a subject I have put much thought into. I believe there should be a path to citizenship for those who have minor kids who are U.S. born citizens; those who are working, are law abiding and who have been here for at least six years. However, there should be no free rides, no free medical assistance, welfare, and housing or bi-lingual education at the schools. When parents are deported, their U.S.-born children have two 'choices' -- leave with their parents or stay in foster care to continue getting their education. If the kids are deported, they will have to start over in a country with a new language, fewer resources and an uncertain future. Deportation destroys families and leaves U.S. citizen children without parents. Over one in ten families are mixed status: at least one parent is a non-citizen, and one child a citizen. We now have a vehicle to help protect our U.S. citizen children from the devastating effects of deportation: The Child Citizen Protection Act... which allows an immigration judge to consider the best interest of U.S. citizen children before deporting their parents. These immigrants do jobs that Americans do not want...
Words: 874 - Pages: 4
...Jim Arnold Dr. Block English 101 December 12, 2013 Illegal Immigration The United States Government is faced with a number of challenges to try and keep this country safe and a major issue they must deal with is illegal immigration. Immigration in the United States dates all the way back to the early 17th century where as few as 400,000 immigrants crossed the Atlantic in search for a better life. During this time period the United States was very open to taking in immigrants as long as they were legally documented, which is still the case but we are seeing a lot more immigrants trying to stay in the United States illegally which is causing for a major problem. In January of 2010 the Department of Homeland Security estimated that 10,800,000 illegal aliens are living in the United States. Being an unregistered immigrant is against the law because your residency in the country is not official they are able to get around paying the government for expenses of living in the United States. Not having a record of a person is a cause for concern due to the high amount of illegal immigrants that become criminals. There are many different reasons why people try going to a foreign land and leave their homes and family behind, such as a political or economical reasons. Individuals generally choose to reside in countries that are more technologically advanced have greater resources and offer more opportunities. Some immigrants also move to a foreign country to give their children...
Words: 1685 - Pages: 7
...Why do people come illegally to USA? Illegal immigrants in the US are the most marginalized work force and citizens. While they provide cheap labor and sustain the US economy, they are denied basic education and are unable to participate in voting. Fears of getting caught, and their lack of awareness of their rights prevent them from engaging civically in their communities. These facts hinder them from integrating into US society. Instead they form a “shadow” society which ultimately contributes to disintegration of society overall. The goal of my research is to help these individuals (who do not have rights as citizens but do deserve basic human rights) to learn about the laws of this country and, in spite of being here illegally, the rights and duties which belong to them. The first step is to understand what external factors affect them and to analyze the common profile of illegal immigrants and their tendencies. Indirect /Direct Method My plan is: To conduct a survey in the Indianapolis area, randomly select individuals through the Westside of Indianapolis. The main purpose of the quantitative analysis is to find out whether there is correlation between their legal status and desire to return to their home country, desire to obtain US citizenship, level of participation in their communities and level of happiness in the US. My survey will include both legal and illegal immigrants. In this way we are able to...
Words: 426 - Pages: 2
