Illegal Immigrants in the United States of America, Essay Example

Illegal immigration has not only continued to be a controversial topic in the United States but worldwide. Different estimates have been put forward to suggest the number, of illegal immigrants. According to the United States Immigration support there are an estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States. An illegal immigrant is a person staying illegally in a country (Congressional report 2007). Illegal immigrants are of different categories. Some enter the country legally but stay there till their Visa cards expire or even those who have gone against permanent resident cards terms while others enter illegally (US Immigration Support). There are others who sneak through the border security check points as stowaways in transport vessels.  These immigrants integrate with the local populations of the counties where they are domiciled and even start working as well as setting up businesses both legal and illegal.

Arguments in support of granting illegal immigrants citizenship say that the immigrants do the jobs that Americans are not willing to do and therefore contribute in improving the countries economy. This includes working in hotels, in construction sites and as baby sitters. However in my view I oppose this argument because granting illegal immigrants citizenship and therefore work in American means the native citizens who do blue collar jobs will continue loosing jobs to the immigrants who will have become legal because they are willing to offer cheap labor and even if the blue collar workers don’t lose the jobs to the immigrants, the wage they receive would decrease because there are other workers willing to offer cheap labor. After ten years of work the immigrants are able to retire and live good lives back in Mexico while for the middle class Americans, due to the reduced wages will not have saved enough to sustain them in retirement by the end of the ten years and therefore have to continue working until when they are very old and also continue living in poverty (Fact Box). I also believe that the supporters must be employers who are not willing to pay decent wages and take advantage of cheap labor provided by the immigrants.

In addition, the money the immigrants earn is sent to their home country and this continually drains United States economy. The government spends a lot of funds in sustaining the illegal immigrants yet they don’t pay taxes. This in turn impacts on the tax payers who are taxed more by the government in order to raise the funds.Additionally granting illegal immigrants citizenship will encourage more and more illegal immigrants to come to the country and this will discourage the legal immigrants who have been working so hard and ensuring they follow rules and pay taxes in order to get citizenship. In my view, this is not only wrong, but also unfair to grant citizen ship to the illegal immigrants

Some people argue that illegal immigrants should be granted citizenship in the United States for them to be charged in a court when they commit a crime. But I oppose this because being illegal immigrant’s means they have gone against the law and it will not make sense for the government to make laws and at the same time encourage law breakers. Legitimizing an illegality is not a way of protecting these illegal immigrants. It should also be considered that most of the illegal immigrants especially those from the South American states such as Mexico are already suspects or worse still convicts of illegal crimes raging from drug related crimes to illegal weapons. These criminals sneak into the United States to evade penalties or conviction for their offences.

Another argument that support illegal citizens to be granted citizenship is that they immigrate into the United states in search for jobs and good education in order to afford a decent living standard but I disagree with this because instead of running away from their countries, they should work hard to improve the status of their countries or even assimilate the American culture if they think it works better. I also see this as putting pressure on the American government should not be the case because such pressures should be exerted on the government of their countries especially Latin America for neglecting their citizens. The schools are sinking into serious financial woes because of the strain by the illegal immigrants (Federation for American Immigration Reform).  The irresponsibility of the countries from which these illegal immigrants originate should not be allowed to weigh down on the citizens of the United States. The citizens of the United States deserve to be given a chance to enjoy their chances of getting jobs and decent employment.

Among the other small arguments used by to push for illegal immigrants to be granted citizenship is the argument that the illegal immigrants are human and should be given a humane treatment since they deserve to have a country that they can call their own and to which they can feel to belong. This is in consideration of the fact that these immigrants are considered to be country less. This is a wrong argument in view of the fact the immigrants originated from a country which they did not feel any loyalty or sense of attachment to, so it should not be assumed that these people will have a sense of loyalty to the United States. With all considerations in mind, allowing the immigrants citizenship poses a bigger problem due to two facts. One it will create a wrong precedence for the other people in the mother countries to follow. The other fact is that, these illegal immigrants will create a pull factor for those remaining in their mother countries. They will give them more reason and motivation for them to migrate into the United States seeking to live under similar conditions. The immigrants will create a threat not only to the social stability of the United States, but also a strain on the social amenities intended for the citizens of the United States (Jordan M). The only reasonable solution is to empower the countries from which these people come from to provide amenities that will encourage the people to remain there and improve their social conditions while within their countries.

Works Cited

How Illegal Immigration is Affecting Schools in the United States. Federation for American Immigration Reform. June 2005. 29 July 2009. <http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=research_researchf6ad>.

Jordan Miriam. ‘Illegal Immigration in the US Hits it lowest’’. Wall Street Journal. 23 July 2009. 29 July 2009 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124830603836573915.html

Michael Ward. At Issue: What Rights Should Illegal Immigrants Have? Lori Newman. Greenhaven Press 2006.

Illegal Immigrants in the United States. Fact Box. Reuters. 21 July 2009. 27 July 2009< http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN0731888120080208>.

The Impact of Unauthorized Immigrants on the Budgets of State and Local Governments” The Congress of the United States – Congressional Budget Office. 12-2007. 29 July 2009 < http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/87xx/doc8711/12-6-Immigration.pdf.>

United States Immigration Support. 29 July 2009. http://www.usimmigrationsupport.org/illegal_immigration.html