Illegal Immigration in the United States, Research Paper Example

Immigration is what has made America what it is today. If there were no immigrants, there would be no America. Everyone in the country is an immigrant or is directly descended from one, even including the oldest inhabitants. Many countries such as China, Mexico, England, and others have contributed to the United States. Legal immigration has been a defining factor in the US. However, illegal immigration today has produced several problems related to employment, disease, and terrorism for the American citizen. Immigration to the United States started in the 17th Century, with the first arrival of European settlers. Since then, immigration to the United States has experienced three major waves: during the 19th Century, after the Civil War and after the abolition of the quota system in 1965. The United States Congress has passed several immigration laws and they have been very monumental in developing the immigration policies of the United States. “The period of the great Depression that lasted approximately 10 years was remarkable since it is one point in time that we saw a decline in the number of immigrants to the United States”(Smith & Barry, 1998).

Actually, as time has passed and millions of immigrants have ventured to the country, the United States still maintains a welcoming attitude towards new immigrants. However, the processes for people who want to enter into the United States have become much more complex since the days of Ellis Island. The result of this phenomenon is another kind of immigrant: the illegal immigrant. Illegal immigration has been a problem for the United States for a long time. Thousands of illegal immigrants have come into US through many ways such as the Mexico border and Pacific Ocean. Every day thousands of illegal immigrants stream across the 2,500 miles of border with Mexico. According to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services, or INS, the total number of illegal immigrants in America increases by 275,000 annually. As of right now, the United States is host to an illegal population of 7 to 12 million, of whom the vast majority are Mexican or Hispanic in origin. These illegal and uninvited guests help themselves to jobs, education, welfare and unemployment compensation.

Barry Chiswick, a professor and head of the department at the University of Illinois gives a great definition of illegal immigration in the following paragraph:

By definition, illegal immigration arises from a divergence between whom the United States will accept as an immigrant and the desire of some foreign nationals to live and work in this country. Illegal immigration is as old as U.S. immigration law… with changes in U.S. immigration law and economic and political conditions in the United States and other countries, the nature and characteristics of illegal immigration have also changed (“Illegal Immigration,” n.p.).

In addition, Demetrios G. Papademetriou, Director of the Migration Policy Institute states that there are several forms of illegal immigration, but discusses four as the most common. These four include “undocumented/unauthorized entrants; individuals who are inspected upon entry into another state, but gain admission by using fraudulent documents; violators of the duration of a visa; and violators of the terms and conditions of a visa” (“Illegal Immigration,” n.p.). There are more and more individuals migrating to the United States for better jobs, a better life, and better opportunities for their families. However, many times it is done illegally and these individuals are considered illegal immigrants and aren’t favored in the American society. If they are here to better their lives and to make a difference in the American society, they should have no problem going through the many processes to allow them legal entrance into the states. According to Darrell M. West, “it is estimated that of the 35 million American Immigrants, two thirds (around 23 million) are legal permanent residents” (430).

Illegal immigration is a double edged sword. There are good aspects to illegal immigration, but it also has its flaws. On one hand, it provides the local economy with low cost to the illegal immigrants, while they are more productive. Each person, living within the United States, that is employed, should be paying taxes and illegal immigrants do, for the most part. However, they are not paying as much as they would if they were considered legal immigrants.Illegal immigration is a very serious problem in America as it causes many problems for our country; it would be different if they were legal immigrants. “According to the Center for Immigration Studies, in 2002 illegal-alien households imposed, in aggregate, costs exceeding $26 billion on the federal government while they paid $16 billion in federal taxes – thereby creating a net fiscal deficit of $10.4 billion per year at a federal level” (“Illegal Immigration: Costs, Crimes, & Relate Problems” 1).This phenomenon is not good for America’s development. In fact, according to Wayne Cornelius, the distinguished Director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California at San Diego, “out of 1.5 million immigrants who enter the country each year, 500,000 of them are undocumented” (Cornelius 7). Because most illegal immigrants cross the borders unnoticeably, the government of United States is unable to enforce its immigration policies.There is no tolerance for illegal immigration, and any individual found illegally crossing the borders is also immediately deported. In the time period of Ellis Island, there were only a handful of policies and restrictions in regards to allowing immigrants into the country. According to most information, the individuals who were denied entry to the United States and immediately sent back to their homeland were those who were simply deemed criminals, anarchists, or carriers of disease (Eyewitness History 1). The purpose of these restrictions was to protect the United States and its citizens. The process by which an individual can become a legal resident is much more complicated now. The immigrants who want to become a temporary or permanent resident of the United States must endure the rather lengthy application process to receive a visa or green card.

Illegal immigration is bad for the country and it should be stopped completely in the United States. The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) is a law, which was enacted in 1986, about US policies and regulations regarding employment. The two main requirements of the IRCA include: “to hire only persons authorized to work in the United States and to discriminate on the basis of citizenship status or national origin” (LMD 1992). Many illegal immigrants are hired by US employers as undocumented workers and this is done because they can be hired at less than minimum wage. Most of them are engaged in the agricultural, manufacturing and construction industries. The reality is that illegal immigrants are taking American jobs and even displacing certain Americans and legal immigrants from rights that they are legally earned. According to West, Americans believe thatabout half of the illegal population takes jobs from native-born Americans and this is detrimental to our society. West explains this well in the following paragraph:

Critics fear that foreigners take jobs that otherwise would go to Americans or reduce wage gains through increased job competition. There is evidence of negative wage effects for native-born Americans without a high school diploma. For these individuals, yearly wages dropped 1.1 percent due to immigration. This clearly disadvantages native residents and raises legitimate fears concerning the impact of job competition on native-born Americans (435).

Non-profit organizations play a major role in the use of illegal immigrants and illegal immigrants in general. These organizations are put into place to help immigrants gain legal status and it is obvious that they play a major role in society in general. The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is a national, nonprofit, public-interest, membership organization, which devotes itself to reforming the nation’s immigration policies in order to serve the national interest. There are several reforms to illegal immigration in FAIR. The first one is Illegal Aliens Who Pay Taxes May Claim Tax Credits. “Organizations promoting the adoption of an amnesty for illegal aliens cite their payment of taxes as a justification of granting them legal status” (Web). Illegal immigrants contribute billions of dollars annually in the states so that they have the right to claim tax credits. On the contrary, FAIR comes up with another reform, which is illegal immigration is a crime. Each year, many aliens who cross U.S. borders are apprehended by Border Patrol. Both of them flagrantly violate the nation’s laws. “Apologists for illegal immigration try to paint it as a victimless crime, but the fact is that illegal immigration causes substantial harm to American citizens and legal immigrants, particularly those in the most vulnerable sectors of our population- the poor, minorities, and children” (Web). In addition, many do not just feel that immigrants cause problems in an economic way, but a societal way as well in which includes crime. Many Americans fear that our country has diminished ethically by the way of crime. According to the article “Illegal Immigration: Costs, Crimes, & Related Problems, “in Los Angeles, 95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicide target illegal aliens, as do approximately two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants” (n.p.). That is a lot for people to think about when it comes to crime. Many illegal immigrants are also involved in much of the sexual assaults, robberies, extortion, and drive-by assassinations (“Illegal Immigration: Costs, Crimes & Related Problems,” n.p.). In recent years, the illegal immigrant growth has increased rapidly and it undermines national security. Most illegal immigrants come to U.S in order to seek work and get a better economic opportunity. To some extent, they deprive some American citizens’ opportunities and become a block because illegal immigrants just want lower salaries in order to provide for their families. According to this situation, the U.S government will not condone illegal immigration; it is impossible for them to accommodate illegal immigration by offering legal status.

On the contrary, many argue that illegal immigrants actually benefit the economy. West states the following in reference to this statement:

A national survey asked Americans whether they believe immigration improved U.S. culture with new ideas and customs. More than two thirds of Americans (68 percent) said they thought immigrants improved U.S. culture through new ideas. This provides perceptual support for the argument that immigrants add value, diversity, and ideas to civic life (438).

They also subsidize the labor force and do some jobs that most citizens are unwilling to do. Ramanujan Nadadur claims that “illegal immigrants are more willing than legal immigrants and native workers to take jobs where high labor turnover and poor working conditions have become a part of the labor process” (6). Furthermore, many people argue that illegal immigrants can help increase the local production of the United States because most of them are skilled laborers. Moreover, when businesses pay them lower than minimum wage, their costs go down, which means that the cost of production goes down, and this helps the citizens of the United States. In addition, “immigrants will take advantage of their ties to their native countries to open up new export markets for American products” (“U.S. Immigration Policy: What Should We Do?”, 2). Also, immigrants may make the economy of the United States stronger because if they send their US dollars to their local families, it makes American money more valuable. Though there are fears by all Americans that illegal immigrants will take their jobs, create more crime and lead us into darkness, this is not all true. The United States benefits from immigrants in more ways than one, especially socially.

Many things within our society have benefited from immigrants, whether legal or illegal. Some of these things include food, sports, culture, the arts, and education. According to the article entitled “U.S. Immigration Policy: What Should We do?,” “This latest generation of immigrants contains the best and brightest from a rich variety of cultures and regions” (2). Immigrants have an unshakable work ethic because they believe that the United States is the land of opportunity and they continue to help our society become stronger, more beneficial to its people, and livelier as a culture. The article “U.S. Immigration Policy: What Should We do?” states that “welcoming new immigrants into our country will inject valuable skills into the U.S. economy and enable American culture to maintain the rich diversity that appeals to consumers the world over” (2). It also states that it would renew the long tradition that the United States is a place of opportunity for many individuals throughout the world and this is admirable to many (“U.S. Immigration Policy: What Should We Do?”). According to West, “foreign students are highly motivated individuals who come to the United States for education, and then would like to get jobs, launch businesses, and develop innovative ideas. They are a source of great talent and an engine of economic development” (437). This is very true and is great for the American economy.

In conclusion, Illegal immigration is just that: illegal. Many Americans feel as if illegal immigrants come in to steal the only jobs we have available and to hurt our country by causing deficits to our federal government and incomes. However, this is not exactly the case. If there were more policies put into place in order for these individuals to become legal residents of the United States and it didn’t take years for that to happen, the economy and America could be benefiting a lot more from immigrants. The truth of the matter is that immigrants bring a variety of cultures, innovative ideas, excessive amounts of money, and intelligence to our society. Illegal immigration is something that our government has put much emphasis on combatting; however, that does not change what is really happening. In contrast, it would just be easier to help the illegal immigrants become legal immigrants as long as they fit the specific qualifications to become a U.S. citizen.

Works Cited

Cornelius, Wayne. “Controlling “Unwanted’ Immigration” Lessons from the United States”, 1993-2004. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 31.4 (2005): 775-84

“Illegal Immigration: Costs, Crimes, and Related Problems.” Discover The Networks. N.p. 2012.Web.2Dec 2013. <http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=196>.

“Immigration in the Early 1900’s.” Eyewitness to History. 2000. Web. 10 Oct. 2009. http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/snpim1.htm

LMD, (Summer 1992). “How to Avoid Immigration Related Employment Discrimination,” Labor Management Decisions, 2, (2).

Nadadur, Ramanujan. “Illegal Immigration: A Positive Economic Contribution to the United States.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 35.6 (2009): 1037-52

Smith, James, Barry E. eds. The Immigration Debate: Studies on the Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration. 1998. Retrieved on 31 March 2013.

“U.S. Immigration Policy: What Should We Do?” Choices. N.p. Web. 2 Dec 2013. <www.choices.edu>.

West, Darrell. “The Cost and Benefits of Immigration.” Political Science Quarterly. 126.3 (2011): 427-443. Web. 3 Dec. 2013.