An American Citizen, We Face Multiple Economic Challenges Within Our Country

The United States of America, being a country founded by immigrants, is known all over the world as the land of great opportunities. People from all walks of life travelled across the globe, taking a chance to find a better life for them and their family. Over the years, the population of immigrants has grown immensely, resulting in the currently controversial issue of illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants are the people who have overstayed the time granted on their US, visa or those who have broken the federal law by crossing the border illegally. Matt O’Brien stated in his article “The government thinks that 10.8 million illegal immigrants lived in the country in January 2009, down from a peak of nearly 12 million in 2007.”(Para, 2)

Micah Issitt and Andrew Walter define immigration as the “movement of persons from one nation or region to another with the purpose of seeking permanent residence.” Unfortunately, illegal immigration has become more prominent in the U.S. arousing debates on what to do with the illegal migrants. The 9/11 attacks on the twin towers were caused by terrorists, who penetrated our weak borders to gain access to their planned attack. Under the Obama era, two and a half million more immigrants have crossed the border illegally than during Bush’s reign in office, which shows how our border is becoming more and more vulnerable. If the borders are not secured soon, more and more migrants will come illegally and take jobs from legal Americans, also

“Wal-Mart had an outside cleaning company that had hired illegal immigrants that would sweep their stores and perform other cleaning activities for the night shift” ("Illegal Immigration Facts & Statistics”). Since legal immigrants are taking citizens’ jobs, the unemployment rate is higher for U.S. born citizens rather than immigrants. "There are approximately 7.7 million illegal aliens employed in U.S. jobs in 2008" ("Illegal Immigration Facts & Statistics”). One reason why non-citizens of the U.S. are working is because many employers consider them to be cheap labor which saves the employers money. An example of cheap labor I experienced was while working at a pizza restaurant. The owner of the restaurant liked to hire sixteen or seventeen-year old Mexicans that he would make work every day except Sunday from ten in the morning until nine at night. I know that the Mexicans were being paid only one-hundred dollars a week for working sixty-six hours. When I quit the restaurant, he only had one Mexican and one Venezuelan working for him as cheap laborers. Like him, self-owned managers prefer immigrants over American citizens because that saves them money. Having an effective border patrol not only gives more jobs to American citizens, but it also helps to keep illegal immigrants out of the country.

Today one of the biggest issues in America is illegal immigration; these people travel from all over the world, and illegally cross national borders onto U.S soil in desperation to find a better life. Immigrants come to America in hopes of fulfilling the American dream, being free and safe from their original home lands. Most immigrants are illegal and come by the millions each year, which lead to many controversial disputes. The overflow of immigrants caused many citizens to question if these illegal immigrants are damaging America in various way and also by bringing in crime, drugs, and terrorists. Others state that immigrants truly aids the economy “Indeed, some sectors of the economy might have a hard time functioning without illegal workers. (Katel 395) Many citizens believe illegal immigrants are taking jobs, and abusing government benefits, however many argue that these immigrants in fact contribute to a stronger economic stimulus, take unwanted jobs, and some even create jobs for Americans.

Joe Messerli published an article that addressed the positive and negative effects immigrants have on the U.S. Obviously, having a larger population causes there to be greater competition to obtain work, however, the majority of the positions obtained by illegal immigrants are those that are undesired by Americans; low-skilled, low-paying, labor-intensive jobs (Messerli 2). Illegal immigrants pursue careers like dishwashers, landscapers, field workers, housekeepers, and food-processing plant workers. Very few Americans have the desire to obtain these jobs, whereas, illegal immigrants fill those positions gladly and do so at decreased wages. They also stay employed in those positions for many years, normally without the possibility of promotion. Americans however, only remain in such low-skilled, low-paying jobs for a short time, seeking to advance to higher paying positions.

The debate over immigration has become one of the most heated arguments. Immigrants leave their home countries desperate need for food to feed their families, unemployment purposes, their poverty conditions environment, for those who are employed are tired of the below market wages, and the unequal treatment. Today they are about 11 million undocumented workers in the United States and Americans fear that because of this matter, immigrants will increase

Employment of illegal immigrants in the United States, as well as other countries has been a highly controversial subject for many years now. There are many people living in various countries around the world that are unhappy with the way they are living, and want something more out of life than what their country can offer. Due to their unhappiness, they decide to immigrate to another country, and this is usually done illegally. Once they are in their preferred country, which a lot of the time is the United States, they are forced to work in low skilled jobs because higher skilled jobs require people to speak fluent English and show proof of residency. Although many people view illegal migrants as a

The United States of America, a country created by immigrants, is currently facing what some consider to be an immigration crisis. As of 2012, there is over eleven million undocumented illegal aliens living inside the United States. Both the American public and the lawmakers elected to represent us are divided on the issue. Some people view the influx of immigrants crossing over the border from Mexico to America as a good thing while others view it as a disaster waiting to happen. Regardless of ones view on immigrants coming over, most people are in agreement with the idea that we must change the way we are currently dealing with illegal aliens.

We are now in the 21st century and like the beginning of the 20th century the United States finds itself in the throes of a period of mass immigration. More then one million immigrants enter the Unites States, both legally and illegally every single year. Many argue that this new wave of mass immigration may help sustain the success that our nation is having in regard to the way of living that many American have come accustomed to and yet others believe that although our nation was created by immigrants it is time to "shut down" our borders. The truth of the matter is that there will always be issues in regard to immigration and the policies that the government sets forth in order control who comes into this country. Also now

Currently the unemployment rate is twenty-three percent (Roberts). That is a very high rate compared to past when

We see immigrants in the restaurant industry, not as chefs but as dishwashers and busboys. We see them in the agriculture sector as migrant workers doing literally backbreaking work of weeding and picking our fruits and vegetables so we can purchase them at low prices. We use immigrants as gardeners and groundskeepers and expect them to work outside, in Phoenix, in 100 plus degrees. I don’t think any of "us" could tolerate the conditions that they work under. They clean our schools, our offices and our stores. They get security jobs on the shifts that American workers don’t want, night watchmen. They take the construction jobs from companies that avoid paying union wages. These opportunities are presented by American companies that are only interested in their bottom line. The desire to hire immigrant workers, documented or undocumented, is out of the greed of profit-driven corporate America. The fact that Immigrant laborers are desperate for work is exploited by the very companies that promote lower prices for consumers, American consumers. An irony of sorts. We pay lower wages so we can have lower prices at the expense of the employment of others who were making more money doing the same job. Since these American workers are now being paid the lower wage or none at all, it helps that the prices for these items and services are lower. Otherwise how else could they afford them?

Our economy has gone down hill since Barack Obama stepped into office in the year of 2008. Our newly elected president, Donald J. Trump, has shown through his economic plan that he will bring back jobs and cut taxes drastically for everyone. In all, these major changes towards our economy will make America great

Many Americans believe the nation has lost control of its boundaries. Concerned if immigration continues, the U.S. economy will suffer, and that employment will be scarce. Immigrants are flooding the welfare rolls and are heavily involved in crime. (Morganthau 18). The increase number of U.S. immigrants does affect the number of jobs available. The problem is, immigrants are either highly qualified (take American jobs) or are less than skilled in any field (increase welfare). The view on immigration today is one of a drag on the economy, instead of a lift (18).

The common argument about immigrants is that “Increased immigration drives down wages for low-skilled, native-born Americans(Seth Millstein). When according to an article data shows that immigration has in fact increased employment wages from about .6 percent to 1.7 percent. This percentage increase may have not been a lot, but the point is that immigration is not lowering the job opportunities for anyone. For example, as well as maintaining a job immigrants to obtain a check bi-weekly or even every week. Immigrants are also consumers so their money they work for has to go somewhere. So before stating that “Immigrants ruin America and are taking all of our jobs,” take a look and see the actual facts. “They cycle that money back into the economy…” and are increasing the wages with every little thing they buy or any job they obtain. The lowering of wages is not what they are doing and there needs to be a way to change this national debate. The choice of whether or not immigrants have had a positive or negative affect on the U.S. is completely each individual's separate opinions. Then again other’s ideas and opinions are being forced upon immigrants and supporters of the positive affect they have on the

Illegal immigration, a hot topic among many Americans. Many americans seem to think that illegal immigrants are the sources of all the nations problems. The question that remains is are these people right? While illegal immigrants can cause some issues throughout the nation such as higher crime rates, terrorist threats, and disadvantage to american workers, they also do many good things such as boost the economy, add more cultural influence, and provide a cheap labor force.