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Illegal Immigration - Illegal Immigrants Should NOT be Denied Benefits

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Illegal Immigrants Should not be Denied Benefits

On her way to work, a nurse is assaulted while racial slurs are yelled at her. The same route that she has taken to work for the last ten years without a problem, now leads her to violence (Hornblower36). Instances of discrimination and racism such as this one, have increased since the passing of Proposition 187 in California. For years, the border states of this nation have faced a steady increase in the costs they are forced to pay for providing benefits to illegal immigrants. California alone is home to over half of the nation's illegal immigrants. This has cost the state close to $2 billion every year in education and $400 million in emergency medical services …show more content…

Secondly, an alternate program for controlling illegal immigrants has already been put into effect and shows positive results. Efforts to try and seal off the border between Mexico and the United States from illegal crossings have already started. Attorney General Janet Reno began this operation in El Paso, Texas and San Diego, California. In El Paso it is called Operation Hold the Line and in San Diego it is Operation Gatekeeper and due to the initial success of the programs, $236 million has been allocated to these border areas. In Operation Gatekeeper the efforts have brought a 30 percent drop in the number of arrests (Gwynne35). Operation Hold the Line has cut the number of daily illegal crossings from 8,000 to less than 1,000 and the number of arrests in El Paso have dropped 72 percent. This type of control is considered far more humane than Proposition 187 because it stops illegal immigrants before they get in. Therefore, this type of control has won the support of El Paso residents by 85 percent (Miller34).

Having seen the lack of need for an action such as Proposition 187, let us consider the potential harm it can create. The first harm is the effect the lack of medical benefits has on the public. Proposition 187 cuts off education and all health care, except for emergency services, and requires teachers and doctors to turn in illegal immigrants (Impoco42). What this

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