“Illegal immigration is the entry of non-U.S. citizens into the United States without their having applied for entry at one of the many border crossings” (Illegal Immigration 9). There are numerous ways that illegal immigrants travel into the United States. The most common forms of entry are through Canada and Mexico. However, illegal immigration did not used to exist. In fact, immigration without applying to enter into the country was allowed in the United States at the beginning of 1655. Over a time period that stretched 230 years, the United States embraced immigrants to help the new country grow and thrive. Unfortunately, after the Revolutionary War the United States began to monitor all immigrations. Since then, laws have been passed …show more content…
According to the National Research Academy of Sciences, illegal immigrants contributed back about $80,000 dollars in taxes in 1997 than they gained back in federal, state and local levels. Most of these immigrants do not even benefit from the services that they pay for because they are not legal citizens. “‘Immigrants not only help fuel the Nation’s economic growth, but also have an overall positive effect on the American economy as a whole and on the income of native-born American workers”’ (“Immigration Myths and Facts- January 2008”). Illegal immigrants help employment rates rise for native-born citizens. Also, illegal immigrants help increase wages, such as in the state of California from 1990 to 2004 when the wages of native-born citizens rose by four percent because of illegal immigrants. Due to illegal immigrants, the economy continues to boost. Secondly illegal immigration positively impacts American life. “A recent study finds that the rise in immigration between 1990 and 2006, which increased labor-force participation by about 12.5 million, increased the earnings of U.S. workers by between 0.6 and 0.7 percent” (“Immigration Helps American Workers’ Wages and Job Opportunities”). This increase allows native-born earnings to climb. Using these findings, under the S.744 reform act U.S. workers could expect an increase in earnings from 0.4 and 0.7 because of immigration.
There was a time when people came freely and settled within the land, but as societies became more civilized and community laws established, immigration became a point of concern for the advanced societies. They did not just want any person to enter the country and get settled. For this, a certain designed protocol through which immigrants can be filtered, and those considered as safe, healthy, or valuable were preferred over the others. Hence, those immigrants who followed the procedure and were officially approved to enter the country were called legal immigrants, but the fences have always been vulnerable to some degree of penetration, and there has always been an issue of those immigrants who sneaked in illegally; thus, they are illegal immigrants.
Contrary to what most Americans believe, illegal immigrants are not causing our economy to weaken, in fact, they are causing just the opposite. Immigration enforcement has increased greatly in the past few years and undocumented immigrant workers are being deported much more frequently. America refuses to recognize the positive impact these illegal workers have on our economy. Without the surplus of illegal immigrant workers in the U.S. our country’s economy would suffer greatly. Illegal immigrant workers help our economy flourish and they positively influence the American workforce.
The last 10 years of U.S. economy can be seen by the impact of immigrant reform in different scenarios. In 2013, undocumented immigrants have been granted legal status; citizenship has helped to increase the U.S. GDP and would accumulate by an additional $1.4 trillion compared to the 10 years in between the 2013 to 2022. This earning will give a chance for the Americans some additional earnings of $791 billion at the same period as a personal income, in which the economy would create job opportunities, about 203,000 new jobs per year. In these years the undocumented immigrants will earn about 25.1 percent more than the current earnings of the immigrants. These earnings show that they will be contributing significantly to the federal, local, and state taxes which will add to tax revenue in 10 years with $185 billion to $116 billion for the USA federal government as well as $68 billion to the state and local government (Stuart Anderson,2011).
Illegal immigration is the migration of people across national borders in a way that violates the immigration laws of the destination country. Some countries have millions of illegal immigrants. Immigration, including illegal immigration, is overwhelmingly upward, from a poorer to a richer country. The easy definition of an undocumented immigrant is someone who was not born in the United States and therefore has no legal right to be or remain in the United States. Not all undocumented immigrants snuck across the border illegally. Although it is hard to get an accurate number on the amount that did, some undocumented immigrants originally came here legally as tourists or some came on a temporary visa and just did not leave. The reasons on why they decided to stay and not go back to their countries are numerous. Some immigrants come to the United States to work and escape the poor economy in their country, while others come to be with their family. Whatever the reason may be, at the end of the day they all come here to achieve the american dream.
There is question on whether or not the immigrants will help or hurt the economy. Some say immigrants will take jobs from Americans and damper U.S. tax rolls because they aren’t as skilled or educated. The fact is immigrants actually increase “overall wages and the pool of jobs” and add to the U.S. revenue (Dwoskin). In 2006 there was a suspected “21 million immigrants, about 15 percent of the labor force, [that] h[e]ld jobs in the U.S.” However, the U.S. only had about seven million unemployed. “So the majority of immigrants can't literally have "taken" jobs; they must be doing jobs that wouldn't have existed had the immigrants not been here,” (Lowenstein). Roger Lowenstein also presents a valid and insightful point in stating that immigrants who take these jobs that “wouldn’t have existed”, relative prices could be lowered in a similar way that global trade does.
But amazingly, the flow of foreign-born is so large that immigrants currently account for a larger share of labor force growth than natives (“U.S. Immigration and Economic Growth: Putting Policy on Hold”, 2003) When you do the math, it makes a good deal of sense to spend the little that we do—if not more—to keep them healthy (Karvounis, 2007). Care for undocumented immigrants represents a tiny fraction of the nation’s health care burden. They receive minimal care; some pay taxes. Between one half and three quarters of undocumented immigrants pay taxes and some work “off the books” jobs as well (What Immigration Reform Could Mean To The US Economy, 2009). Illegal aliens provide as much as 7 billion dollars a year to the Social Security Fund although they cannot claim benefits for this program (Immigrants’ Economic Contribution, 2009). Further still, undocumented workers pay sales taxes where applicable and property taxes—directly if they own and indirectly if they rent (“Undocumented Immigrants as Taxpayers”, 2007).
Illegal aliens are net consumers of public services and they contribute to economic growth (Immigrants’ Economic Contributions, 2009). Since 1990, immigrants have contributed to job growth in three main ways: They fill an
The author, Frosty Wooldridge, of The Children of Undocumented Immigrants, 2013 deplores Edwin Rubenstein of the National Research Center reported in 2008 that unlawful immigrants are having an astronomical negative effect in terms of $346 billion annually on the American taxpayers (par. 5). The author, Frosty Wooldridge, argues that the undocumented immigrants are wasting these taxpayers’ money. Also, the author underscores that these undocumented immigrants do not know how much it costs taxpayers every year for them to live here illegally. It may be true that the undocumented immigrants are not paying their taxes. However, the undocumented immigrants are spending money to help stimulate the economy. According to a website article, “DACA Recipients’ Economic and Educational Gains Continue to Grow” from the Center for American Progress website finds “The data illustrate that DACA recipients continue to make positive and significant contributions to the economy, including earning higher wages, which translates into higher tax revenue and economic growth that benefits all Americans. In addition, DACA recipients are buying cars, purchasing their first homes and even creating new businesses” (par. 3). The author establishes that the undocumented immigrants have been making the economy better by earning higher wages. Additionally, these undocumented immigrants are increasing the economy by acquiring essential things like cars and homes. The author implies that because of DACA, these undocumented immigrants, are in fact, benefiting the economy immensely with earning higher wages and purchasing homes and cars. Another powerful illustration of this point again specifying on the Center for American Progress website was concluding that important data is showing that many of the top 25 Fortune 500 companies are hiring DACA individuals accounting for $2.8 trillion annually
The US labor force would not survive if it was not for illegal immigrants. If there were no illegal immigrants our labor force would decrease by four percent (Isidore 5). “We could not have grown as much as we did in the 1990s if we did not have immigrants… our growth would have been slower (Isidore 5).” Having illegal immigrants in our labor force increases the amount of resources we have, which increases the amount of production in the country. “Some economists discuss that not only do U.S. consumers benefit from lower prices as an outcome of the low wages most immigrants are paid, but that the convenience of lower-wage labor helps create more work for higher-skilled, higher-paid workers who are generally born in the US (Isidore 14).” Illegal immigrants are opening up higher wage jobs, because they take over the lower wage jobs. Many immigrants take jobs in the field of construction, agriculture
Legalization in the United States for those who are in the country illegally would boost the nation's economy. For example, one article states that granting amnesty “would add a cumulative $1.5 trillion to the U.S. gross domestic product — the largest measure of economic growth — over 10 years” (Amanda). The reason for that is because undocumented immigrants puts workers on a moral cycle increasing the wages for both immigrants and American workers. Immigrants would help make a better work environment with higher salaries which would increase consumer purchasing, resulting in a better economy as a whole. For example, one article states, “The ripple effects of these increased wages would create $181 billion in induced economic impact, and 1.4
Illegal immigrants help boost the United States economy by paying some taxes. Like American citizens, illegal immigrants may pay local, state, and federal taxes including sales tax that helps support government services that they may not be able to access (Ewing 9). Since more American citizens are becoming aware of the benefits of an education, openings are being created for illegal immigrants in low paying jobs (Nadadur 1037-1052). Americans, unlike illegal immigrants, have more diverse careers. Aliens are more concentrated in specific job areas, resulting in a decrease in immigrant labor cost. This helps boost the United States’ economy (Carter 777-795). Of the approximate eleven million illegal immigrants in the U.S., most work in labor intensive jobs. Careers such as construction and agriculture tend to attract illegal aliens and they account for about twenty-five percent of the work force in these areas (Ewing 9). Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve admits that illegal immigrants help improve the United States economy and does not suggest turning them away (qtd. in Quindlen 90). Anna Quindlen, in her article “Newcomers By Numbers,” agrees with Bernanke and believes that immigrants are the factor that helps keep prices low. She also adds that immigrants are not causing American citizens unemployment, but are simply taking the low wage jobs that citizens are not willing to do and even boosting the economy (90).
economy. According to the article, “Immigrants Are a Net Positive to the Economy,” it states that, “Research shows that legalizing our nation's undocumented immigrant population and reforming our legal immigration system would add a cumulative $1.5 trillion to U.S. GDP over a decade.” Just by making many people legal the U.S. would gain 1.5 trillion dollars in only ten years. This money could be used for many things that would make the U.S. a better nation. In the article it also said that, “These big gains occur because legalized workers earn higher wages than undocumented workers. They could use those wages to buy things such as houses, cars, phones, and clothing.” Not only could the legalization of immigrants help the economy it’ll also let them get payed better. This could potentially bring down the poverty level. It could also bring down the number of people who need financial help from the government. By raising the wages of immigrants they could be able to afford many things that they can't afford right now. They would be able to afford better homes and cars among many other things. Many immigrants would offer a better life for their families. Many people would earn a higher wage which would be better than what they could have done in their home country. Not only could the legalization of immigrants help the economy, it could greatly impact many
12). A 2007 study on immigrants in Arkansas found that the total economic impact of Arkansas’ one hundred thousand, fifty one percent undocumented, on the state economy is nearly three billion dollars (Willis par. 5). Texas comptroller study found that the one million four hundred thousand undocumented immigrants living in Texas in 2005 contributed 17.7 billion dollars to the state economy (Willis par. 5). Illegal immigrants also take low paying jobs. Most Americans do not like to wash dishes, bust tables, and mop floors, but those are jobs that need to be done. Employers always have trouble finding regular employees to do that kind of work, which is also usually low paying. Americans are not willing to work them whereas the illegal immigrants are. When businesses have trouble filling positions of low skill jobs they only have two choices, raise the wage rate high enough to fill jobs or eliminate positions (Gheen par. 14). Businesses must then raise the prices of their items to make up the difference. Higher prices that the customers of those businesses will end up paying for. Illegal immigration also improves the overall image of America. No other country in the world has the diversity of races,
Illegal immigration is defined as the phenomenon of entering and living in a territory without any government’s approval; In fact, it has lately raised a considerable debate on the pretext of the fact that it is an image of threat and weakness for the country. Many researches proved that the percentage of undocumented people is shooting up each year particularly in the United States as it is considered as one of the most powerful destinations. This phenomenon is generating significant economic, social, public and even moral questions for the immigrants. Therefore, Undocumented persons should not be deported from US because it break up families, hurts the economy and create unfilled jobs.
Immigration and Economic Growth: Putting Policy on Hold”, 2003) When you do the math, it makes a good deal of sense to spend the little that we do—if not more—to keep them healthys (Karvounis, 2007). Care for undocumented immigrants represents a tiny fraction of the nation’s health care burden. They receive minimal care; they pay taxes. Between one half and three quarters of undocumented immigrants pay state and federal taxes. They also contribute to Medicare and provide as much as 7 billion dollars a year to the Social Security Fund. Further still, undocumented workers pay sales taxes where applicable and property taxes—directly if they own and indirectly if they rent (“Undocumented Immigrants as Taxpayers”, 2007).