Illegal Immigration: Pros and Cons

An estimated 11.3 million illegal immigrants lived among us in the United States of America in 2014 according to the Pew Research Center (Cohn and Passel). When we think of illegal immigration, our minds fill with pictures of famished people attempting to cross treacherous terrain; however, we never really take a good look at why they’re doing so. In many circumstances, an accumulation of push factors and pull factors—diverse elements that motivate people to move—is the reason why many make the life-changing and perilous decision to move into a new 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.

In the United States illegal immigration benefits the economy and growth, but also creates more problems such as inviting more immigrants. According to the article Undocumented Immigrants Should Receive Social Services by Melissa Marietta confirms “Immigrants to this country are not fighting for a student loan or access to a free clinic; they are fighting for the opportunities that they are denied in their native country” (Marietta). Most people look for a better future and head towards the opportunities illegal immigrants recognize United States as a land of opportunities. There are many working opportunities such as mining, railroad, lumbering, and construction in the United States. For example, a common job for illegal immigrants is the construction field. The

Illegal immigrants should be given the right to benefits in the U.S. Illegal immigrants are willing to take all kinds of jobs that Americans don't want. According to Green Garage Blog “When it comes to doing household chores, cleaning, feeding the pets and taking care of an adult in need of care and attention, an illegal immigrant can take on these types of jobs. And knowing how busy working Americans are, it helps to get support from someone”(10 Critical Pros and Cons of Illegal immigration). Illegal immigrants can start working in the U.S doing jobs that Americans don’t want like the ones stated above. This could be the gateway to helping them get a pension, retirement plan, and a 401k. Most illegal immigrants have been in the U.S for a while

June 2012 was a year with a huge break through on illegal immigration, and the fight to set the decision right. Opportunities to improve immigrants careers, schooling, and lives, who were born in the United States and plan on staying are on the rise. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was created to provide immigrants with an opportunity to stay in the States “legally,” but continue their lives through education if graduating from an U.S. high school, going to college, serving in the armed forces, and eventually gain citizenship in the United States. Many U.S. citizen have many thoughts and views on illegal immigrants and immigration in general, and the pros and cons to having DACA support illegal immigrants to stay in the country. There is a huge decision in process currently in 2017 that is putting DACA in risk from being a Federal Program that would end up effecting many immigrants. Threatening deportation and the possibility of losing everything that DREAMers have worked up to and for and are continuing to work towards is at a huge risk of just being thrown away. Keeping DACA and protecting the DREAMers is important because mentally and physically they are just as much of a U.S. citizen as anyone else born in the U.S.

Illegal immigration has been over the years a huge problem for United States. The illegal immigrants have come into the country for different ways like the Mexico border, the Pacific Ocean, and some of the have entered through a visit visa. But after a period, they stayed illegally. The immigration phenomena is a doubled edged sword. On the one hand, it provides a boost to the local economy because they are not paid so much while they are more productive. The other factor is these people do not pay taxes, and their employers also do not pay their taxes.

Immigrants bring new ideas and ambitious spirit to the U.S. economy. Immigrants can provide an overall gain to the domestic economy due to an increase in pay for higher- skilled workers, more efficiency and lower wages for some owners of capital, and lower prices for goods and services produced by immigrants. They provide businesses which increase America’s ability to trade and invest in the global economy. Immigrants maintain our economy adjustable, allowing U.S. producers to keep prices down and to acknowledge to changing consumer demands. The increase of labor means an increase in production, which provides more goods for the United States to sell. Immigrants allow the supply of goods to increase and the demand to go down, which helps our economy

Approximately 94% of undocumented immigrants live in urban areas (Passel & Cohn, 2009). From an employment perspective, immigrants constitute 22% of all low-wage workers and 40% of all low-skilled workers (Capps & Passel, 2004). The median household income for undocumented Mexican immigrants in 2007 was $32,000, as compared to $50,000 for U.S. born citizens (Passel & Cohn, 2009). In fact, 2/3 of all undocumented immigrants in the U.S. work force earn salaries that are less than minimum wage (Passel, Capps, & Fix, 2004). A study of undocumented Mexican immigrant workers found that this population had completed an average of 7.7 years of school (Greene, 2003). When immigrants leave the country that was their home, they leave behind a familiar language, culture, community, and social system. Many suffer trauma from culture shock, difficulties finding food and shelter, and the likely losing one or all family members. These difficulties place immigrants at an increased risk for psychosocial problems, school failure, drug use, and other risk-taking behaviors.

Whether to grant illegal immigrants full amnesty or not is a very controversial and important question in today's society. As David Decrosse explains, amnesty means, “lifting a penalty associated with an entire class of people who have violated a law.” Some people might think that American authority deporting illegal immigrants with little repercussions is amnesty, but full amnesty would mean letting the immigrants stay in America and have a regulated job. If amnesty is granted the economy would benefit, it is morally right, and it would not hurt the society in any way.

There is no doubt the United States is a nation of immigrants but illegal immigration has created many consequences. The number of illegal immigrants living in the U.S. is 11 million in 2017 (Jens Manuel Krogstad) . An Illegal immigration can be defined as the action of come to live permanently in a foreign country without legal permits from the government. According to Immigration Laws, there are 28.4 million immigrants in the U.S. and roughly half of them are illegal immigrants (The Social Effects of Illegal Immigration). There are many arguments about how illegal immigrants effects the economy and social life. An illegal immigration has created many concerns such as job competition, government benefits and services, economic stability,

Illegal immigration is a highly debated topic in the current presidential election race. On one side, people support immigrants as they are coming to America for a better life. On the other hand, illegal immigrants are taking American jobs, are the cause of rising crime rates, and are smuggling drugs into the United States. The endless tide of illegal immigrants only further amplifies the problems that are an issue today. The people of the U.S. need to come together and effectively end illegal immigration.

Firstly, I will talk about illegal immigration in the United States. There is over 11 million immigrants in the U.S. Over 50% of immigrants in the U.S are Mexican or Latin American. Over 50% of immigrants live in western or southern United States. Most of the immigrants in the U.S work on farms or construction sites. They work on farms or construction sites, because they can't legally

For many years, the United States have been the biggest nation that was built for many people from other countries on immigration. For many people from other countries come here with both legally or illegally and it has never been a major concern until now in their life. But in fact, the illegal immigration is the migration of many people across national borders of the United States will accept as an immigrant and the desire of some foreign nationals to live and work in this country. Most of the people from other countries around the world are poor and uneducated. While they come to the United States from living with their family, they have a better life for themselves and let their child have a good environment with education. Some countries have millions of illegal immigrants. Immigration, including illegal immigration, is overwhelmingly upward, from a poor to a richer country. Therefore, illegal Immigrants drain resources from the system, education, health

Even though a lot of government spending and tax money goes toward helping illegal immigrants, they contribute more to the economy than they take from it. Illegal immigrants provide cheap labor for the jobs Americans don't really want to do. They contribute to the economy by consuming goods and services and by paying taxes. Plus, helping all immigrants, even the illegal ones, boosts our international image. It benefits our country to be seen as open and welcoming, as this will attract more immigrants to fill our unwanted jobs and contribute to the economy.

Immigration offers economic benefits to the United State like slavery for an example. In history when the first English settlers came to America, they traveled to Africa and the Caribbean to seek slaves. These slaves were captured and brought against their will to the United States to farm for white