Just Like Us

First, these immigrant single mothers aren’t employable because of being illegal, and when they do have a job, it isn’t enough. For this reason, many mothers can’t meet their,or their child’s needs. If there was more government, for example, helping pay the rent, many mothers wouldn’t have to stress out about where to get the money to pay the rent every month. Yes, these people aren’t citizens to be able to receive all this help but the government should see the bad side of this situation, the government should see that these kids are being affected because they aren’t able to receive what they're supposed to receive because they are natural-born citizens. Many single mothers ask for help from the government but sometimes it isn’t enough for their everyday life .

Another controversial assumption made by advocates who want to see a change in birthright citizenship is that unauthorized immigrants and their U.S. born children place a drain on many social resources. When an unauthorized immigrant has a child born in the U.S., that child has access to all the social resources that U.S. children born to legal citizens are entitled to. It is believed that undocumented immigrants do not pay taxes and come to America with the sole intentions of living on welfare. Evidence provided by the Social Security Administration, contends that there are taxes that cannot be matched to workers’ names and social security numbers. This is also known as a “suspense file” and it has grown by twenty billion dollars in recent years. Migrants and undocumented immigrants contribute more in taxes and social contributions than they will ever receive in individual benefits (Van Hook and Fix 2010). Immigrants earn about $240 billion a year, they pay about $90 billion a year in taxes but only use roughly $5 billion in public benefits (Van Hook and Fix 2010). In

Some argue that immigrants will take our jobs after the allowance of legalization and attendance of postsecondary education. It is a true fact that those who become legal in the labor market will demand better treatment, respect, increased wages, and employee benefits. Those, who already have a degree, and clean houses for living due to their status, will apply for jobs equal to their education. Although the fact that they will take our job is true to some degree, it is a rhetoric marketed exaggerator, installed to create fear, and lead to an opposition to immigration reform. The legalization will affect most companies that benefit from a mistreatment of undocumented immigrants and will affect businesses that profit from underpaying their hired laborers, documented or undocumented. According to Aviva Chomsky, “Governments have made sure that there are people without rights to fulfill business’s need for cheap workers and high profits” (126). Businesses tend to oppose restriction on immigration today because inequality maintains a population of poor people who lack access to resources, and who may have little alternative but to accept jobs under the worst of conditions (15). “The answer to the low-wage problem is not to restrict the rights of people at the bottom even more (through deportations, criminalization, etc.) but to challenge the accord between business and government that promote the low-wage, high-profit model” (27). Immigrants have always flooded America, to work as a cheap labor, work under strenuous conditions, send remittance to their home countries, and return home. The fact that people believed immigrants come to steal the American wealth is altered by the globalization of the economy, and it hurts to have a vulnerable nation labor force to compete with other countries. According to Chomsky, “As of 2005, Social Security was receiving about $7 billion a year through false social security numbers provided by illegal immigrant workers” (38). This fact is based on a low-income/low immigrant wage. Therefore, allowing immigrants to access higher education and better-paid jobs will result in higher income taxes, higher real estate and consumer’s taxes, community involvement and volunteering. If the

Moving to any new place is scary and life changing. Try moving to a new country. In the novel How the García Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez, the Garcίa family does just that. The family of six make a huge transition by moving from the Dominican Republic to the United States of America. The four daughters feel left out of the decision to move. Of the four girls, Sofía García seems to be the most independent. Sofía takes control of her life and rebels against her parents by: flaunting her sexuality, doing drugs, and dropping out of college.

Americans believe that illegal immigrants are freeloaders they come to the United States to use our Social Services. Let’s define Social Services, “organized welfare efforts carried on under professional auspices by trained personnel (dictionary.com, 2011, para.1).” Examples of Social Services are Housing which is Government subsidized and public housing, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), Food Stamps/Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicaid and Medicare, and Social Security Payments for the elderly, disabled, qualifying children of the deceased, etc. Illegal immigrants do not qualify for these social services, because they do not have a social security number. Illegal immigrants contribute to the economy of

How many men do you know that would step up to be a parent to a child they did not have to care about? Within my family that seems to be a common theme. My grandfather was not my aunt and uncles’ biological father, but he raised them. I have a step brother and step sister. Their father raised me. Juan is raising Brittney’s son with Lisa. Not only have I seen how younger generations will be impacted positively by some of the actions of these undocumented people, I have seen how their work will benefit younger people with their contributions to the economy and government. In the article mentioned above, Gross also says that undocumented workers have contributed about $300 billion to the Social Security trust fund of $2.7 trillion dollars (Davidson 1). This trust fund, according to the Social Security Administration and the information they have on the website about the trust fund, is split into two separate funds. One of them, the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) fund, provides benefits for retired people and families of the deceased (1). If undocumented citizens are taking from our children’s futures, then why would they put so much into something to help families of people who have passed away?

The purpose of this essay is to point out that immigrants are a group that are discriminated against and that many of the allegations, in particular the allegation that immigrants avoid paying taxes, are false and misleading. The importance of this topic is to point out the erroneousness of these claims so that people will recognize the merits of immigrants that include honesty, diligence, and assistance to our economy and desist from scapegoating them. Stereotyping immigrants and unjustly accusing them only consequents in spreading lies and myths that can be harmful to our economy (as well as to the individuals involved) since we preclude ourselves form benefitting form their skills and we react in a distorted manner. The essay starts off by introducing the group, before reviewing historical attitude to the group, the unjustness of American attitude towards immigrants, correction of the myth that immigrants avoid paying taxes, and demonstration that immigrants are a resilient and hardworking group. Not only do immigrants even illegal immigrants pay their taxes (even though being ITIN holders they can escape

Just like Us by Helen Thorpe was on systematic study of four young Mexican women growing up in the suburbs of Denver, Colorado with two of the women living in the country as legal residents and the other two living as undocumented. The definition of sociology is defined as “the systematic study behavior and human groups.” (Scheuble, 2014). Thus definition and can be directly applied the Thorpe’s novel and specifically to the illegal immigrant status of the girls. Throughout her novel she explores situations and problems that occur in America specifically relating to illegal immigrants. For example Thorpe goes on to write about how Yadira was forced into purchasing a fake social security card through the black market. After Raúl Gómez

While living illegally in the U.S., their children that are born here are considered citizens and are eligible for social economic programs. According to a report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform, “Many immigrant families get welfare through the eligibility of their U.S. citizen children. It is also important to realize that even when immigrants are ineligible for federal welfare programs, the burden of their support is simply shifted over to state and local welfare agencies.”(1-2). Trying to solve such a widespread problem has been a major goal of the U.S. congress since before the welfare reform bill of 1996. In his column, Ron Paul says, “Amnesty for illegal immigrants is not the answer. Millions of people who broke the law by entering, staying, and working in our country illegally should not be rewarded with a visa. Why should lawbreakers obtain a free pass, while those seeking to immigrate legally face years of paperwork and long waits for a visa?”(1).

The novel Across a Hundred Mountains by Reyna Grande is a story about two young girls and their struggling journey to find happiness between two conflicting and distinct worlds: the United States and Mexico. Juana on one side wants to get to the United States, or “el otro lado” as mentioned in the novel, to find her father who abandoned her and her mother after leaving to find work in the US. On the other hand Adelina escapes from her house in California to follow her lover to Mexico. The girls form a bond in the most unexpected of places, a Tijuana jail, and quickly form a friendship that will connect them for the rest of their lives.

In “Illegal Immigration Creates Large Fiscal Costs for US Taxpayers” by Robert Rector he analyzes this point. One of his points being that “In 2010, the average unlawful immigrant household received around $24,721 in government benefits and services while paying some $10,334 in taxes” This data is accurate but where are the government benefits going if legally non-citizens can’t receive government funds. Most likely the majority benefits are given to the American children of this illegal immigrants in the form of Medicaid and food stamps, and therefore benefit Americans. In Lynch’s argument he cancels this argument, “Over the 10-year period they would earn $392 billion more and pay an additional $109 billion in taxes,” now it’s billion they would contribute to the economy instead of taking money. Another argument is that with better jobs and a legal status immigrants would actually pay more taxes to the government. Many of them don’t currently do so because they have no social security card, hints why they only pay “$10,334” in taxes. On the other hand many do pay a lot on taxes and since they cant receive any benefits in reality they pay for many benefits they do not qualify for. If people oppose legalization because it would mean tax cost and instead support deportation one of the statements in Ann Garcia’s “The Facts Support Immigration Reform with a Path to Citizenship” could change their

The first thing to remember, she states when immigrants come to American they come to better themselves and their families lives. Immigrants are sometimes the providers for their family back home. That is one of responsibilities they take on. She considers, immigrants should contribute to the American society so why can’t they continue to live in the United States. Furthermore, she accepts the truth as though anyone should receive a handout, but they should acquire the proper documentation to become a citizen of America. In life everyone deserves an equal opportunity of the free land. One of the biggest issues our nation is facing is the immigrant reform. In hopes for some human compassion, she thinks if people have this it will change the outcome of an

Many American believe illegal immigrants don 't pay taxes. They say, why should we pay for the education of some immigrant child? We need to spend our tax dollars helping our own children.

The government pays housing, schooling, welfare and every other little thing that illegal immigrants refuse to pay on their own. Illegal immigration has even impacted the economy. Over 500 thousand illegal immigrants arrive to our country yearly which has damaged our economy severely. Our economy cannot withstand 500 thousand undocumented workers who have limited skills and steal from the government with all the free benefits they are given. 95% of all illegal immigrants are part of the lower class and have minimal skills (Illegal immigration Cost, Crimes and Related problems (US). The majority of all Americans are part of the lower class and have minimal trade skills, and with the increase to the illegal populous to this the economy cannot become strong (The economic logic of Illegal immigration). For years we have been fighting against illegal immigration to help save jobs, stop political fights and to help schooling. Illegal immigration has created many problems politically such as split parties to decide wither or not they deserve amnesty. There have also been many riots and pickets through the decade from people trying to give equal rights. The equal right debate is to give every illegal immigrant free amnesty to our country. The pro of this is that each illegal immigrant would have to go through a certain criteria to become a legal citizen. This would sort out many of those who deserve and do not deserve to be in our country. This

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).