Is Illegal Immigration Bad or good for the United States?

Jolly
Eng 102
Essay #2 – Is Illegal Immigration Bad or Good for The United States?


Is Illegal Immigration Bad or Good for the United States?

In this beautiful country of riches lies a workforce that sometimes is criticized and over generalized for being Latino. Many risk their lives just to step into this country to explore and to possibly make their lives better. I believe that this country stands in very good condition because of the illegal immigrants, and that they are the back bone of this country. Immigrants ( not just from México), come trying to better themselves , to improve their lives and also the lives of their families which is probably a third world country suffering from poverty. Even though it is said that immigrants here and they take advantage of what does not belong to them (as in federal aid from the Gov: free healthcare and schooling). I believe that the media adds a lot of tension and mayhem to these policies that are being reviewed. I don’t agree with people racial profiling the Latino’s in calling us all illegal immigrants, because the truth is that not all of us are illegal. How do you know whose illegal? There is a lot racism and stereotyping towards our ethnic background. There are many different thoughts to illegal immigrants but the pros and cons are yet to be fully analyzed with trusted sources in the next few paragraphs to analyze this specific yet very controversial policy that is enforced in this country.
Among this independent country are many people being treated in harsh conditions treated unfairly are and paid below minimum wage. I’m speaking about the illegal immigrants willing to go through these conditions for money to send home for food or living expenses. We all know that the undocumented illegal immigrants come to work, doing any job possible, even if they have to hang from a few string to clean windows on a 30 story building, and we also know that they are the ones who work at the jobs that no average American wants (condition, pay wise) and they don’t even complain. As UTNE magazine states: “the chances are that the roof on your home, the food on your table or the tile on your floor were put there by undocumented workers.” (Welch 42). Illegal immigrants come to this country to work and they work hard everyday. It doesn’t matter what they do but they do it and they are good at it. As Welch states in “Putting And End To Slave Labor”: “Mexican laborers have better skills and work harder that the rest of their documented employees” (Welch 43). Among the millions of illegal immigrants that reside in the United States, I believe that all of them come to this country to do well and to support their families in Mexico. Welch states in his “Putting A Stop To Slave Labor” that “in 2003, Mexican workers in the United States sent home 13 billion dollars in remittances” (Welch 43). I believe that this country was indeed founded by immigrants themselves and since the discovery of the United States immigrants have found a safe-haven and managed to get this county started by working. Lobel states that “Immigrants have provided the backbone for high profile successes such as the service employees in he national union ( SEIU) justice for janitors campaign, which ensures fair wages and benefits for the workers who clean up after corporate America.” The undocumented workers keep this country running day after day. It is estimated that as many as 3 million people enter the United States illegally each year and that there are an estimated 20 million Mexican illegal immigrants in this country. (Welch 43). As Welch says in “Putting A Stop To Slave Labor”, “given that there are somewhere between 10 and 20 million undocumented workers , if just ten percent of them were arrested there would be no place to incarcerate them –and the sheer numbers would make the deportation logistically impossible . How would we transport a million people to the border? Two million? And how do we fill their jobs they’re gone?”
It is said that Mexican illegal immigrants just come to this county to take advantage of our healthcare containment systems, and indeed, most Mexicans who hold a high positioned job have American health insurance that many Americans do not. As Cooper states in “Abstract- Do Immigration Policies Need a radical overhaul?” , “ They have gained widespread for though proposals to stop the flow of illegal immigrants, saying they cost the state too much in free schooling, healthcare, and other public services.” When the topic of employment arises, to battle the immigration issues, we often think that the illegal immigrants take the jobs away from the American workforce. And indeed the idea is supported by Evans in “ illegal immigration harms the Untied states” he uses the example: Rice University analyst Donald Huddle found that one third of constructions workers in Houston were illegal’s, holding down good paying jobs that otherwise would have gone to American workers.” Also we are aware that illegal immigrants do the “identity theft scheme” which is to have stolen altered or false documentation to be employed in the United States. Lobel states in “Viva La Union” that “the agency nabbed nearly 1300 workers nationwide in December 12th suspected most of immigration violations but loudly trumpeting the large scale “identity theft scheme” of a few dozen who may have used false or stole documents to get a spot on the line.” Also, immigrants take the jobs of Americans who desire to become independent like the immigrants who are willing to work for fewer dollars than the American worker. Triplett in “Abstract- Is Government Doing Enough To protect Them” that “ the migrant labor force has been increasingly made up of illegal immigrants… which has weakened the unions power to demand better wages and conditions.” We know that all immigrants must speak a native language and when they arrive here, they do not seem to want to speak our language but they must in order for them to get descent jobs or must to live in a county where the language is totally different. Linda Chavez and John J Miller say that “fluent English speakers earned almost three times as much money as those who only spoke a few words (Chavez Miller 78).
In order for us to help the issue better with immigration we need to realize that immigrants provide a large amount of help to this country. Ling –Ling states “Immigrants helps stimulate the economy and create jobs for their consumerism.” The myth that the illegal’s steal American workers jobs, is proven to be a total fallacy (Chavez Miller 75). “ The Alexis De Tocqueville Institution in Arlington VA, found that between 1960 and 1991 the ten states with the highest immigrant presence had a lower employment rate than the ten states with the lowest immigrant presence.” (Chavez Miller 75). If the Immigrants are deported, they will rip families apart (Mestretti 45) and I don’t agree with the un-humanitarian view towards illegal immigrants. In order for the illegal immigration to settle down, to stop them from stealing our identities, is to offer illegal immigrants permanent or temporary statues to be here without having to cause any trouble, stealing anyone’s identity or we could have a program that offers work permits as well. Among the many suggestions to aid this national problem is to begin a “bracero” program like the original one that took about in the 1940’s through the 1980’s to help the US economy grow (Zamudio 133) after the great depression that took about which begun with the stock market crash of 1929. To be able to help them and to help ourselves, wee need to try different methods towards this issue to resolve it to the best of our ability.