This is an informative piece on the effects of Illegal immigration on all Americans that I wrote for school in 2010 and wanted to re-share it with everyone.
While America accepts immigrants from all over the world with open arms, and gives the immigrants hopes for a brighter future, it frowns at the millions of immigrants that try, and successfully enter America illegally. With these illegal immigrants from almost every nation in the world crossing the American borders daily, many areas of the country, the workforce, and the economy greatly suffer. The following expository essay that I will present will give the reader more insight in the growing problem that America is facing with illegal immigration, and illegal immigrants in the workforce. This will include information about many topics on the effects of illegal immigration. While hurting America, the effects of illegal immigration causes job loss, brings criminal activity, creates a burden on the Health Care system, hurts the American economy, and causes concern about the nations National Security.
The border between the Unites States and Mexico is approximately 2,000 miles long. It stretches from the San Diego, California, to Brownsville, Texas. The border is a 24 hour watch with high tech security cameras, radar, ground sensors, and other means of securing the border. A border fence is currently along a 670 mile part of the American border to help keep illegal immigrants from entering the country without proper documentation. And some states have deployed their own National Guard for additional security. Many of these illegal aliens are looking for work, some come here for criminal activity, many are smuggling illegal drugs, and these are the fears the American people have in this country.
Without swift changes in the enforcement of the borders, tougher laws on apprehending illegal aliens and more strict penalties on employers who employ illegal aliens, the problems with the southern borders will only be worse. The borders will not be fully secure until the Government takes the initiative, and gives the borders more attention so that the country can successfully defend from individuals harmful to the American way of life. According to the some of the different agencies an estimated 800,000 illegal aliens cross our borders each year. And that seems to rise on a yearly basis. The countries legislature needs to pass tougher laws with dealing with illegal aliens, and needs to penalize all business that employ illegal aliens to a point that they can lose their business license. The lawmakers of this country must stop the politics, and pass laws quickly as America’s workforce is slowly being taken over by illegal aliens coming to this country looking for work.
With illegal aliens living in America, a large amount of them also work in America. A majority of these workers work in low wage jobs without paying the necessary taxes required, and this affects not only the Federal Government, but to the States, and Local Governments also. This is spread all over the country from coast to coast. No city, town, or state is free of illegal aliens and their desires to find tax free employment. It is the job of the Federal Government to control, and police these undocumented workers from gaining employment. With an estimated 11 million illegal aliens in America the number
of illegal workers in the country is taking its toll on the American workforce. And with this many undocumented workers Local, State, and Federal Government tax agencies suffer just as much as the American worker. The loss of taxes by undocumented is staggering. Many undocumented workers work for nearly half of what the American citizen makes. And most of the time if that worker works past a 40 hour week he/she does not receive overtime pay. This is what many employers are looking for; more work, for less money. In most areas of the country one hears about a business raided by Immigration and Customs Agents looking for illegal aliens. Not only has the small business hired illegal aliens, but large corporations, too. In the Midwest, a large meat processing was the subject of a raid, and Immigration Agents found a few hundred illegal aliens. In Pennsylvania Federal Agents raided a plastics company apprehending 60 illegal aliens. In addition, many illegal aliens pay illegally money to individuals or even business to receive false documentation like driver’s licenses, or even Social Security cards so they can fraud a business to obtain employment. And with the unemployment rate in this country at an average of 10%, many Americans are growing more, and more frustrated that these illegal aliens are taking jobs from American citizens, especially with the economy the way it is.
There can be a few positives that come with illegal immigrants. Many sources on the internet state that illegal aliens pay billions of taxes to the federal government, including Social Security each year. One source estimates that $9 Billion dollars a year is being paid to Social Security. Even though that, it does not say, it is all right that they work in America; it can help with the loss of taxes by American citizens who loses jobs to undocumented workers. With illegal immigrants unable to collect Income taxes from the Federal Government, the American public benefits. Washington Post (2006), “Overall, area immigrants pay nearly one-third of their income to the government — at least $10 billion a year — but those here illegally pay less than $1 of every $5 they earn in taxes, the report says. That is partly because they earn less but also because many are paid off the books and escape payroll taxes” (para. 2).
In today’s America, Healthcare is the hot topic. And with it in such disarray the illegal immigrant does not make it any better. Reuters (2009), “There are 6.1 million uninsured adults who are illegal immigrants and 700,000 children who are illegal immigrants” (para. 7). Many hospitals lose money treating illegal immigrants, and this affects the American people. This affects the rising cost of health care to all Americans. The Numbers USA (2009) website states “The current costs of treating illegal immigrants at all levels of government are an estimated $4.3 billion a year, primarily at emergency rooms and free clinics.”If illegal immigrants were able to pay their own costs of healthcare, the health care system in America can be better off. And many female immigrants come to this country already pregnant to have their babies in America; this not only puts a burden on our nation’s hospitals, but endangers the safety of the baby because most of the mothers are afraid to receive regular checkups for their children because they are afraid of deportation.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement has implemented many programs to deal with the illegal immigrant surge in America. One of the ways is a tighter border to deter illegals from crossing our borders. One such program is Border Enforcement Security Taskforce (BEST), a group of federal, state, local, and foreign agencies. “This improved communication and coordination has paid dividendsin a number of investigations already. In FY08, BEST teams were responsible for a total of 1,000 criminal arrests and 1,256 administrative arrests—a 35 percent increase over the previous year’s total. In addition, BEST investigations in FY08 resulted in 401 indictments and 392 convictions,” ICE (2008). The United States has many detention centers throughout the country, plus smaller local, and county jails for detention. There is estimated 53 Immigration Courts nationwide. Once an illegal immigrant is arrested, and identifies they are sent to one these centers for deportation hearings. In these hearings the Federal Government must prove that the individual is in this country illegally. If that individual if found guilty of being an illegal alien, she/he is eventually disposed to their respective countries. This is only part of what goes behind the scenes in Deportation. In my personal experiences, I have come in contact with many individuals whether at work or through other contacts that has been disposed from America because they were illegal aliens. And many of them have been known to come back to this country at a later date. Our borders have to become more strengthened to stop this practice. The amount of detention centers, the costs of the hearings, and removal of illegal immigrants costs the U.S. billions of dollars each year that can be spent elsewhere.
While the facts and information that I have stated in this essay can be made on many levels, I want to show how illegal immigration has affected the American society on many levels. The fight over illegal aliens and the rights they have, and do not have can go on as long as Americans take sides with this issue. And there seems to be no resolution in sight on how to tackle this very touchy subject. I wanted to show the reader what America is facing, and give the reader more insight of what we are facing in America. Many can be, and probably are affected by some form of illegal activity at one- time or another in their lives. But vast majorities of the American people do not fully understand the impact of illegal immigration in the country. And with the tiresome efforts of the Federal Government, the Immigration, and Customs agencies, and Homeland securitythe nation goes through a never- ending battle of trying to keep these illegal out. But as some individuals may read this essay, and form their own opinions of the subject, I want the reader to ponder this question: Do they fully know, and understand how the country lives with, and deals with illegal immigration?
