Cara Stephenson
English
October 7, 2018
The Effects of Illegal Immigration on The United States
The “issue” of illegal immigration and illegal immigrants in the United States is an extremely prevalent topic which is discussed daily. illegal immigration refers to “the illegal immigration of people across a country's borders in a way that violates the immigration laws of the country, with intentions to remain in the country.” According to Wikipedia.com. This definition is a larger definition and does not cover the miniscule aspects of how illegal immigration can affect a country. For better or worse immigration will always be a topic discussed. Most can agree that immigration and cultural diversity are for the betterment of this country, but the divide sits when immigration is done illegally.
Illegal immigration has been a problem within The United States for years on end. Whether you think that it is not a big deal, or you cannot stand it, it is occurring everywhere and has been for a long time. The outbreak of illegal immigration started in the mid to late 1900’s when the country had a surplus of jobs that were unfulfilled. From ABC.net, an immigration and U.S. census analyst reported “From 1942-1964 five million Mexican workers were admitted to the United States to perform temporary services of labor”. This uprising in the number of immigrant workers was significant to the economy’s growth and the population size. The types of jobs these workers would be doing were more tough manual labor type jobs which employers could pay the workers a lower wage. When an illegal immigrant enters the United States they are being “granted” the freedom, liberty, and opportunity that they might not have in their country. With this comes a lot of scary times. Many illegal immigrants have to work to pay for their house, food, gas, and other everyday needs. They are often on the move, jumping from job to job to steer away from authorities. Ruth Asmah, an illegal immigrant who has lived in the states for 13 years, sat down for an interview with Mirror.co.us where she told her story of being illegal. She said “This is how you live when you are ¬undocumented,” she tells me. “You are constantly moving. I don’t take anything – no benefits, not even free school meals for Dyanna”. You might think to yourself, “Why is this so bad? Why is this negative? They are just people trying to live a good life and provide for their family, why is this such a bad thing?” There are more underlying facts that will be provided to support the negative effect claim.
Since World War I and World War II, citizens from countries like Poland, Germany, Asia and many other countries started trying to immigrate into the United States during the wars. Today, we have a similar situation occurring, such as people from Mexico and Canada illegally coming into the states. A professor at Occidental College, Jane Hong, whom studies History and published a book on the immigration during WWI and WWII states in his book “Starting in the late 19th century, race-based restrictions kept Asian immigration to a trickle. The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act largely did what the name suggests; by 1924 Congress had barred all Asian groups. Eventually this complete prohibition gave way to a nominal quota system, but it wasn't until Hart-Celler that lawmakers finally abandoned blatantly racist immigration policy”. Evidentially, Hong believes this is what sparked the outbreak. Once this law was passed, the majority Caucasian country of The United States saw Caucasian number drop like crazy. This is how the United States got their name as the melting pot of the world. When immigrants come to the states for work they often come and return back to their country with the money they acquired. This causes a problem for the United States citizens and the economy.
According to CNN Immigration Statistics Fast Facts, in 2014 there were approximately 12.1 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States, up from 11.6 million in 2010, which makes up for about 4% of the population. Steven Camarola, a writer for The New York Times said, “there are an estimated eleven million illegal immigrants in the country and we also admit over a million legal immigrants each year, leading to enormous implications for the United States labor market”. As you can infer, more illegal immigrants enter the United States than legal immigrants do per year. Approximately 8.5 million jobs are occupied by those with the “illegal” or “undocumented” status. Currently there are 160.32 million jobs in the labor force with 6.8 million legal Americans unemployed based on facts from Statista.com and Money.CNN.com. That being said, with 8.5 million jobs occupied by illegal immigrants that takes away from the legal Americans who could have a job that do not. If these people were legal and documented, it would help the economy immensely. The result of undocumented people acquiring work is that wages are declining. The act of one taking a job from a person who is less fortunate, but is legal in this country, is what causes unemployment to rise. In 1986 a law was passed which made it illegal for illegal aliens to take jobs from Americans. The one thing about this law is that American employers disobey this law because it is cheaper for them to hire undocumented workers. Changes are being proposed every day to ensure that American workers are a priority.