A Study on The Worldwide Issue of Illegal Immigration

Illegal immigration has evolved into a major worldwide issue. Illegal immigrants do not only affect jobs; they also affect the well-being of our nation. The rate of illegal immigrants continues to steadily rise, particularly in North America. With the numbers relentlessly increasing, more individuals are becoming disgruntled about the tendentious subject. If the situation remains constant, the nation could indubitably become corrupt. Furthermore, a multitudinous amount of major politicians have addressed the burning issue and have intelligibly stated their solutions for the matter. Illegal immigration and its inevitable effects on the United States will be covered in this paper; moreover, a solution to the issue will be discussed as well. Illegal immigration is not something that should be taken lightly, and it should be of the most extreme concern of the entire country to take the measures needed to resolve the problem.

Although illegal immigration is a worldwide issue that has been occurring for a long period of time, it has become an urgent issue in the United States. The United States of America is known for being so culturally and racially diverse. However, it is also becoming known for its tremendous population of illegal immigrants. Donald Trump, known for being quite honest and frank in regards to the issue of illegal immigrants, stated in an interview with NBC in June 2015 that “As has been stated continuously in the press, people are pouring across our borders unabated. Public reports routinely state great amounts of crime are being committed by illegal immigrants. This must be stopped and it must be stopped now” (Byrnes).

Trump has also addressed the issue by presenting a policy position on immigration reform. The basic concept of his argument being that “immigrants are bad for the economy” (Khalid). He has also declared ways to fix the problem: end birthright citizenship, seize all remittance payments, implement a nationwide e-verify system, build a wall across the southern border, and necessitate restrictions on H-1B visas (Trump). Trump also wants to “put American workers first” because “decades of disastrous deals and immigration policies have destroyed our middle class.” Lawmakers have also begun to formulate approaches to immigration reform by introducing acts; one of those being the Secure Our Borders First Act, which threatens penalties against senior Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials whose departments fail to intercept a targeted number of crossings. The proposal would allow the Border Patrol to operate on all federal lands, provide funding for the National Guard to participate in securing the border, and authorize expanded use of surveillance drones along the border (CFR).

In the graph below, the number of immigrants in the United States from 1900 to 2014 is shown. The graph also projects the number of immigrants that will be a part of the United States population up to the year 2060. By 2060, the graph projects there to be 78.2 million immigrants in the United States.

In addition to the information from the graph above, according to the Migration Policy Institute, “In 2014, 1.3 million foreign-born individuals moved to the United States, an 11 percent increase from 1.2 million in 2013” and that “the U.S. immigrant population stood at more than 42.4 million, or 13.3 percent, of the total U.S. population of 318.9 million in 2014, according to ACS data.” From the data in 2014, only around 20 million out of the 42.4 million were naturalized United States citizens; the 22.4 million that remained consisted of illegal immigrants and temporary workers and students who were on temporary visas (MPI).

Moreover, the growing number of illegal immigrants is concerning many Americans and making them fear that a large number of jobs will be taken by illegal aliens. As a consequence of the increasing illegal immigrant population, the jobs of hardworking Americans are put at risk.

Illegal aliens come to the United States to take jobs that offer them greater opportunity, and they are often welcomed by U.S. employers who are able to hire them for wages lower than they would have to pay to hire U.S. workers. This employment is illegal under a law enacted in 1986, but some employers ignore the law and hire illegal workers in the underground economy. Others simply accept fake employment documents and hire the illegal workers as if they were legal. Because there is no requirement to verify documents presented by workers, employers can easily evade compliance (FAIR).

In the graph below, it shows that the number of immigrants who have jobs in the United States has steadily increased from 1995 to 2012.

In a report done by the Federation for American Immigration Reform in 2013, it was estimated that there were nearly 2 million jobs taken by illegal immigrants in California and nearly 1.3 million taken in Texas. On top of the dreadful job situation,

The costs for the United States have been extraordinary: U.S. taxpayers have been asked to pick up hundreds of billions in healthcare costs, housing costs, education costs, welfare costs, etc. Indeed, the annual cost of free tax credits alone paid to illegal immigrants quadrupled to $4.2 billion in 2011 (Trump).

Additionally, in regards to the substantial costs that American taxpayers are having to disburse due to illegal immigrants, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, “During the budget period 2014-2019, in which Medicaid expansion takes effect, covering 3.1 million amnestied immigrants would conservatively cost taxpayers $48.6 billion.” Moreover, as far as supplying Medicaid to illegal immigrants, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, “providing Medicaid coverage to 3.1 million amnestied illegal immigrants would be $8.1 billion annually.” As a further matter,

For communities that provide care to illegal immigrants, the financial commitment is significant. Interviews with officials in the 25 counties indicated that local initiatives provide nonemergency care for at least 750,000 unauthorized immigrants across those counties, costing them more than $1 billion a year—almost all from local funds (Radnofsky).

In 1994, due to the accumulating uneasiness of the American public’s inclination toward illegal immigrants, California voters took initiative and validated Proposition 187, which ultimately denied “unauthorized immigrants all services except emergency medical care” (Ginsberg, 186). Essentially, the California voters’ and supporters’ intentions were clear in this occurrence. Their ambition was simply to inhibit illegal immigration and to coerce the illegal immigrants who currently resided in the United States to go back to wherever it was that they came from. Despite a vigorous attempt, in 1994 and 1997, the majority of Proposition 187 would be ruled as unconstitutional, and the federal court declared that all illegal immigrants should be allowed a public education (Ginsberg, 186). Even Hillary Clinton, with concern of illegal immigrants and healthcare, stated.

We do not think the comprehensive healthcare benefits should be extended to those who are undocumented workers and illegal aliens. We do not want to do anything to encourage more illegal immigration into this country. We know now that too many people come in for medical care, as it is. We certainly don’t want them having the same benefits that American citizens are entitled to have (Ferris).

Clinton is correct; the nation does not need to inspire or stimulate any more illegal immigrants to come to the United States. Providing healthcare to undocumented illegal aliens would bring about undesirable consequences.

In a different manner, illegal aliens have accounted for over 30% of capital offenses in various states across the country (Tancredo). In 2015, instead of being deported, “19,723 criminal illegal immigrants, including 208 convicted of murder, over 900 convicted of sex crimes and 12,307 of drunk driving” were released by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency due to President Obama’s immigration policy changes (Bedard). Likewise, “data indicates that an additional 790,000 aliens joined the illegal population from the middle of 2013 to May of 2015, for a total of 2.5 million new illegal immigrants since President Obama took office in January of 2009” (CIS). What is more,

The LAPD’s ban on immigration enforcement mirrors bans in immigrant-saturated cities around the country, from New York and Chicago to San Diego, Austin, and Houston. These “sanctuary policies” generally prohibit city employees, including the cops, from reporting immigration violations to federal authorities (MacDonald).

The sole responsibility of cops is to protect the public from any forms of danger, in whatever shapes that they may present themselves. Immigration violations leads to an increased population of illegal aliens, and an increased population of illegal aliens could very likely result in an escalation of violence in the United States. In regards to information that supports that statement, “The federal Bureau of Prisons category “criminal aliens” includes legal immigrants who have been convicted of serious crimes, but over 90% of incarcerated criminal aliens are illegal aliens, so it is reasonable to use these numbers as a close approximation of the extent of illegal alien crime” (Tancredo). In the chart below, arrest offenses that have been committed by illegal immigrants in the United States, as of 2016, are recorded. In total, there were 2,891,668 arrest offenses, with immigration being the number one offense. The next offenses following immigration being: drugs, traffic violations, obstruction of justice, and assault.

It is entirely ineluctable that the criminal illegal immigrants, who were simply released after committing crimes, will continue to behave abysmally. It is crucial for the sake of the nation’s security that the illegal alien criminals’ felonious pursuits are precluded. According to MacDonald, “In Los Angeles, 95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicide (which total 1,200 to 1,500) target illegal aliens. Up to two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants (17,000) are for illegal aliens.” There have been numerous accounts of murders of United States citizens by illegal aliens. One incident that happened recently was when “Illegal aliens, Reinol Vergara and Edson Benitez, pled guilty to second degree murder for the death of a 90 year-old Minnesota man they beat and tied up while they stole from his home, leaving him to bleed to death” (FAIR).

Another similar case that has occurred in the United States was committed by Juan Razo, an illegal alien, who “agreed to plead guilty to a crime spree that included the shooting death of a 60-year old woman, attempted rape of a 14-year old girl, kidnapping and burglary” (FAIR). The last case that will be discussed in this paper was committed by Bernabe Flores, another Mexican illegal alien, who “pled guilty to first-degree rape in California and was sentenced to eight years in prison” (FAIR). Allowing illegal alien perpetrators such as Flores, Vergara, Benitez, and Razo to live in the same country as those of us who base how we live off of the widely known phrase in the United States Declaration of Independence, “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness,” is unjustifiable. At a Republican debate in 2008, Senator John McCain stated

There are 2 million people who are here who have committed crimes. They have to be rounded up and deported. We’re all basically in agreement there are humanitarian situations. It varies with how long they’ve been here, et cetera. We are all committed to carrying out the mandate of the American people, which is a national security issue, which is securing the borders. That was part of the original proposal, but the American people didn’t trust or have confidence in us that we would do it (OnTheIssues).

Alas, deporting all of the illegal alien criminals would not solve every element of the nation’s criminal pursuits. In spite of that, it would unquestionably alleviate the encumbrance of the quotidian crimes in the United States and ipso facto it would produce a sense of insurance and optimism throughout the entire country; which is the type of spirit the nation is in dire need of nowadays. After all, in the famous words of Ronald Reagan, “A nation that cannot control its borders is not a nation.” The chart below shows the trend of deportations from 1970 to 2014. Due to the rapid increase in illegal immigrants, it is only necessary that there be an expeditious growth in deportations as well to countervail the population. Albeit 414,481 seems to be a fairly large total of deportations, it is of no comparison to the 42.4 million illegal immigrants who are still populating our nation.

As far as the races of immigrants go, “In 2014, 46 percent of immigrants (19.4 million people) reported having Hispanic or Latino origins” (MPI). The amount of illegal immigrants that continue to pour through the border has become utterly ludicrous. The country is already crowded as it is. There is absolutely no need for more illegal aliens, as the nation is currently having a strenuous time trying to clear out the ones that are here at the moment. According to John McCain, "If we don't secure the borders first, we will find ourselves with another group of people who have come to this country illegally, and then we'll have to do it all over again" (OnTheIssues). In conjunction with McCain’s statement, United States Senator Ted Cruz has also addressed the issue in the same demeanor, stating that “A strong President can and must secure the border. Under current law, there is more than enough legal authority to do so; what is missing is the political will” (Cruz). In the chart below, the national origin of the illegal immigrant population is shown. 56% of immigrants are from Mexico, and the other 44% come from other Latin American countries, or from Asia, Europe, and Africa.

In the context of my rights and responsibilities as a citizen of the United States, I would have to say that I would adopt Donald Trump’s solution to the immigration issue that the nation is currently facing. As a conscientious and diligent part of the United States’ native populace, it should be every native’s obligation to protect the country that they live in without question or hesitation. It is in the national anthem of the United States of America that we are the “home of the brave,” so there should not be one single reason that Americans should not feel compelled to stand up for our nation and refuse to let it get run over by illegal aliens who have truly overstayed their welcome. Trump’s initiatives are what this country needs in order to be relieved from the massive immigration burden that has settled across all of America. I would simply promote the solution by utilizing my freedom of speech, which is protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. I would essentially explain to Americans how essential and paramount it is for the nation to come together as one and obtain freedom from all of the negative repercussions that illegal immigration has had over the years.

In conclusion, after thorough and exhaustive research over the highly disputed subject, it is effortless to come the determination that illegal aliens are of no significance to the moral growth and economic development of the United States. Lastly, it is crucial for the nation to deport all of the undocumented immigrants in order to become the great nation that it once was.