Do you think that immigrants who are in the country illegally should be allowed to remain in the U.S? Many liberals would likely disagree on the grounds that improving laws, policies and even constructing a border wall would cost too much and be inhumane. But, we have the “American Dream.” That is very hypocritical because Alexandria Ocasio Cortex’s new Green plan would cost $600,000 per household, 100% taxes and everyone needing to make at least $30,000 every year. Also, the democrats want free healthcare, education, housing, which would cost way too much. This article will discuss the two views along with different points for both sides of the argument. Some of the points will include ideas such as; how many immigrants there are, how many immigrants will be here, how to fix and solve the issue, how many came back, how many sought asylum, sanctuary cities and much more.
How many are there? There are about eight million of the roughly 11 million immigrants illegally working in the United States. These immigrants contribute a whopping 5 percent of all workers, according to the Pew Research Center. In the fiscal year of 2018 which is from October to September, there were 521,090 inadmissibles/apprehensions on the Southwest U.S. border. Inadmissible means that they aren’t validated to come into the country. Many people say that we aren’t full and need them to solve unemployment but, the question is, would it be safe to allow and/or keep them into the United States?
In my opinion, I don’t think that there should be any immigrants in our country if they have criminal records, came here illegally, can’t speak English, don’t have jobs. Also, the immigrants need to have more than just a green card/passport, etc. They all need to take a test that concludes that the person is safe to come here and work and can also speak English.
How many could there be? The generally accepted best estimate of the undocumented population in the U.S. is somewhere between 11 million and 12 million. Using a different method, Yale researchers estimated somewhere between 16 million and 29 million (Johnson). 11 million is way too much let alone 29 million. There needs to be changes made to fix this crisis which I will talk about later on in this article.
How did they all get here? According to the New York Times, the immigrants used counterfeit Social Security and green cards along with obviously illegally crossing the border. The other way they got into the United States is because they were seeking asylum. In the fiscal year of 2018 alone, there were 92,959 total claims of credible fear apprehensions and inadmissibles in which we allowed 75% of those to enter the country. A “sanctuary city” generally refers to a state or local jurisdiction that refuses to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, often by rejecting “detainer” requests from (ICE) and refusing to share information relating to potentially removable aliens (Sanctuary Cities). Detainers are used to request that a State or local law enforcement agency hold a criminal alien in local custody for up to 48 hours after their release on state charges to allow ICE to take custody of the alien and initiate removal proceedings. In fact, some of the sanctuary cities are even warning the illegals about incoming raids and/or searches. This is another massive problem because then the aliens scatter across our country breaking laws without paying taxes, bills, having homes, vehicles, education, etc. This is all because they can’t do anything here except work under the table or exclusively otherwise they will get caught. Another one of my biggest viewpoints is that children born to illegal aliens are U.S. citizens now and that needs to change immediately. This means that the children of law-breaking parents are scattered across the U.S. and more than likely to do the same thing as those fleeing ICE.
How many have been deported? How many have came back or had criminal records? In fiscal 2018, officials said the agency deported 256,000 people, more than half of whom had a criminal history (Sacchetti). Also, from the fiscal year 2014-2018, the recidivism rate has changed from 11-14% which means they have been apprehended more than once in that fiscal year. This is a perfect reason why the U.S. needs to take better action by tightening border patrol, change the documentation/test for immigrants and finish building the wall! However, how many of these illegal immigrants had criminal records? Yet some readers may challenge my view that illegal immigrants shouldn’t be allowed to be in the US. They argue that most immigrants do not have criminal records and are seeking work which we should not provide for them because it is illegal. During a budget debate, an official stated that all detainees have violated federal laws, 'by coming here illegally, or coming here legally and overstaying their visas (Sacchetti).' Another thing that ICE stated was that around 72 percent of the immigrants detained are subject to a punishment called mandatory detention (Sacchetti). That is just one reason why we should make changes to the system as well so we can conclude if the detainee needs to be deported or not. On the one hand, I agree with Maria Sacchetti that not all immigrant detainees have criminal records. But on the other hand, I still insist that we need to change the deportation system and deport those who have violated federal laws.
Are we full? In a 2018 Gallup poll, 158 million adults who said that the U.S. as their desired future residence. That's almost half our current population of 325 million (Johnson). An article I read, “We’re Not Full!” said that the United States must find some way to replace 76 million retiring baby boomers. Instead of finding a way to “replace” retiring baby boomers just don’t let illegal immigrants in. It is very unjust to remove Americans for new young immigrants. Wayne Cornelius the author of the article said that with women in the U.S. having a lower average of children, we need to bring in 3.5 million immigrants every year to balance out jobs and population. I think it is very terrifying that people really think we need more immigrants in this country. He also said that our population is growing old and taxes are being lowered, it would strain budgets for things like social security and insurance. That statement isn’t necessarily true. Yes, the U.S, has had a population crisis before and the country handled it very well. Plus, it would be easier to handle it by cracking down on immigrants.
What can we do? A great example of what we have done before about this issue is when President Bush was in office. In 2005, 31,000 Brazilians were apprehended entering the U.S. illegally through Mexico. The Bush administration used a process of expedited removal for those without a valid asylum claim and worked with Mexican authorities to prevent further entries. Within two months, the number of migrants fell by 90%. Only 1,400 Brazilians were apprehended in 2006 (Johnson). If the U.S. can agree with Mexican officials again and start using Bush’s old system our country wouldn’t have as big of a problem. Another great example of this is the Obama administration. In 2014 President Obama declared that there was a humanitarian crisis when around 120,000 people illegally entered. Without separating families, his administration began detaining and removing those without valid asylum claims. The number dropped to 68,000 in 2015 (Johnson). I liked both of these presidents' plan’s but I believe that Trump’s plan will succeed the most.
The first step should be to make changes to the documentation of immigrants such as needing more than green card/passport. The person should not have a criminal record and should also be able to speak English. There should also be an increase in border patrol along with finishing the wall as soon as possible. If the person is illegal, doesn’t have a job, overstayed their visa, can’t speak English or has a criminal record, they will be deported. If we keep them here they most likely aren’t contributing such as paying bills and taxes etc.
What would happen if all the undocumented immigrants went away? Most of the 900,000 who have arrived since 2012 have dispersed all over the U.S. There is no central database tracking them. Only 7% of those who aren't detained but whose claims have been denied are sent home (Johnson). I think that with the help of our great President, Mr.Trump our economy would recover quite well if the immigrants went away. Steven Camarota, research director at the Center for Immigration Studies, believes that wages would rise and motivate many chronically unemployed Americans to get back to work (Jordan). However, some people argue with this by saying we don’t have enough people willing to do certain jobs. For example, most of our union jobs are filled by immigrants mainly the Mexican race. Unauthorized immigrants in 2016 represented 10.6 percent of the labor force in Nevada said Miriam Jordan in their article. We are creating more jobs than ever and technology is advancing extremely fast. At this rate, our country will gain and recover from the loss of jobs and even some businesses. Keep in mind that I stated that there will still be some immigrants coming in as long as they follow and pass the requirements.
