Illegal Immigration Essay

What Are The Negatives of Illegal Immigration in The U. S.? 1 . ) What I already know (and don’t know) about my topic I know that illegal immigration is a big topic that is always talked about in the United States. I know that some people believe it is a big problem, but others don’t think it is a problem at all. I know that illegal aliens come to our county for many different reasons. Some of them include work, to get a better life, or to escape a dangerous homeland. These immigrants have to come to this country illegally because the process to come legally is long and they may never be granted citizenship. I know that them coming to our country is hurting our economy. They come here and get jobs that could be going to unemployed U. S. citizens, and since they aren’t citizens they don’t pay taxes that all true citizens have to pay. Also they send a lot of the money they make back to their homeland and it never goes back into the U. S. economy. I know that our government spends a lot of money hiring border patrol and buying equipment to help keep these illegal aliens from getting across the border, and the money that pays for this comes out of the legal citizens taxes. If these illegal mmigrants come to our country and need medical care the hospitals are legally required to give them the medical care they need and hardworking American citizens pay for their care with our taxes. What I don’t know is how much these illegal aliens actually cost the economy. I don’t know much about the immigrant’s trip to get to the United States. I want to know the details about their Journey and how that impacts the legal Americans that live right around the border where these immigrants are crossing, and how it affects people from all over the rest of the United States. I want o know if the Jobs that these illegal immigrants are getting are actually taking them away from legal citizens or are these Just the Jobs that the Americans don’t want to work. Is all the money that they make here illegally being sent back to Mexico or where ever they come from or do they help our economy and spend it here? I want to know if the dangerous trip here is actually worth risking your life to make it to the U. S. 2. ) Why I want to answer this question You hear about this problem being talked about by almost everyone. You can turn on the news and see something pertaining to illegal immigration in our country. They ven have TV shows now that are all about border patrol and catching these illegals. I want to know how it directly affects me, and I want to know what is being done to prevent this and what can be done to make it worth going the legal route instead of sneaking across the border. 3. ) The story of my search I began my research while sitting in my dorm. I was lying around procrastinating and watching TV. The guide channel was on and I saw a show called Border Wars. I thought to myself might as well watch it, it should be an easy way to do research. While watching this show it was amazing to me how many men, women, and children ctually try to cross the border every day. According to the show thousands of illegals attempt to cross the border illegally every day (Border Wars). What I also found so interesting is how they cross. They would come up with some of the craziest ways that I would never think of. One of the ways that this show pointed out was they immigrants over the fence with the crane and set them down on the other side. The show also pointed out that people were digging tunnels that went from the Mexican side of the border under the fence and they would come up in a house on the U. S. side. Most of them however Just walk across the border and try to stay hidden by the cover of darkness. The trip over is no easy one, it is very dangerous and they cross a lot of tough terrain. In the past year there have been over 200 immigrants found dead that were trying to cross the border. Many immigrants try to cross our border illegally every day but how much do the aliens actually cost the U. S. citizens? Many people don’t realize how much money illegal aliens actually cost legal citizens in the U. S. According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), illegal mmigration cost tax payers $113 billion a year at the federal, state, and local level (Illegal Immigration). The majority of this goes to paying for the education of the illegals children. Another big part of this number being this high is the medical cost of all the aliens. If they get hurt they can go to the hospital and get treated. Since they are illegal they will most likely not pay their bill, and all the legal citizens are stuck paying for their medical care. Also hiring border patrol and getting high tech equipment is a big cost to the people in America. The government has to get motion ameras, infrared cameras, helicopters, and many other supplies to keep the crossing of illegals to a minimum. The illegals are not helping pay hardly any of this because they don’t pay taxes, and the ones that do pay taxes get most of it back in refunds. According to the Center for Immigration studies illegals pay much less in taxes than do legal citizens. The numbers show that illegals pay around $1 ,3710n average in income taxes while legal citizens are paying o average $7,103 yearly (Camarota, Steven). People always complain about taxes being too high and illegal immigrants play a part in this problem. Immigration is also a danger to people living near the border and to the immigrants themselves. People who live near the border have to come in contact with these illegals who could want to do anything possible to make it into our country; some might even resort to harming them. Also with the illegals coming drug smugglers are also crossing our border to get there drugs sold. These drug runners can be very dangerous and willing to do anything to not get caught. They are willing to do anything because the cartels that are having them bring the drugs could be threatening them or their families to do so. A story of this posted by ABC News said that a border patrol agent was shot in the back and killed during an altercation with drug smugglers. In the article ABC News stated 40 year old Brian Terry was shot in the back and killed while pursuing drug smugglers. He was with a team of three other men when they approached the men and they opened fire. Terry was able to shoot one of the men but then was shot from behind. He was life-flighted to the hospital but had passed away in route. The other border agents were able to apprehend four of the suspects but one of them happened to escape (Hossford, Matt). This Just goes to show you that some of these people crossing our border illegally can be very dangerous. It is dangerous for the immigrants because of the terrain that they have to cross and also because of the cartels. Many of the immigrants that cross the border do so with the help of the cartels. They charge the immigrants a big fee to get them here and if immigrants don’t pay them in full they members of the immigrant. This also causes a big threat to the men and women working for the border patrol, they face dangerous situations every day when dealing with the problem of illegal immigration. How do we solve the problem of our dangerous borders and illegal immigration? One way to help solve the illegal immigration problem is to allow more immigrants to come into our country legally per year. According to the Immigration and Nationality Act the United States allows 675,000 legal immigrants to gain citizenship per year (Wasem, Ruth). If this number was raised then less people would have to cross the border illegally each year. Another way we could prevent this problem is to build a fence that covers the whole border. However this would be a very expensive build and many people don’t think it ould be affective. Part of the border with Mexico already does have a fence and illegal aliens still manage to cross it in various ways. Also a way to solve this problem would be to allow more immigrants to get into the country on work visas. If they would allow more work visas immigrants would be able to make money to send back to their families and they would be paying taxes that could help support the U. S. economy instead of doing all their work under the table. . ) What I learned After completing all my research on the topic of illegal immigration from Mexico I ave learned a lot of valuable information. One of the most valuable pieces of info I learned about was how the immigrants will take any measures necessary to get into our country even if it means risking their own lives. Another thing that I learned while doing my research is the actual number of immigrants that cross the border every year. I believe that this number is so high because there is no real punishment if you get caught crossing the border. All that will happen to you is you will be sent back to your homeland. I learned that the number of legal immigrants allow into the country s kind of a low number so a lot of these immigrants don’t have the chance to be allowed legal citizenship. I also learned that the immigrants that make this effort to cross have a very hard and dangerous Journey. It was surprising to me how many of them died on their trip to the United States. I think this number is probably higher than what we know; there are probably many illegals that die on their Journey and are never found. It was also interesting to me how little illegal immigrants pay in taxes each year compared to legal U. S. citizens.