Overview - Illegal Immigrants

Illegal Immigrants
Current Issues, 2010 An immigrant is a person who migrates from one country to another. An "illegal" immigrant is a person who does so without following the established legal procedures of the destination country and who resides in that country without proper visas or other documents. Illegal immigrants are sometimes referred to as "illegal aliens" or "undocumented workers." Illegal immigrants can be found in significant numbers in several parts of the world. Many European countries are coping with an influx of illegal immigrants from Africa. Australia and New Zealand are confronting significant migrations from India and other parts of Asia. But it is the United States that has the largest illegal immigrant population of any country. The 2000 U.S. Census reported that 7 million illegal immigrants resided in the United Statesdouble its 1990 estimate of 3.5 million. Some scholars have argued that the number could be even higher. This is because undocumented immigrants are often reluctant to participate in the census for fear of being discovered by authorities.

Illegal Immigrants in the United States

There are several ways by which people violate immigration laws when entering the United States. One is to simply sneak into the United States without any documentation or permission. Most such migrants cross somewhere along Americas 1,955-mile border with Mexico, although others stow away on ships or cross over Americas northern border with Canada. A person may enter the United States with fraudulent documents. Another form of illegal immigration is to enter with a lawful but temporary permit (such as a student or tourist visa) and stay after the permitted time on the visa expires. Another category of illegal immigrants are formerly legal immigrants who commit crimes or for other reasons are ordered to leave the United States, but who ignore their deportation orders. Roughly two out of three illegal immigrants in the United States come from Mexico, according to an analysis of 2000 U.S. Census data. Much of the remaining immigrants come from countries in Central and South America. They also come from China, the Philippines, India, and Korea. Illegal immigration has become one of the most contentious and emotionally charged issues facing U.S. political leaders. Many people argue that illegal immigration poses an unacceptable security risk in the post-9/11 era. Others blame illegal immigrants for a variety of social ills including crime, unemployment, and low wages. They also argue that illegal immigrants are a drain on public resources for communities that have to pay for their schooling, health care, and other social services. But others argue that that most illegal immigrants are hard-working and meritorious individuals who pay more in taxes than they consume in services and who are being unfairly blamed for various social problems. One proposed solution has been to provide a way for illegal immigrants to legalize their status, but such proposals have been sharply criticized as "amnesty" for lawbreakers. Immigration policy is generally seen as a federal responsibility, and most debates about illegal immigrants have focused on what the federal government should do. However, in recent years states, local governments, and even private groups have taken the initiative to correct what they see as the dangerous failure of the federal

government to prevent or deal with illegal immigration. Some of these groups, like the "Minutemen," patrol the U.S./Mexico border on their own, seeking to capture illegal border crossers and turn them in to authorities. These groups have been controversial and their efforts have sometimes ended in violence. Do Illegal Immigrants Threaten Public Safety and National Security? Some opposition to illegal immigration is couched in national-security and public-safety concerns. The 2002 PATRIOT Act, passed by Congress following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, officially added national security and terrorist concerns to criteria for excluding immigration applicants. However, some people have argued that this would simply encourage would-be terrorists to enter the country illegally. These critics asked whether the federal government can truly protect the nation from future terrorist attacks if the borders are not secured. Crime is another issue raised by those concerned about illegal immigration. Some believe that all illegal immigrants are, by definition, lawbreakers, and thus are more likely to commit other crimes as well. Their "disrespect for the law," asserts columnist Josh Moenning, "leads to crimes that illegal aliens often commit while they reside here. Overcrowded prisons are often a complaint in areas with a high level of illegal immigration." Others link illegal immigration with the illegal drug trade. But immigrant rights activist Anne Carr argues that immigrants are not more likely than American citizens to commit crimes, a fact "true of both legal and illegal immigrants." Do Illegal Immigrants Harm Americas Economy? Another important aspect of the debate over illegal immigrants is their impact on the U.S. economy and on the lives of citizens and legal residents. Complaints about illegal immigrants often center on two disputed assertions: that illegal immigrants take jobs from Americans because they are willing to work for lower wages, and that illegal immigrants result in significant social welfare costs. Most agree that the vast majority of illegal immigrants come to the United States to seek better economic opportunities than they can find in their native countries. The per capita income in Mexico is about one-tenth of that in the United States. Some people argue that the willingness to work for low wagescoupled with their vulnerability to detection and deportationmake illegal immigrants easy to exploit by unscrupulous employers. Businesses such as farms, meatpacking plants, and hotels have replaced well-paid unionized workers with immigrants, legal and illegal, at much lower wages, according to the Federation of American Immigration Reform (FAIR). Such job competition is especially harmful to vulnerable groups such as African Americans and unskilled laborers. "Americans deserve decent jobs at decent wages, not unfair competition from imported foreign workers who are exploited to the point of indentured servitude," says FAIR. However, others maintain that immigrants take on hard and dangerous jobs that native Americans will not do. These defenders maintain that immgirants labor and entrepreneurship helps to revitalize American industries and create more jobs than they take. Editorial writer Alan Block writes that "there is a virtual consensus among those who have studied the phenomenon in any depth that immigrants, legal and illegal, are a boon to the economy." The other main economic complaint made about illegal immigrants is that they incur significant costs to the American taxpayer. California governor Pete Wilson commissioned a study in 1994 to ascertain the cost of providing services to illegal immigrants. The study concluded that taxpayers were paying $4 billion annually in unemployment, medical, educational, and other government programs and services. (Wilson successfully convinced voters to pass Proposition 187 that year, which denied most public benefits to illegal immigrants. However, much of the ban was later overturned by the courts.) However, others argue that illegal immigrants,

who tend to be younger than Americans on average, pay significant amounts in sales and Social Security taxes and actually do not incur a net cost in government spending. The debate over social services for immigrants was revived again in 2009, when President Barack Obama was heckled as he delivered an address to Congress about health-care reform. Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina shouted that the president was lying when he said his healthcare bill would not cover illegal immigrants. Can Illegal Immigration Be Stopped? Some of the debate over immigration policies revolves around the question of whether illegal immigration can be stopped through enforcement measures alone. Various proposals have been made to strengthen efforts to stop illegal immigration. These include the building of a wall and fence stretching the entire Mexico/U.S. border, utilizing military troops to patrol the border, issuing tamper-proof identity cards that would be required of all people entering the United States (or even of all U.S. residents), establishing a central database to track the presence and status of U.S. visitors, and stricter enforcement of laws forbidding the employment of illegal immigrants. Advocates for such measures argue that America could stop illegal immigration if it really wanted to. "We can end illegal immigration," argued former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani while campaigning for president in 2007. "The technology exists to do it, the people exist to do it. Now we need the political leadership and will to get it done." But others argue that massive efforts to erect barriers and control immigration are doomed to failure. "There are millions of illegal immigrants already in the United States, millions more people who might enter, and millions of potential weak spots along the border," argues Columbia University law professor Tim Wu. "These numbers make border enforcement a fruitless way of trying to stop illegal immigration." Is Amnesty a Valid Policy Response? Amnesty for illegal immigrants has been tried once before in the United States. The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), in addition to criminalizing the employment of illegal immigrants and strengthening border security, provided a process for illegal aliens already residing in the United States to apply for and receive amnesty and become legal residents. An estimated 2.7 illegal immigrants took advantage of this law. Some people argue that the time has come to try this again, arguing that American society is harmed by the presence of millions of people with limited legal rights and no official status. Such people are more vulnerable to exploitation and harm. During President George W. Bushs administration, he and members of Congress proposed various mechanisms to create a "path to citizenship" for illegal immigrants. These generally involve paying back taxes and criminal fines, having a spotless criminal record, and pledging to learn English. Bush and other supporters of these measures argued that such measures are not "amnesty" because the immigrants would have to pay a fine and otherwise acknowledge that they broke the law. But opponents were quick to say that these proposed reforms did constitute amnesty because they enabled people who "jumped the line" ahead of legal immigration applicants to stay in the United States. A complicating factor in the debate over illegal immigrantsand whether to deport them or give them amnestyis the fact that many are parents of U.S. citizens. The U.S. Constitution holds that all people born in the United States are citizens, regardless of the status of their parents. For some, this constitutes a reason to grant amnesty to some illegal immigrants. But others contend that this is yet another reason why so many people seek to come to the United States illegally. Some illegal-immigration opponents have proposed amending the Constitution to require that at least one parent be a U.S. citizen or legal resident, but such proposals have not as of 2010 attained a vote of either house of Congress, much less ratification by the states, which is required to amend the Constitution. Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2010 Gale, Cengage Learning.

Source Citation: "Illegal Immigrants." Current Issues: Macmillian Social Science Library. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 22 Nov. 2010. Document URL http://165.173.252.121:2616/ic/ovic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow? displayGroupName=K12-Reference&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=GAL E%7C00000000LVX6&documentId=GALE%7CPC3021900088&mode=view&userGroupN ame=morekcmetroccpv&jsid=95fd36bbf36a74d3a6cded622c12e786 Gale Document Number: GALE|PC3021900088