Unit 1
Immigration
In 2014, there were 11.3 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States, accounting for 3.5% of the U.S. population. To many, this number is appalling, and they would like a change to occur in the U.S. immigration policy. Although the number may seem high, these unauthorized immigrants make up 5.1% of the U.S. work force. Again, this could be considered a good or a bad thing depending on who is asked. Most employers don’t mind it because illegal immigrants are willing to work for less, most times doing jobs that are unpleasant, and labor intensive. Others claim that they are stealing jobs that belong to Americans. Another question to be asked though is: are most Americans actually willing to do the jobs that the immigrants are doing, like working in hot fields all day for less than minimum wage?
These questions and many others are being vigorously debated upon between the candidates for the 2016 presidential race. It is especially a hot topic on the republican side. In November 2014, President Obama announced new executive actions to stop the deportation of millions of illegal immigrants. Republican front runner, Donald Trump, has a completely different plan. His proposed plan includes the deportation of all undocumented immigrants living in the U.S., and building a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border. Deportation has been somewhat favored in the Republican Party, but they also realize that this would be a very unrealistic reality. Many people believe that there should be a change to the 14th Amendment of the Constitution and ban birthright citizenship. This notion, and the notion of building a wall are more highly favored by most Americans than complete deportation. Another solution being debated is that of legal status. Changing millions of peoples’ status from illegal to legal would obviously get rid of the millions of illegal immigrants in the U.S., but Republicans are also worried that that would imply that illegal behavior is encouraged.
Another way to combat illegal immigration that has come up is to eliminate the pull factor. Many Mexicans flee to America because it’s close, but also because most of the time the laws aren’t enforced, and it’s easy for them to stay. They can use a fake social security number to obtain a job, they start a life, and after a while it’s no longer relevant that they are an illegal immigrant. Instead of making a bunch of changes to already existing policies, why don’t we just enforce them? The use of electronic detection systems to stop the use of fraudulent social security numbers has been proven successful and could be used more often. If immigrants know that they could be caught and there would actually be consequences, they might not be as eager to come.
However,
regardless of immigrants’ legal status, it’s undeniable that they play a big
role in America’s success; socially, economically, and culturally. There may not be an obvious right or wrong
way to deal with the current immigration situation in the United States, but we
will definitely be seeing some changes in the near future.
Sources:
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/24/5-facts-about-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s/
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/08/24/what-americans-want-to-do-about-illegal-immigration/
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/One-Minute-Debate-3-Views/2012/0924/3-views-on-how-US-should-combat-illegal-immigration/Another-way-Enforce-the-law-provide-amnesty-at-a-price-and-be-choosier-about-who-gets-in
