What are the Effects of Illegal Immigration?

The United States of America is facing many challenges in regards to illegal immigration. By draining public funds, creating unfair competition for jobs (thereby lowering wages and working conditions), and by imposing unwanted strains on services designed to provide assistance to Americans, illegal immigration causes harm to legal residents. We are one of the only countries in the world where, in your stay, you retain many benefits, and are taken care of while you're here. Countless amount of people believe the majority of illegal immigrants emerge from Mexico, while studies show that most of the visa overstays come from various countries whose residents are here staying illegally from everywhere around the world.

There are many cases that involve people being killed by illegal immigrants. If an American citizen commits an assault, a battery, or murder, they will go to jail. The issue is that many illegal immigrants who do commit crimes are not sent to jail, but are deported back to their home country where they can return and commit the crime again. This is a broken illegal immigration system no matter how you look at it and it needs to be fixed.

There are more than ten million undocumented aliens currently living in the United States. The illegal immigration rate is growing by seven hundred thousand per year. There are many ways a person can be classified as an illegal immigrant. One way is a person who is undocumented or unauthorized to be in the United States. An undocumented immigrant is someone who is foreign born and doesn't have a legal right to be or stay in this country. This includes people with legal visas that are no longer valid. Many undocumented immigrants have come here at one point legally, either as a tourist or with a temporary visa, and failed to leave once their time was up. Another way a person will enter illegally is by fraudulent entry. This method involves having altered or false documents such as passports, travel documents, visas, diplomas, birth and or marriage certificates. There are also some illegal immigrants who enter the United States using a border crossing card. This is a card that authorizes border crossing into the US for a limited amount of time. It is an identity document which allows entry to predominantly Mexican citizens that are shown with a Mexican passport. Overall, the most common means of illegal entry is crossing over the border. Some individuals will attempt to cross over by themselves either by boat or over a wall. Others seek to hire what some may call people smugglers. People smuggling is also known as human smuggling. This is when legals are hired to attempt the transport of an illegal entry of a person across a border. This practice has risen over the past few decades and today accounts for a large portion of irregular immigration around the world. For the most part, occurs with the consent of the person being smuggled. Some reasons why an individual will seek to be smuggled is for economic and employment opportunities as well as a better life or escape from prosecution.

Many people want change in our illegal immigration system, but don't know the steps to take in making this change. After speaking with Officer Miranda, a police officer located in the 111 precinct, I was very well informed about this issue and was able to gather the information I needed to form solutions for this problem. When I spoke about the problem to Officer Miranda,he brought to my attention that his station has been receiving many reports regarding crimes committed by illegal aliens. Some of these crimes include rape, robbery, and even murder. When I mentioned that I am a resident here on Long Island, he didn't hesitate to warn me of the dangers of Ms 13, who consists of illegal immigrants. He informed me of the fact that in Brentwood on long island, four teenagers between the ages of fifteen and nineteen were found dead in September of this year. Officer Miranda stated that they were all victims of MS-13, having perhaps relation to illegal immigration. They may have been entirely innocent as well in fact, in the last six years on Long Island, as many as 30 murders have been attributed to MS-13, with cases of innocent people being caught in crossfire or being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He believes this is a big problem in our Country because instead of being sent to jail, they are deported back to their original Country. To some people, this may sound ideal; however, it is only giving the illegal immigrants another chance to come back and commit these crimes again. According to Officer Miranda, neighborhoods are increasingly becoming unsafe and citizens are seeking other places to live. The many illegal immigrants staying in these areas are detrimental to our economy because they are working off the books and not paying taxes, therefore don't contribute to the system.

I suppose that one of the most crucial steps in resolving this issue is strengthening our Border Security which is essential to homeland security, economic prosperity, and national sovereignty. This will protect our borders from the illegal movement of weapons, drugs, contraband, and people. Another possible solution for this situation, which is being highly debated right now, is to reduce the number of illegal immigrants by deportation. It's a simple process; you would first go where illegal immigrants are, then you arrest them. And finally, you deport them. To many, this solution might seem unrealistic because, as stated before, if you were to deport them, it's likely they'd keep coming back.

The alternate idea is to make illegals self deport. This means to make life for illegal immigrants harder to live by, enabling them to see that life in their original country is the better option. This will prompt them to leave the country voluntarily. One example of this would be to ask for proof of citizenship before receiving health treatment, or simply implementing tougher employment terms since they primarily are seeking employment. Many are in complete support of this proposed solution, as they believe it's the answer to reducing the number of illegals who have entered and are entering the country. I believe that making life as hard as possible for the illegal immigrants is the best step to remove them from the country. Contrary to the above solution, one other way to reduce the number of illegal immigrants is to create a new or better job program.

The United States is the land of opportunities, better jobs, better education and better life. Because of this, I believe that's the reason why so many people are migrating in the country. In fact, the main reason why these people flock here is because of jobs. It's only fair to give these people a chance since the only reason these illegals enter the country is to have a better life for themselves and their families. Instead of spending funds, creating a much more effective job program that will open opportunities to illegal immigrant workers would be a better solution for they will no longer have to enter the United States territory illegally. America is the home of immigrants. Throughout time, the entry system of the country has been broken, hence why many illegals could enter. Not all illegal immigrants sneak or swim across the border. As said before, as many as half of them arrive with legal documents, including passport and visa that permit them to enter the U.S. territory. When their visas expire, they simply do not leave the country and therefore become illegal aliens. This is the main issue because it's easy for them to get away with since the government doesn't have strict rules when it comes to tracking people who overstay in the country. The government should implement a better system that will effectively track down people who overstay their visas. Even if this means spending more funds and hiring more people, the government should push it in order to stop illegal immigration.

Another solution is to implement stricter immigration rules including interviews, background checks, verification of employment, and so on. Until the government and other responsible agencies start implementing better visa programs, it's almost impossible for us to eliminate this illegal immigration problem. The main reason why most come and remain here is because they believe that it is the place of opportunities. In a way, we can't blame them for wanting to receive all the benefits we provide. If the government wants to really put an end to illegal immigration, they should put an end to the practice of immigration rewards. We already know that illegal immigrants come here because of the many rights and privileges we provide them. If we eliminate those benefits, fewer illegals will enter the territory and more will leave voluntarily. Perhaps, one way to finally stop illegal immigration is by pressuring the government to fully enforce immigration laws. The truth is, we need state and local police.

The final possible solution for this complication is legalizing them. While most may think this will only make the problem much worse, as it creates a motivation for illegal aliens to enter the country, I believe that this could be a potential answer to the problem. Immigration benefits our country a lot. It creates more jobs, opens more opportunities, generates more economic revenue, makes the country more productive, makes our economy more flexible, and offers a mix of cultural benefits. We should give these illegal immigrants a chance to live out of their shadow and have a better future. Legalization would allow these people to contribute in our economy through increased workforce, additional taxes, and additional investments.

I believe America was founded on the ideal that every citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. That is the American dream and although somewhere we lost that, those that are mentioned above are only a few of the proposed solutions that could end our problem of illegal immigration. There's no easy way to solve the issue, but we have to do something to finally end it. The most important step is making a move, and from there, we can begin to mend the country and bring back the ideals that it was founded on: culture, diversity, and legal immigration.

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