Non-working American citizens or legal immigrants
According to the U.S. Bureau of Census, “As of 2017, there are more than 11.3 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States, making up 3.4% of the total population” (Severe). And around 10 million of them participate in the U.S. workforce, contributing a significant amount to the overall GDP of the United States. Undocumented immigrants accept even low-wage jobs compared to what their skills are. These have resulted in positive net benefit to the U.S. economy during the last two decades of the 20th century. These low-wage workers simultaneously generated a redistribution of wealth from low- to high-skilled native-born workers.
Also, “If non-working American citizens or legal immigrants fill the jobs void at the current wage rate, prices in these industries would remain relatively constant, and the switch from undocumented immigrants to legal taxpayers could boost U.S. tax revenues” (Edsall). Out of all the multiple benefits they have had on the U.S. economy, undocumented immigrants pose a huge threat to the taxpayers. As Congress debates the contours of immigration reform, many arguments have been made on economic grounds.
Education and health care
Undocumented workers, some suggest, undercut wages and take jobs that would otherwise go to Americans. “Worse, the argument goes, many use social programs, like hospitals and schools, that cost taxpayers and add to our $16 trillion national debt” (Davidson). Undocumented immigrants pose a threat to state and local tax burdens. They continue to use education, health care and other welfare benefits under the state and local tax payers. Labor economists have concluded that undocumented workers have “lowered the wages of U.S. adults without a high-school diploma by anywhere between 0.4 to 7.4 percent” (Edsall).
Though undocumented immigrants, pose a risk to the economy, but they also contribute to the overall GDP of the nation, and thus contributing to the welfare of the nation. Most undocumented immigrants are seen taking jobs of a driller and plumber, because those are the jobs that rare American adults would like to take up, for obvious reasons of low growth rates. They play a huge role in developing the community, and thus contributing to the nation as a whole. They take up menial works, that lacks prestige, as most American adults in the workforce feel ashamed of. If mass deportation occurs, “most of the jobs they leave behind will be unskilled, such as farmworkers who pick produce, or construction workers in the housing sector. Additionally, California, Florida, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, and Texas will have the largest losses, as these six states contain the majority of unauthorized immigrants” (Severe).
Congress in the United States
During the Trump campaign, he promised to have restrictions over the immigrants and assured the citizens and taxpayers of the United States that they will no longer suffer the insights and effects of the immigrants. As a result, he brought in strict policies and is propelling the congress to pass the budget for the wall between U.S. and Mexico, and is continuing to support the ideology of mass deportation. So, the question arises that how would the undocumented immigrants affect the U.S. economy? Is mass deportation a solution to this, or should they be made legal citizens of the United States? Policymakers and Congress in the United States have been analyzing the benefit and the cost of illegal immigrants.
Extremely important is the evaluation of its impact in the labor sector. Analysts estimates, “that between two and five million, out of 11.3 million undocumented immigrants, participates in the U.S. workforce” (Grossman 240). The American government is keen to put restrictions on the illegal immigrants, because they are afraid that they will take place of the growing American teens who has increasing rates of high school dropouts. More often, American high school dropouts look for a job, but due to the increasing population of the illegal immigrants who end up taking their job, feel insecure and unsafe in sharing the same place of work. It is assumed that because of enforced minimum-wage legislation, the wages paid to domestic undocumented workers are fixed at a level greater than the market clearing price, thereby creating unemployment.
Domestic skilled and immigrant labor
The wages of both domestic skilled and immigrant labor are flexible and experts estimates that undocumented unskilled workers are earning less money in compared to the American adults working the same number of hours. Thus, the wages of immigrants can fall below the legal floor. More simply stated, the unskilled immigrants ends up taking the less prestigious job and are getting paid less than compared to what their skills are.People in the United States interprets the undocumented immigrants in two competing ways.
One is the popular image of immigrants as culprits, powered by a handful of studies and advanced by those calling for restrictions on immigration. The other way is a common sense recognition of illegal immigrants as contributors to the U.S. economy, as estimated by many economists. Those calling for restrictions on immigration claims they pose a huge threat to the taxpayers. Those claiming argues that immigrants have a fiscal impact on the public sector, and estimates that immigrants consume more in public services, such as health care, infrastructure, education, thea they contribute in taxes.
Pros of migrants to the United States
The popular image of immigrants have been such that people are not ready to believe the way economists have to think. “ Immigrants are generally understood to contribute more in taxes than they consume in public services” (Hing 78). They are proved to be more motivated to success, of young age and dynamic towards their work. They are a self-selected group saturated with work ethic, having a few children and come without any age factors, and thus producing more than what they consume. Of course one might not completely agree to the fact that all immigrants are motivational workers. But regardless of all the concerns, the fact is that most immigrants are young, of working age, and motivational workers towards success.
Throughout its history, United States of America has been a land of immense opportunities. It is a dream of many to reside in this great nation. While some manage to do so, few of them reside illegally. They secretly migrate to and reside, and the United States is held accounted for all their shortcomings. Regardless of laws, unauthorized immigrants continue to migrate to the United States. As a result, today, there reside millions of “illegal immigrants” with the benefit of free education, public services and most importantly, healthcare. People believe that America should not continue to take care of the expenses of these immigrants. They believe that these undocumented immigrants must not receive social security. But, most illegal immigrants pay federal and state taxes, live in areas where most Americans would not reside, and work at undesirable jobs with less prestige and relatively low wages.
Thus, economists believe that there should not be any questions regarding the pivotal role of undocumented immigrants towards the U.S. economy. Illegal immigrants, when migrate to the U.S., realize that in order to generate a consistent income they must secure a job. Since, most possess unique and limited skills they are willing to take up jobs that most Americans reject. Employers in domestic service jobs, custodial and construction industries readily accept these skills, because the undocumented immigrants even accept lower wages.
The Federal Reserve
Employers in these industries are unwilling to pay Americans the appropriate wages to do these jobs when they can get twice as much labor from the undocumented immigrants at half the salary. Most believe that immigrants take up job, that the American citizens deserve. And statistically, “The Federal Reserve also has issued a report noting that of the 9.7 million jobs added to the U.S. economy between 1996 and 2012, 5.6 million of them were filled by foreign-born workers” (Porter 69).
These inexperienced migrant workers, who are repeatedly paid lower wages, are not only take advantage of, but have become a blaming community for the American government. If anything goes wrong, government directly blames it to the undocumented immigrants community, and continue to prove that they impose a huge threat to the nation. Another major related problem to undocumented immigrants is free health care. Most nations wonder why America’s healthcare cost increase steadily each year. American government believe that the increasing population of the undocumented immigrants, who receive free medicare, the cost of the overall healthcare increases and is taken out of the pocket from the taxpayers.
Paying for medical services
One reason is also that Americans are paying for medical services provided to illegal immigrants. While many Americans without health insurance struggle to pay for medical care, many illegal immigrants do not share this concern. Even today, the American government faces challenges in sharing their opinion on whether the undocumented immigrants should receive social security?
The debate is expected to rage over the U.S. government for the upcoming few years. Five decades after the end of World War II, the United States have seen numerous changes for racial and immigration policy, while the problem of inequality has endured. Immigration has had a very large impact on American society since the 1960s, and “most especially it has increased the diversity of the nonwhite population of the United States. In 1990 7.9% of the US population was foreign born.
The 19.8 million foreign-born people in the United States is the largest number in US history” (Waters and Eschbach 420). The undocumented immigrants who manage to get their backgrounds check, survive through the security check, and finally receive a token to stay in the United States, face number of challenges on their way after being announced as a U.S. citizen. Those illegal immigrants are officially U.S. citizens only on paper. They still lack their rights and needs to survive on a seperate law framed by the government specially for those immigrants who are bound to become U.S. citizens legally. They continue to protest for their rights. One kind of these events took place on the streets of downtown Houston, on 01 May 2016. While Houston TV was unfolding the whole event live for their channel, they manage to capture an interview from an immigrant, Juan Ching. He was one of those furious protesters that had the loudest voice and was one of the lead protesters, according to the reports from Houston TV.
Asking for equal rights
When the reporter of Houston TV station, Jim Moore, asked him “Why did you come?”. Juan Ching replied “For work. I can earn as much in a month as I could in a year in Mexico. Besides, I get free health care, our Mexican children can go to school free, if I lose my job I will get Welfare, and someday I will have the Social Security. Nothing like that in Mexico!” (Juan Ching, Interview, Web. 2016). After that disappointing answer from Juan, he added that “I have a right to be here. I have a right to amnesty. I have the right to pursue happiness” (Juan Ching, Interview, Web. 2016).
Hearing those annoyed statements from Juan, Jim Moore asked him “What rights are you talking about?”. Juan Ching anxiously replied “I just want my rights! Everyone has a right to live, work, and speak their native language wherever and whenever they please. That’s another thing we demand” (Juan Ching, Interview, Web. 2016). From this interview, that went viral over the news channel, the economists conclude that the laws regarding immigration requires immediate attention, and it requires some serious changes that would allow immigrants to reside in the United States, without any inequality and have their rights equal to the American citizens.
President Trump and Congress
Thus, even after being an American citizen legally, immigrants face lack of opportunities and the respect from the community.Who deserves to be granted a U.S. citizenship? It is a question that former President Obama, current President Trump and Congress are trying to answer. It’s an issue that the United States is grappling with since the country’s earliest days. The founding fathers of the constitution states “People who immigrated and spent years building lives in this country deserved citizenship” (Cohen).
Today’s complex visa system and length wait times, which sometimes extends from 10 to 20 years, stray from these roots. For those who can outlast the lengthy wait for legal status and citizenship, another hurdle exists: processing visas, the cost of sponsorship, and any fines potentially levied on aspiring citizens. During the 18th century, there were no illegal immigrants in the United States. Experts believe, “For the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the United States illegally, a pathway to legal residency can be hard to come by” (Tiernan). The supreme court, in the past, have heard many hearings on whether the illegal immigrants be granted citizenship. In the eighteenth century, the United States faced a far more noxious threat than those who crossed a border without inspection.
British Loyalists
They were the British Loyalists, who had take up arms and ammunition to raise their voice against the American revolutionaries. Their actions were unforgivable, but they still sought citizenship, and made up approximately 20 percent of the population. The court stated that, because the former Loyalists resided in the United States, while the states were debating and ratifying the Constitution, they were qualified for citizenship. This and later decisions showed how, over time, the country exercised reason and consent to create citizenship – even allowing the original sin of fighting against the formation of the nation to be forgiven. It was vital to the founders that the probationary period be brief and apply identically to all undocumented immigrants, irrational of race, ethnicity and color.
While the first Congress of the United States had to protect our fragile young democracy from monarchs and kings, and people from conservative regimes, today legislators fear that immigrants are taking American jobs and violating immigration procedures. Ultimately, the founders recognized that they needed to avoid re-creating the circumstances that led us to rebel against the British in the first place: taxation without representation. Many people are afraid that naturalizing undocumented immigrants as permanent workers who have lived here for years will conquer our immigration laws.
Selling legal status
We might learn from the example of our founders, who conquered a far greater fear when they gave citizenship to former Loyalists and created rules for naturalizing new immigrants. Selling legal status only to people who can afford high fees and legal expenses doesn’t make our border-control and immigration laws stronger. It makes them unfair. When the issue of crossing the border from one nation to another country illegally came into the attention of the government, how can they not take action!
The Obama administration has strengthened immigration enforcement more than the George W. Bush administration did, reaching most of the goals laid out in a 2007 immigration bill. Despite this, United States citizens find themselves no closer to living in a country of political equals. And how could the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, would be out of the limelight? Donald Trump thought of the most innovative idea of securing the border between Houston, Texas and Mexico, covering a distance of 1,900 miles with a $33 Billion dollar wall.
These walls will prevent undocumented immigrants from Mexico to cross the border illegally. But it seems that congress are not sharing the same concern as Donald Trump. Congress are lacking behind in expressing their thoughts about this national debate. In the present situation, if an individual is caught crossing a border without proper documentation, they are kept into custody and are given a court date in order to prove their crime. The court date is set months from the actual date of the individual was kept in custody.
Illegal immigration in the United States in 1980
For that amount of time, it is senseless and expensive to keep those immigrants. So the government releases them back into their nation and asks them to be back before the court date. But who wants to get themselves into dirt. Statistics believe that only 2% of those people have ever returned. So, to complete this pothole, “President Trump issued a memorandum directing his administration to move quickly to bring an end to ‘catch and release,’ the practice by which immigrants presenting themselves at the border without authorization are released from detention while waiting for their cases to be processed” (Davis).
After a wait for almost an year, the U.S. government took pace in order to sanction strict and unforgivable immigration laws, to prevent the immigrants to enter the nation without proper documentation. In 1980, illegal immigration in the United States was far from the overwhelming challenge it is today. A continually growing population of illegal immigrants, along with the federal government’s ineffective efforts to secure our borders, present significant national security and public safety threats to the United States. They also have a severely negative impact on the nation’s taxpayers at the local, state, and national levels. Illegal immigration costs Americans billions of dollars each year. Having said that, “the economic benefits of offering citizenship to undocumented immigrants are quite high” (Mayer).
Center for American Progress
Economists documents that a country would enjoy significant economic gains by providing legal status to undocumented immigrants. They are the people that not only contribute to the growth of the economy and GDP through employment and paying of taxes but also through purchasing various products and creating demand for them. These exchanges allows the government to increase their import and export business, and also benefit to the relations between nations. Thus, when they gain legal status, they afford to get an education that increases their work skills and abilities to get a better job; which translates into increased taxes and consumption rates.
Consequently, according to Center for American Progress, “the country’s GDP would enjoy a growth of 1.4 trillion dollars in ten years if they receive legal status” making it a worthy step to take (Raley and O’Brien). Thus, the government must show some respect and give them the treatment of dignity that they deserve, by providing them legal status and rights equal to the American citizen.States rely on undocumented immigrants so much that they should provide them legal status and bring them to light to continue the progress of the nation.
The Department of Labor
The Department of Labor estimates that more than seven million workers are unregistered immigrants. Numerous sectors of the U.S. primarily depend on them to provide services and assistance. Citizens also depend on them to maintain their treasuries and valuable artifacts. Therefore, it is accurate to say that without this community, the country would suffer appalling disadvantages. Immigrant individuals deserve to enjoy the very rights that the founding fathers fought for. Despite their entry through the breaking of the immigration law, they have spent time in the United States building their own house, paying taxes, and maintaining discipline by upholding the law.
These individuals have demonstrated the qualities of honesty, cohesion, and a fruitful contribution to the national good. According to the founding fathers, “People who immigrated and spent years building lives in this country deserved citizenship” (Cohen). Legalization for all is essential to the success of a country. The legalization of eleven million immigrants in the United States will boost the economy while attempting to deteriorating them back denies them the essential rights introduced by the founding fathers. For all these multiple benefits that they offer, few disadvantages can be overlooked and neglected. Thus, undocumented immigrants benefit the U.S. economy in a positive way and have been an asset in contributing to the society as well as the nation.
