Immigration in the United States Should Be Legal

Categories: Illegal Immigration Immigration Immigration In The Us

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Have you ever asked yourself where you originate from? Undocumented immigrants have always played am essential role in the United States economy and Immigration has been a controversial topic to discuss in the United States for many years now. Majority of these immigrants are workers that are competent and well qualified humans who pay taxes and contribute to American well-being. Some illegal immigrants have come to the United States in many ways such as through the Mexican Border or entering legally through a visit visa that they overstay and then they become what we call illegal status.

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The main argument on allowing illegal immigration in the United States is that many argue it will provide the local economy with cost benefits as the illegal immigrants are not paid high wages but still perform productively. The other side argues that illegal immigrants do not pay taxes and their employers also do not pay their taxes since most cases state they pay them “under the table” unless they have a fake Social Security which is also a crime.

My goal is to provide you with facts that will be relevant to support my stand on allowing millions of undocumented immigrants to be allowed to live in the United States without the fear of getting deported.

History of Immigration in America

Let’s begin to look back at the History of how immigration arose in the United States. Unless you have already done the popular Ancestry DNA kit test and were able to trace back and get an idea of your own family history tree, it is hard to know where we all originated from at point A.

The history of immigration in the United States can be dated back to the 1500’s, this is when the West battled with the Spanish. It was around this time, that the Americans had been settled by the Indians. This proves that the immigration history began then and has lasted until our present today. In 1880 and 1920, just about twenty-four million outsiders went to the United States. They left their countries for America for better compensations, religious flexibility, and an opportunity to improve everyday life. Due to neediness, no future, and different separation in their countries, the momentum to leave was expanding. Amid the mid-1800s and mid-1900s, the work and ranch turn in Eastern Europe were procuring around 15 to 30 dailies. In America, they earned from 50 pennies to 1 dollar a day multiplying their compensation check. We are still experiencing this story with undocumented immigrants from all over the world.

As I previously mentioned, The United States has always been a country full of immigrants from all over the world. Immigration plays a huge factor in today’s politics and economic growth for the United States. Many come to pursue a career goal, find better jobs and provide for their families from lack of support in their own country whether it be economical or political reasons. We have seen this topic in the media more so now than ever due to the politics surrounding our current President. I have seen the opposing side chanting to get rid of any support the current government system has on illegal immigrants and I have seen the people in need fighting to obtain citizenship or to simply keep their DACA status as they are about to graduate with a Master’s degree and removing DACA would send them back to their country.

This led me to ask myself, why do people stand up for what they believe in? I think the reason is that people have a strong connection or experience in them that makes them fight for justice or equality in the situation they encounter. They feel they need to stand up and fight for what is right. There have been many people in history that have stood up and protested peacefully to try to change the situation and world. In the case of illegal immigration and fair and equal pay for farm workers and all immigrants, I can thank Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta who paved that way for millions of hard-working illegal immigrants coming to seek a job and better life. I do believe that with the error of one person, this idea of justice and equality ruins it all. Immigrants are seen as negative as soon as something viral happens and it put all over the news.

In my visitation to Elena Rivas immigration office in Concord, I saw a man who had his family in Mexico that he sends money to every paycheck so they can live off the very little he sends while still being able to pay rent and food here. Immediately my heart and mind were angry. I started to question him and myself on many things I had not even thought about before. Here I had in front of me a hardworking man, with paint all over his clothes, hair and hands. He was tired by the look in his eyes, yet he was at Elena’s to try to come up with a solution on his immigration status to be able to one day bring over his wife and kids. I asked myself, how can he go months without seeing them? My dad who was with me said, months? People go years without being able to see their loved ones all in order to be here and send money as the opportunities here are worth sacrificing your family. I let that sink in and it was then that I knew I needed to participate in anything I could to help. There had to be a better way for those going through the same thing.

Through my own personal experiences, I have found out that I am an activist, that inside me that wants to find a solution to this all but know it will not be easy. I started to protest on May 1 2006, La Gran Marcha (May Day). (“2006 United States Immigration Reform Protests.”) I was in the 6th grade and at just 11 years old I knew this was huge and it had to be done. We were primarily standing up for “A day without Immigrants”. This was to show the United States how much of an impact hard working immigrant make on the daily. Whether it was to support farm field workers, Latin restaurants or any restaurant in general since mostly Latino’s work as dishwashers or cooks, it didn’t matter we all came together as one to march in importance of this topic. It was one of the best experiences of my life and I thank my parents for allowing me to experience something that went down in History.

I believe that “Immigrants Have Enriched American Culture and Enhanced Our Influence in the World” like Daniel Griswold mentions in his article. An issue to this is that there is a still a quite large amount of U.S. citizens who believe contrary and vote for the rights of the immigrants to be taken away and or limited to. We see protests from both sides arguing for a border wall and we see citizens fighting to keep DACA for friends and loved ones as well as active precipitants. Each side seems to be equal in numbers and this topic has never found a true solution due to that.

Immigrants play a huge part of the United States Agriculture and Farm Labor. From the Cesar Chavez movement to present day we see an increasing number of farm workers being immigrants and work tiring hours to provide fresh fruit or vegetables to the American household every day. According to “Economic Impact of Immigration.” American Farm Bureau Federation - The Voice of Agriculture, Agriculture needs anywhere from 1.5 -2 million hired workers. These jobs are the positions that no United States citizen wants due to the minimum pay and tiring hours.

According to (“5 Facts about Illegal Immigration in the U.S.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center) There were 10.7 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. in 2016, representing 3.3% of the total U.S. population that year. The 2016 unauthorized immigrant total is a 13% decline from the peak of 12.2 million in 2007, when this group was 4% of the U.S. population. These numbers are crucial to the understanding of how large this topic is and how big of an impact it will make if the government ever decides to end it all and not allow any form of immigration to stay for a long period of time.

“The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) is a law in the United States of America that pertains to the policies and regulations regarding employment. This law was enacted in 1986 for various reasons, which includes the fact that many illegal employees work in the United States. The two main requirements of the IRCA include: “(1) to hire only persons authorized to work in the United States and (2) to not discriminate on the basis of citizenship status or national origin” (LMD 1992). For any company to hire a person, they must complete an I-9 form and prove accurate authorization to work in the United States. This can be a passport, a work permit and or Social Security card. I support this immigration reform and have hope the United States can help those in need so they can be done in the right way. This will not be an easy task to define, but I will always have faith our United States system will be fair. Whether a class be required to obtain a work permit or become a United States citizen for a Social Security card, this can help both sides of the spectrum to keep an organized way of allowing jobs to be fulfilled by immigrants coming to seek a better life.

I have done a SWOT analysis to compare facts and data on why the United States should have a steady implemented plan to allow illegal immigrants a permit to work. I first came up with some Strengths for the U.S., having immigrants’ workers here with a low rate labor versus outsourcing and importing goods can benefit profitability. Another strength is that immigrants are coming with a dream in mind to want something better for themselves and for a future that their native country could not offer to them. Knowing that, it will be a good ROI for any farmers to have loyal workers and invest money and time in training them. These employers already have the biggest advantage knowing they are at the best place they can be and will ever be. They searched for this opportunity coming here and will take full advantage of any work whether it be the hardest thing they have ever done, it is better than where they were before. They will perform at their very best each day as they are grateful you chose them to work and are making more than they will if they were still back at home. The main Weaknesses are that they can potentially be unreliable and could leave to their country at any given time. They can also get deported if they over stay a work permit. It will be hard to track every single person who will come into the United States and their time frame staying if they move states or jobs they report they are at. The Opportunities for the United States would be to welcome them in and give them a fair opportunity and chance. Provide programs such as the DACA to give qualified people a social security number and let them work and pay taxes just like a citizen does normally. Allowing them to go get an education and basically paying a “membership” of two years keeps all their accurate information files stored and will help track anything if needed by the government. This will secure both sides and more economic growth for the United States. A follow up with the employers who are employing them would be to a benefit. They can give report like messages to the government based on performances and that will allow to weave out any potential people who are coming for the wrong reasons. Threats to the United States can be too many people coming to the United States leads to overpopulation and overcrowd of people. No thorough background checks can lead to allowing criminals from another country come in and do the same crimes.

There is so much evidence that shows that immigrants provide significant economic benefits. Like Ian Goldin wrote in his Article “How Immigration Has Changed the World – for the Better”,” Some believe that immigrants take jobs and destroy economies. Evidence proves this wrong. In the United States, immigrants have been founders of companies such as Google, Intel, PayPal, eBay, and Yahoo! In fact, skilled immigrants account for over half of Silicon Valley start-ups and over half of patents, even though they make up less than 15% of the population. There have been three times as many immigrants Nobel Laureates, National Academy of Science members, and Academy Award film directors than the immigrant share of the population would predict. Research at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco concluded that “immigrants expand the economy’s productive capacity by stimulating investment and promoting specialization, which produces efficiency gains and boosts income per worker”.

I enjoyed reading Goldin’s article, since I was born in San Francisco and my father has been working in San Francisco for over 20 years this just made sense to me. We are surrounded by some of the largest companies in the world in the Bay Area and people often do not think that some of those companies were actually started by immigrants. They are people just like anyone who saw an opportunity and took the risk to follow a dream.

Having said that, I would like to talk about my father, Ricardo. He is a Mexican Immigrant who came 30 years ago to the United States in hopes to find a better paying job. He was just eighteen years old, freshly graduated from Highschool in Mexico and knew he wanted to pursue a better life than anything that was there for him. Him and a friend decided to take a bus from Guadalajara to the Tijuana border which was about 12 hours long and cross the border into the United States. My father did have a tourist visa but his friend did not, so she choose to go through this experience with him. They walked the dessert all night and had barely eat nor drank any water for twenty-four hours. When it was sunrise and they crossed the border into the United States, my father explains every second of his experience still as he mentions it will always be fresh in his mind and all those who went through that same struggle as he did. I also think about his strong decision and feel that I would have not had the courage to do so now to another country. He felt as if he had his whole life was now guaranteed and was ready for more hard work and sacrifices to be a United States citizen. He married my mother, a US citizen and then began working at Recology Recycling in San Francisco (Recology). Since 1992 he has been surrounded by coworkers who also had the same path he did to get to where is at today. He started getting paid $8.00 an hour climbing steep San Francisco Hills and learned how to speak words in Italian as the CEO is also Italian, Michael J. (Mike) Sangiacomo. He has since now gained the knowledge of three languages, job skills he wouldn’t have in his native country and became an entrepreneur with the income he has earned over the years. He owns apartments and tries to help out low income families that have barely enough to get by with, so they have a roof. This would have never been possible had he stayed in Mexico.

Like my father’s story, there are thousands more who share the same passion and love for this country. Humans who come to The United States to be a better citizen each day, contribute to taxes and pay respect to the laws. I do believe strongly and firmly about the positive impact immigrants contribute to the United States and that without this movement we would not have the beauty of the diversity we have. If you are in a room of 10 people, it has been said that more than half have parents who were born in another country. This is so impactful to the decisioning on how important immigrants are in the United States.

In my family, my older sister was the first to graduate with her Bachelors and become a teacher. She has been teaching for four years now and is a bi-lingual 5th grade teacher. All of her students are Spanish speakers and she teaches half the class in Spanish and the other in English. I asked her why they allow that and she said this is how the human brain works. Having the knowledge of two languages makes the brain function at a higher speed of retaining information and new materials being taught. She tells me that majority of their parents are working in landscaping, house-keeping or in restaurants and are the most responsible parents she has worked with. They follow up with any concerns she has with her students and make sure they are respectful in class and outside of class. My sister claims this is because the parents understand the importance of education and although they were not lucky enough to have the opportunity their children do, they will do whatever it takes to make sure they are on top of every assignment until they get accepted to a college and become first generation. This is relatable to my sister and I as we are also first generation and do not take anything for granted in regards to education.

I would also like to discuss another personal experience and mainly why this topic means a lot to me. I work for a cosmetic manufacturing lab (Jova Beauty) where about fifty something employees work ten-hour shifts packing up finished goods. Ninety nine percent of employees are Latin American. Each employee has a story about coming to the United States to seek a better opportunity. They accept minimum wage jobs that require high attention to detail, standing on their feet for long periods of time, bending over to pack and count product and they perform with grace. As the long days come to an end, I step back and admire each of them for having a smile on their face and never complaining to me or my upper management.

One employee, who I will refer to by the name Jane told me her story about crossing the border from El Salvador to Mexico and then to the United States with her four-year-old daughter and a small suit case. She took a train from El Salvador to Mexico and experienced local polices taking over the train to steal the little people had to cross over. A man tried to stand up for his personal belongings and he was shot in the leg and kicked off the train. She explained that she believed that was her last day of life. She tells me she has a small studio about forty-five minutes from our office and she pays more than she makes in a two-week check. I asked her how she felt about it and she said she just feels thankful to the United States for offering her a job that although is minimum pay here, it is much more than she would have ever made in El Salvador if she would have stayed back. She said she also feels protected and secure knowing while she is at work ten hours a day, her daughter is getting a type of education she would have never been exposed to and that she is going to be prepared for a better adult life than she had.

Stories like “Jane’s” really opens your eyes to things we take for granted and do not stop and think about being born in the United States and being a citizen since birth. It is a deep and crucial moment when any person has to stop their life in their native country and realize that they have reached a dead end. An end where they feel trapped and feel the only escape would be coming to a country of equal opportunity and advances. Who would want to leave their established life, routine and comfort knowing they will have to face all challenges against them? These challenges will include questions like how will I get there, how will I communicate in a foreign language, where will I leave and how will I adapt to a new job? When the opposing side to immigration understands that deep, intense, black moment that made a person want to pursue a new life elsewhere, I think that peace and understanding would join the controversial topic together.

I think about my father and Jane’s story and ask myself what and where they would be now had they not taken the risk to come to the United States years ago. I can guarantee they would be struggling more than they do presently working long days to be able to pay rent with a minimum paying job and juggling the rest of the bills we all do. My father starts work at 3 am and drives 45 minutes each way. Meaning he wakes up at 2 am and is home sometimes until 2 pm. I ask him why he has stuck to a job with that demanding schedule for so long and he says he wouldn’t change it for anything else. I also asked Jane and she says at least here she has a car where in her country she had to walk everywhere she wanted to go. These small details are things that I being born and raised here do not naturally think about.

It is so important because we hear about it almost every day as well on the news with political parties reasoning with one side and other parties fighting for the opposite. We are seeing rights being taken away and people speaking out for them more and more. I do not believe the United States will ever be able to completely get rid of all immigrants and programs that have been put in place. We need the help, the people and all they bring with them to make our country progress one day at a time.

To conclude, I will continue to be active in marches to stand up for a better solution for undocumented immigrants coming to seek a better life. I have faith in the United States that has seen me grow up to be a hard-working citizen just like they are wanting to become. We have a lot ahead of us and will still need to fight harder but the power of unity and of peace overcomes anything that will stand in the way. Allowing illegal immigrants to work in the United States will always bring positive outcomes.