Thread: Washington College student gets it on illegal immigration!

http://elm.washcoll.edu/past/079/14/weig.php

Volume 79, Issue 14
February 8, 2008
Students Weigh In on Immigration Issues in U.S.
BY PAT CLANCY
Elm Staff Writer

A recent estimate by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) reported that in 2007 there were nearly 38 million immigrants living in the United States, and more than 13 million of them were living here illegally.

It's one of the main issues currently being debated in the Presidential Primaries. Claims have been made that these people are a boost to our economy, fulfilling the jobs that no Americans want. Others have argued that they have brought crime and higher taxes.

"I think illegal immigration is a problem, but you can't be too harsh," said junior Dan Bienemann. "If I was president [in 2008] I would make illegal immigration harder and legal immigration easier."

Sophomore Akin Walker also had something to say. "The truth of the matter is there is not much you can do. The country needs them because they are becoming the backbone of labor in America. The reason why many of these illegal immigrants are coming into the country in the first place is because of impositions of free trade," Walker said.

Immigrants coming into the United States are without a doubt beneficial to the nation. Most of them hold sufficient skills that can enhance commercial businesses. However, illegal immigrants pose a serious threat to our economy. They have also been blamed for higher crime rate, terrorism, health care issues, and environmental problems. Not to mention, they don't have driver's licenses, insurance, or social security.

In 2007, the United State Bureau of Labor reported 6.8 million citizens were unemployed. The fact of the matter is illegal immigrants are being paid small wages to do these jobs, undercutting wages for low-skilled Americans and legal immigrants. Schools and hospitals are being overcrowded along with federal prisons, in which 30 percent of inmates are non-U.S. citizens. According to FAIR, it costs about 65 dollars a day to house an inmate in prisons in the U.S. At that price, taxpayers are paying more than $3 million dollars each day to accommodate them. It is also required by federal law that hospitals provide free emergency health care to illegal immigrants. The cost for hospital reimbursement is more than a billion dollars a year. American born children of illegal immigrants, also known as "anchor babies," cost the American taxpayer approximately $17 billion a year. Our schools also educate their children, costing us more than $12 billion dollars each year.

So when people claim that illegal immigrants help our economy, I have trouble understanding that. How could anyone make that claim when more than 50 percent of them enter the country without a high school education? The problem is only getting worse as more people have been entering the country illegally than those who have been entering legally in the past decade.

Another claim is often made that all illegal immigrants are here to work. I honestly believe that the majority are here for that reason. Wages in Mexico and other Latin American countries can be terribly low, which is usually the main reason they leave. But given the fact that 40 percent of them are on U.S. welfare leads me to believe that many of them aren't advancing.

It amazes me that someone without a U.S. citizenship could benefit from welfare. Although many politicians look at it differently, it's nothing other than amnesty. When people step foot in your country illegally, it is by definition a crime. They are criminals. I don't know of any other way to put it. So when Deval Patrick, Governor of Massachusetts, proposes a plan to provide non-U.S. citizens with driver's licenses, I scratch my head. And then you have Democrat and Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton devising a plan to put more than 12 million illegal aliens on the path to citizenship. Republican Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas and 2008 presidential candidate, wants to allow them to pay in-state tuitions. Immigrants can cross over the border illegally but then have benefits in our nation.

The solution to this problem has been difficult to figure out. Republican and Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has proposed that we build a fence along the U.S. and Mexican border as well as hire new personnel to guard. At this point, I say we do whatever we can to keep illegal immigrants out and put an end to the amnesty.
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