An American border problem: immigration
By: Vincent Pascucci
Posted: 9/10/07
Illegal immigration is a big problem in the United States. Currently the government estimates that there are twelve million illegal immigrants in the US. These immigrants take jobs away from American citizens and also drive wages for Americans doing these jobs way down. This is because illegal immigrants (because they are undocumented) can be paid much lower then minimum wage. It's still more then they made back home. Also, the fine for hiring an illegal immigrant is only $250-$2000 per person. This means that unless a business is caught hiring illegal immigrants within a few weeks, they would save money. The hiring of illegal aliens to inflate a business owner's profits at the expense of American citizens is wrong. Also, the argument that business owners only hire immigrants to do work that Americans won't do is wrong. Americans will do the work if you pay them enough to live middle class lives. We as Americans are blessed with a good economy and can afford to pay our workers a decent wage. Illegal immigrants are threatening to replace lower-middle class American workers, by working for hardly anything. This makes them part of a growing lower class. Ironic, considering the reason that illegal immigrants risk coming here is to get a piece of the American middle class.

In the past, immigrants, when coming to America, came with a goal of integrating into American society. This meant they went through the process of becoming a citizen, learned English, got jobs, and paid taxes. Today's illegal immigrants don't share this attitude. They want to live here but they don't want to learn English; they can't pay taxes or become citizens because they risk being deported if they do either (they risk being deported by trying to become a citizen because they would have to approach members of the department of immigration to do so). Frankly I don't think they want to become Americans. There are examples of illegal immigrants flying Mexican flags during protest marches as well as an account of a group of pro illegal immigration activists (probably largely illegal immigrants) taking down an American flag at a post office, stomping on it, and putting up a Mexican flag. This is an outrage because if you want to be a citizen of this country, you must consider yourself an American. If you don't like it, get out.

Illegal immigration causes the United States to take on more new citizens than it can. The United States puts quotas on the number of immigrants it will take because we can only support so many new citizens per year. This is one reason why I'm all for legal immigration. We need some immigration because the United States population would be decreasing without it. Also, if these people are willing to wait and go through our citizenship process, they are probably going to work very hard. Illegal immigrants are obviously not willing to do this, and by not doing so, create job loss.

The problem of illegal immigration needs to be dealt with much more severely then in the past. Congress should never consider giving these people amnesty, which only encourages others to come. If an illegal immigrant is discovered, they need to be deported immediately, no exceptions. If the trend of illegal immigration continues, it could someday undermine our government. Four percent of the US population is already estimated to be illegal citizens, and that number is climbing.

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