America’s Illegal Immigration Epidemic
- Ben Dunaway
- Dec 15, 2018
- 2 min read
Illegal immigration in U.S. is a very hot topic at the moment; the news about a large caravan of migrants from Central America has been all the talk lately. A spark along the U.S. border just occurred, a large wave of immigrants tried to push past the wall already in place to gain access to American soil. With this recent event happening in San Ysidro, California it seems that the border debate is wide open.
The left, in general, tends to favor letting these so called “refugees” into the country. A popular idea that has been brewing is that the government should let these immigrants in and let them go to work without following proper procedures. Some more reasonable people are saying that we have to let them seek asylum. However, they have not been faced with sufficient persecution to warrant asylum. With this evidence, or lack thereof, from the refugees means that they cannot seek asylum until they have proof they’ve been persecuted by their country.
In contrast, the right would like to have secure borders and allow the caravan, and all immigrants, come in legally. There’s many misconceptions that the right and Donald Trump hate immigrants, but they actually only want illegal immigrants gone. Going along with more secure borders, the wall would stop most illegal immigrants coming from Central America and Mexico alike. The wall would secure the illegal immigrants coming in on foot and only leaving the small 16 percent of illegals from Mexico coming in by plane and the 23 percent coming in from Central America left over to deal with. Most of them are overstaying their visas, which is better than no record of a visa and just coming here undocumented and unnoticed. Along with the evidence already presented, the number of illegal inmates has steadily increased in the past years, from 50,991 to 54,718 over a five year gap. There is a clear problem with illegal immigrants causing crime in America and not helping the overpopulation of the prison system. Hitting more close to home, each household of all illegal immigrants cost taxpayers $14,387. Knowing that’s only one household, imagine the figure if all illegal households were added together. Regardless, our lack of knowledge on the number of illegal immigrants in our country prevents us from calculating the true total cost of immigration on American citizens.
In conclusion, people who say we should let the whole caravan of people into the country without properly granting them citizenship are extremely misguided. There would be so much economic damage to the U.S. and crime rates might raise even more. It is too risky to make a decision based on our feelings and our sympathy without looking at the bigger picture and the damage it might cause. Therefore, we should not let this caravan of people in without implementing proper action.
References
Bernat, F. (2017, April). Immigration and Crime. Retrieved from http://oxfordre.com/criminology/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264079.001.0001/acrefore-9780190264079-e-93
Greenberg, J. (2015, September 8). Ramos: 40% of undocumented immigrants come by air. Retrieved from https://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/sep/08/jorge-ramos/ramos-40-undocumented-immigrants-come-air/
Lombardo, C. (Ed.). (n.d.). 41 Shocking Illegal Immigration Statistics. Retrieved from https://vittana.org/41-shocking-illegal-immigration-statistics
Re, G. (2018, November 25). Hundreds of migrants try rushing toward California port of entry, as Trump threatens to close entire border. Retrieved from https://www.foxnews.com/world/mexico-denies-deal-with-white-house-on-migrants-as-trump-threatens-to-close-entire-border
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