..Because of tightening restrictions at the border, the role of the coyote has gotten much more complicated, and for immigrants, the process has become fraught with danger. Numerous immigrants die trying to cross the desert each year, and while some are found, providing closure for their families, others are simply never heard from again. Immigrants have also died while trapped in trucks and shipping containers, and some have drowned while trying to swim the Rio Grande, while others have been shot by border patrol or vigilante groups. (Smith).
While it may be an undeniable that illegal immigrants are creating a major drain on U.S. resources, it seems equally undeniable that someone should not die trying to pursue the American dream.
Building a border wall is also prohibitively expensive. The cost for the border wall is estimated at $3 million per mile, which is $568.18 per foot. (Meyers). Not only is this a ridiculous amount of money to spend on an ineffective border device, but it may actually be a low estimate. For example, in Israel, the border along the West Bank has cost about $3.67 million per mile, and their labor costs are much lower than U.S. labor costs. (Meyers). Therefore, the total proposed border fence could cost upwards of $49 billion dollars; money that is desperately needed elsewhere in today's troubled economy.
Furthermore, the expensive proposed fence is destined to be ineffective. Even the proposed construction does not suggest a wall completely barricading the United States from Mexico. Instead, the wall is being built in areas that are considered a high risk for illegal immigration. "Along the border, preliminary plans for fencing seem to target landowners of modest means and cities and public institutions such as the University of Texas at Brownsville, which rely on the federal government to pay their bills." (Del Bosque). This literally leaves gaps between the wall, where illegal immigrants can cross. While border patrol agents may be able to watch the small gaps in the wall, where the privileged retain their property rights and unobstructed...
Illegal Immigration Both the United States government and individual state governments as well are concerned about the high rate of illegal immigration into our country. There are several reasons for this. Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the country recognizes great need to know exactly who is in the United States. In addition, many worry that illegal immigrants take jobs that would otherwise go to people who are legally
Illegal Immigration According to NewsMax.com, "Almost no issue divides Republicans as deeply" as President Bush's new proposal to offer so-called "guest worker status" to otherwise illegal immigrants. The guest worker status proposal stands as one of the only proposed legislative compromises regarding the illegal immigration issue, which has become one of the most contentious issues being debated in the United States. On the one hand, earnings in nations like Mexico are
8% of U.S. households were headed by an immigrant and received 6.7% of all cash benefits; by 1990, 8.4% of households were headed by an immigrant and received 13.1% of all cash benefits (Borjas, 1995, pp. 44-46). Immigrants in different categories (both legal and illegal) have been eligible to receive certain welfare benefits. Legal immigrants are eligible after three to five years of residence, though asylum applicants and refugees are eligible
These immigrants, who the new rich think makes a place fresh, are usually poor chick artists, fashion designers, musicians, even street vendors. Consider New York City, where the ambience produced by the lesser-income people of SoHo established a temptation to those hips, modern, high-income types who created Silicon Alley, even though they could as well have functioned from California's Silicon Valley or Scotland's Silicon Glen. So what may perhaps
At the same time, the number of school-age children who spoke a language other than English at home more than doubled between 1979 and 2005. In addition, differences between states in amount spent on instruction per student by unified public school districts have increased since 1997-98. The U.S. education system also shows signs of continued growth for years to come. In elementary and secondary education, enrollments have followed population
One potential resolution is a dual action step of tightening border control combined with reforming the process of becoming a citizen to allow easier access for immigrants to enter into the nation legally, rather than illegally. Tightening control of the nation's borders is crucial in the development of a more lenient immigrant processing solution. With "the major source of illegal immigration from illegal border crossings, and most of these immigrants
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