Illegal Immigration
oth 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 in the country. School districts struggle to educate the children of adult illegal immigrants. Some at the federal, state and local levels of governments believe that illegal immigrants put a strain on welfare programs and feel such services should go to people who are here legally. The problem is multi-faceted, and different government entities have differing concerns, making agreement about what should be done difficult.

SCOPE OF THE PROLEM

However, most people are law-abiding residents of the United States and believe that…...

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Badger, T.A. 2005. "Feds Question Suspected Illegal Immigrants." Associated Press, Jan. 25.

Capital Hill Press (CHP). 2005. "New Measure Would Bring Common Sense to the Law and Address Glaring Weaknesses in America's Homeland Security." Capitol Hill Press Releases, Jan. 26.

Dobbs, Lou. 2005. "No more border games." U.S. News & World Report, Jan. 31.

Johnson, Kevin. 2005. "On the trail of 400,000 fugitives." USA Today, Jan. 6.

..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).
hile 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…...

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Works Cited

Del Bosque, Melissa. "Holes in the Wall." The Texas Observer. 2008. The Texas Observer. 2

Nov. 2008  http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2688 .

Meyers, Jim. "Border Wall to Cost at Least $3 Million Per Mile." FreeRepublic.com. 2006.

FreeRepublic, LLC. 2 Nov. 2008  http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1635795/posts .

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 one-tenth of what they are in the United States, and throngs of willing workers head northward to seek more gainful employment and a supposedly improved quality of life. Furthermore, the low wages offered to illegal immigrants boost some businesses and allow profit margins to increase substantially over what they would be if companies had to pay union wages to their workers. Some people claim that illegal immigrant workers are performing the jobs that most Americans simply won't do, because most…...

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Works Cited

'Bush Faces GOP Fight Over Guest Workers." NewsMax.com. 27 Dec. 2004. Online at <  http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/12/27/92735.shtml >.

'Calif. Senate hopefuls back guest workers." The Washington Times. 10 Aug 2004. Online at <  http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040810-102353-6628r.htm >.

'The Cost of Illegal Immigration." KPHO Pheonix. 2005. Online at < nav=DIH7Ssy8>.http://www.kpho.com/Global/story.asp?S=2537000&

"Executive Summary." United States Department of Homeland Security. 31 Jan 2003. Online at <  http://uscis.gov/graphics/shared/aboutus/statistics/2000ExecSumm.pdf >.

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 immediately. One problem is that immigrants both legal and illegal displace native workers -- for every 100 unskilled immigrants who are working, 25 or more unskilled American-born workers are displaced from jobs. The costs of public assistance for the 2.1 million displaced American workers stands at $11.9 billion. Based on the 1990 census, the poverty rate for immigrants is 42.8% higher than for native-born Americans, and on average immigrant households receive 44.2% more public assistance dollars than native households. In…...

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References

Ackerman, E. (1998, December 7). An immigrant roundup. U.S. News & World Report, 30.

Americanization' in Report of the Commission on Immigration Reform (1997, October 7). Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Retrieved December 25, 2006 at  http://www.carnegieendowment.org/events/index.cfm?fa=eventDetail&id=93 .

Ashabranner, B. (1996). Our beckoning borders. New York: Cobblehill Books.

Auditor General of California (1992). A fiscal impact analysis of undocumented immigrants residing in San Diego County. Report C-126, August. Sacramento: Office of the Auditor General, California.

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 look like a merely compassionate policy of taking in impoverished immigrants might not, anyhow, be lacking economic benefits to the receiving nation. In fact, even an informal policy of benevolent disregard toward poor, illegal immigrants - and such a policy has a definite request to those who think that immigration policy should be based on caring considerations - has clear economic benefits. For instance in America, there is no question that devoid of the six million illegal immigrants expected to…...

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References

Cure for illegal immigration. Retrieved at   Accessed on 22 February, 2005http://www.nationalinvestor.com/8-00-mexico%20commentary.htm .

Americans Favor Current Levels of Immigration. Immigration Policy Reports: American Immigration Law Foundation. Retrieved at Accessed on 22 February, 2005http://www.ailf.org/ipc/policy_reports_2000_pr0012.htm.

Immigration Debates. Retrieved at   Accessed on 22 February, 2005http://flatrock.org.nz/topics/immigration/feinsteins_rule.htm .

Immigration Policies Should Be More Flexible and Encourage the Integration of Immigrants. Retrieved at   Accessed on 22 February, 2005http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR854.1/MR854.1.chap9.pdf .

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 shifts and are projected to increase each year through 2016 to an all-time high of 53 million" (Schneider, 2007). Other features that reveal Americans' growing interest for better education (and consequently the need for illegals to perform the unskilled and low paid jobs) could be organized under the following:
the number of college students who spend more than 10 hours on their weekly homework has increased from 7% in 1980 to 37% in 2002 dropout rates among college students have also…...

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Works Cited

Gurucharri, T., a Brief Summary of U.S. Immigration History, Catholic Conference of Kentucky, Retrieved at   May 13, 2008http://www.ccky.org/Pastoral%20Resources/Immigration%20Series/9%20-%20A%20short%20history%20of%20immigration.pdfon 

Orrenius, P.M., November / December 2003, U.S. Immigration and Economic Growth: Putting Policy on Hold, Southwest Economy

Preston, M., June 2006, Economy Factors into Immigration Debate: Are Illegal Immigrants a Burden or a Blessing?, Issues and Trends

Schneider, M., 2007, Contexts of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Condition of Education 2007, National Center for Education Statistics

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 are from Mexico," (Meese & Spaulding, 2006), the United States must curb this blatant illegal method of entering into the United States. With this risk minimized, it allows government officials to craft more available immigration procedures which would allow more immigrants to enter into the country legally. Leaving our borders wide open presents a dangerous threat to all citizens around the nation, "Secure borders, especially in a time of terrorist threat, are crucial to American national security," (Meese & Spaulding,…...

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References

Camarota, Steven a. (2006). Amnesty under Hagel-Martinez: an estimate of how many will legalize if S. 2611 becomes law. Center for Immigration Studies. 19 June 2008.  http://www.cis.org/articles/2006/back606.html 

FAIR. (2003). Illegal Immigration is a crime. Federation for American Immigration

Reform. 18 June 2008.  http://www.americanpatrol.com/REFERENCE/isacrime.html 

Kennedy, John F. (1964). A nation of immigrants. Row Publishers.

Illegal Immigration in Southern Europe
According to information from the UNHC, illegal immigrants have been described as persons who enter into a foreign country without the proper documentation or through illegal means. There are various factors that can prompt individuals to take such a drastic step and according to Barkan, (2003) these factors could comprise of wars and asylum, whereby an individual is escaping the war in his or her homeland or due to political motives that could have repercussions such as oppression, bullying and abuse. Other factors include poverty and overpopulation at homeland of the illegal immigrant.

The main objective of this essay is to find out the relation between illegal immigrants and informal sector of Greece, Spain and Italy with a special focus on what factors make the informal sector of these three Southern European countries attractive to illegal immigrants. Two tables will be presented with data showing the number…...

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Reference

Barkan, Elliott R. 2003, "Return of the Nativists? California Public Opinion and Immigration in the 1980s and 1990s" Social Science History, pp 229-283.

Borjas, G.J. 1994 "The economics of immigration," Journal of Economic Literature, pp. 1667 -- 717

De La Torre, Miguel A., 2009, "Trails of Terror: Testimonies on the Current Immigration Debate," Orbis Books, pp 34-56

Venturini, A. 2004, Post-War Migration in Southern Europe. An Economic Approach Cambridge University Press pp 112-123.

Those very same God-fearing Christian Americans are now under attack by illegal immigrants from countries like Mexico and also El Salvador, Philippines, China, and India.
Illegal immigrants are a threat to American society, American economy, and the American way of life. Just as Europeans destroyed Native American culture upon arrival, illegal immigrants are destroying American culture. People from countries from around the world whose cultures are different from ours are entering American borders, eating American food, and taking American jobs. Illegal immigrants are poor and they take away American jobs. Illegal immigrants do not respect American laws because they enter illegally. When they are sent to jail, though, cities like San Francisco give them amnesty. Therefore, illegal immigrants are tearing apart the very fabric of this great nation.

eferences

"Does illegal immigration relate to higher crime incidence?" (2008). etrieved online: http://immigration.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000782

Federation for American Immigration eform (n.d.). Illegal immigration. etrieved online: http://www.fairus.org/site/PageNavigator/issues/illegal_immigration.html

Gardner, M.…...

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References

"Does illegal immigration relate to higher crime incidence?" (2008). Retrieved online:  http://immigration.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000782 

Federation for American Immigration Reform (n.d.). Illegal immigration. Retrieved online:  http://www.fairus.org/site/PageNavigator/issues/illegal_immigration.html 

Gardner, M. (2011). Cutting services to illegal immigrants isn't easy. Sign On San Diego. Retrieved online:  http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/apr/19/cutting-services-to-illegal-immigrants-isnt-easy/ 

Illegal Immigration Statistics. 26 April 2011. Retrieved online:  http://www.illegalimmigrationstatistics.org/

In 2010 the Department of Homeland Security undertook immigration enforcement actions involving "the arrest, detention, return, and removal from the United States of foreign nationals who are inadmissible to or removable from the United States…" ("Immigration Enforcement Actions 2010") The United States government spends billions each year patrolling and guarding the U.S. border, interdicting drug and human smugglers, investigating domestic employers, conducting raids for illegal immigrants. hile the federal government has been battling illegal immigration for years, individual state governments have recently begun to implement their own actions toward curbing the flow of illegal immigration. Arizona recently passed a controversial which required local law enforcement officers to verify the immigration status of anyone they suspected of being illegal. (Arizona Senate Bill 1070)

A recent article, which first appeared in "The Daily Caller," but since has been republished by the CATO Institute is "The Realities Behind the Immigration Debate," by Jeffrey Miron.…...

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Works Cited

"Arizona Senate Bill 1070." State of Arizona Senate. Web. 5 Sept. 2011.

 http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/49leg/2r/bills/sb1070s.pdf 

Hanson, Gordon. "The Economic Logic of Illegal Immigration." Council on Foreign

Relations. April 2007. Web. 5 Sept. 2011.

Illegal Immigration:
A Bane or a Necessary Evil?

America is a melting pot. e hear that phrased pronounced almost everyday in some context or another. And, to a large degree, it is true: Even the beacon of our freedom, the Statue of Liberty, welcomes all arrivals to our shores, be they ever so poor, tired or huddled in masses.

However, a topic that creeps up among our greatest immigration stories is the problem of illegal immigration. Always a problem in our border states, especially Texas and California, illegal immigration has taken on a whole new bent following September 11's terrorist attacks and the realization that most of the people involved in the attacks were here illegally. Some came into the country illegally, and others overstayed their immigration status.

Here are some statistics: The Immigration and Naturalization Services -- a department suddenly at the forefront of homeland security issues and the war against terror --…...

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Works Cited

Kobach, Kris. State and Local Authority to Enforce Immigration Law. CIS: 2004.

Camarota, Steven. The High Cost of Cheap Labor. CIS: 2004.

Krikorian, Mark. Flawed Assumptions Underlying Guestworker Programs. CIS: 2004.

www.cis.org

However, that connotation, for some people ceases to function when the discussion turns to those individuals who are crossing the boarder illegally.
The question then becomes, "should bad behavior be rewarded?" Those who cross the boarder illegally are referred to as "criminals," individuals who show utter disregard and contempt for the very fabric of law within American society. But do these individuals necessarily seek to break the law merely to take advantage of the welfare programs? Or is there a greater, more systemic problem? Borrowing from the main tenets of conflict resolution, the "structural assumptions" matrix dictates that larger more systemic problems are the root causes of individuals seeking to avoid conflict. Therefore, it can be asserted that these individuals are seeking to avoid conflict, improve the quality of life for their family and provide opportunities for their children they would normally not have access to within their home country.…...

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Works Cited

Beck, Roy. "U.S. Immigration in Focus." U.S. Foreign Policy 2.31 (2010): 29-35. Print.

Bluhm, William, and Robert Heineman. Ethics and Public Policy: Methods and Cases. Princeton: Prentice Hall, 2006. Print.

"FAIR: Immigration and Welfare." FAIR: Federation for American Immigration Reform. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2010. .

16). Since that time, however, the U.S. society has taken a much more liberal viewpoint, with many of its citizens decrying an invasion of privacy when being questioned by law enforcement officials. This outcry is being heeded by law enforcement officials and immigrants throughout society.
Many officials are now reluctant to apprehend individuals based solely upon their looks or something as flimsy as 'reasonable suspicion'. Discovering that those they apprehend are productive, responsible citizens with jobs and families is a deterrent for apprehending similar individuals in the future.

ecent literature shows that another reason for reluctance on the part of law enforcement officials to vigorously pursue those individuals who may be in the United States illegally is the effect it will have on those citizens that are here legally but live in the same geographical areas that house the illegal immigrants. Many experts believe that vigorous enforcement will mean a lower…...

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References

Carrell, S.E.; Hoekstra, M.L.; (2008) Externalities in the classroom: How children exposed to domestic violence affect everyone's kids, National Bureau of Economic Research, NBER Working Paper No. 14246

Cattaneo, L.B.; Bell, M.E.; Goodman, L.A.; Dutton, M.A.; (2007) Intimate partner violence victims' accuracy in assessing their risk of re-abuse, Journal of Family Violence, Vol. 22, pp. 429 -- 440

Gabrielson, R.; Giblin, P. (2008) Reasonable doubt Part I: MCSO evolves into an immigration agency, East Valley Tribune, July 10, 2008 edition, accessed April 21, 2009 at  http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/120461 

Gardels, N., (2007) America no longer owns globalization, New Perspectives Quarterly, Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 2 -- 5

Some who, for one reason or another, haven't asked for it, suddenly become illegal aliens on their eighteenth birthday, making them eligible for expulsion by police forces.
Immigrants from nations that do not have an automatic visa agreements, or who would not otherwise qualify for a visa, often cross the borders illegally. In some areas like the U.S.-Mexico border, the Strait of Gibraltar, Fuerteventura and the Strait of Otranto. ecause these methods must be extralegal, they are often dangerous.

Most countries have laws requiring workers to have proper documentation, often intended to prevent the employment of illegal immigrants. However the penalties against employers are not always enforced consistently and fairly, which means that employers can easily use illegal labor. Agriculture, construction, domestic service, restaurants, resorts, and prostitution are the leading legal and illegal jobs that illegal workers are most likely to fill. For example, it is estimated that 80% of U.S.…...

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Bibliography

1. The illegal immigration from The Economics of Illegal Immigration by Chisa To Yoshida,

Alan Woodland (Hardcover - Oct 21, 2005)

2. Information about the immigration process and its effects from the Internet at  http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html 

3. Facts about the illegal immigrants from the Internet at  http://www.vdare.com/rubenstein/illegals.htm

Constitutional Amendment

The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution relates to the birth provision and citizenship by the process of naturalization. This law states that all persons born or naturalized in the United States are its citizens and they have a right to all the privileges that come with it. It also explicitly states that no state can take this right away from its citizens.

President Obama's plan to offer amnesty to the millions of illegal immigrants is contrary to this law and it has to be amended in the Congress. This is unlikely to happen after the mid-term vote and so the chances of Obama's plan to be successful is less. So, its important that the Federal lawmakers decide on an alternate course of action to tackle this problem quickly and efficiently.

Solution

There are two possible solutions to this problem. The first one is to completely seal the border to prevent people…...

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References

No Author. "Immigration: More Questions than Answers." American School Board Journal. 193 (August 2006): 11-12

New York Times. "Arizona Immigration Law (SB 1070)." Last modified: July 29, 2010.  http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/i/immigration-and-emigration/arizona-immigration-law-sb-1070/index.html?scp=10&sq=illegal%20immigration&st=cse 

NumbersUSA. "Rasmussen Poll says 70% of Arizona Residents Support Immigration Enforcement Bill." April 22, 2010.  http://www.numbersusa.com/content/news/april-22-2010/rasmussen-poll-says-70-arizona-residents-support-immigration-enforcement-bill.htm 

Frugal Cafe Blog Zone. "Tough Arizona Illegal Immigration Law Igniting Controversy." April 24, 2010. http://www.frugal-cafe.com/public_html/frugal-blog/frugal-cafe-blogzone/2010/04/24/tough-arizona-illegal-immigration-law-igniting-controversy-liberals-smear-campaign-begins-70-of-az-residents-support-it-video/

Based on an understanding of the facts about immigration in the modern-day United States, this would be a good topic for a thesis statement on immigration reform: Modern immigration rules and laws favor immigrants from some countries over others and place a significant financial burden on prospective immigrants and on those who would sponsor them; removing some of those financial burdens would incentivize legal immigration and therefore reduce the number of people seeking to enter the country as undocumented immigrants, helping resolve the country’s undocumented immigrant problem.

Before trying to write a thesis statement about immigration reform, it....

I. Introduction
- Definition of illegal immigration
- Overview of the impact on economies, societies, and national security

II. Impact on Economies
A. Costs of illegal immigration
1. Social services
2. Law enforcement
3. Healthcare
B. Labor market
1. Competition for jobs
2. Depressed wages
C. Taxes
1. Lost revenue
2. Burden on taxpayers

III. Impact on Societies
A. Cultural assimilation
1. Language barriers
2. Segregation
B. Social cohesion
1. Tension between immigrants and native population
2. Impact on social services
C. Crime
1. Gang violence
2. Human trafficking

IV. Impact on National Security
A. Border security
1. Drug trafficking
2. Terrorism
B. National sovereignty
1. Threats to national identity
2. Infiltration of criminal organizations
C. Public health
1. Spread of diseases
2. Lack of proper screening for immigrants

V. Conclusion
- Summary of the....

Impact of Illegal Immigration on Economies, Societies, and National Security

I. Economic Impact

A. Labor Market Effects:
- Depressing wages for low-skilled native-born workers
- Increasing unemployment among certain demographics
- Creating a shadow economy and undercutting legitimate businesses

B. Government Spending:
- Imposing costs on healthcare, education, and social services
- Reducing tax revenue due to undocumented workers' inability to file
- Straining infrastructure and public resources

C. Business Climate:
- Creating an unfair competitive advantage for employers hiring undocumented workers
- Reducing investments and economic growth
- Distorting labor markets and hindering innovation

II. Social Impact

A. Social Cohesion:
- Creating divisions within communities
....