IMMIGRANTS SHOULD STAY OR LEAVE UNITED STATES - Essay Example

Should Immigrants Leave or be Allowed to Stay in the United s Your Full Your Institute’s Should Immigrants Leave or be Allowed to Stay in the United States Imagine coming to live in a new house. Imaging you have dug deep into your life’s savings: sold your home; pawned your car in to raise the capital; you have settled in; gotten comfortable in the neighborhood; are getting to know the people around you; and getting accustomed to the environment. Then one day, you receive an order to vacate the place, pack up your bags and leave to never come back.

The house that you had acquired was not yours and now the people who owned it wanted you out. Would that be fair on any account? Particularly if you had nowhere to go ‘back’ to, having sold your home to buy this new place, and especially, if your next generation was already born and growing up in the new country? The United States of America is like that new house to immigrants, legal or illegal. Many have spent all their lives living here. To many second and third generation immigrants, this is all there is.

So illegal immigrants, in my opinion, should stay in the United States; they should be given the chance to become legal. Evicting illegal immigrants would require an unimaginable amount of resources. There are estimates of 11 to 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States (Saad, 2007). The resources required to first trace and then evict them would be colossal. Some experts say that it is not necessary to evict every single one of them. A hard crackdown and the eviction of a few thousand would send out a clear message to the rest that they were better off leaving.

However, others believe that immigrants already braving everything to remain in the United States would employ more diligent measures to remain uncaught (Tamar Jacoby as cited in Jacoby, 2007). They would merely increase revenue for human traffickers and document forgers. A majority of Americans is in favor of allowing illegal immigrants the chance to stay. In a survey conducted by Gallup in April 2007, forty-two percent of Americans said illegal immigrants should be evicted but allowed entry back into the United Sates after fulfilling certain eligibility criteria (Saad, 2007).

Thirty-six percent were in favor of allowing them to stay in the United States while working towards ‘qualification’ for citizenship. Only fourteen percent of Americans wanted illegal immigrants to be permanently evicted. There would be adverse effects on the US economy if illegal immigrants are made to leave permanently. Illegal immigrants are also part of the society as a whole. Their contributions to the US economy cannot be ignored and are a significant chunk of the overall earnings. If all these people were made to leave, many businesses owned and run by them would close.

A large part of our valuable work-force would be lost. It would be better to legalize illegal immigrants and allow them to be seamlessly and legally incorporated into society. References Jacoby, J. (2007, Mar. 14). Illegal immigrants are here to stay. Retrieved from http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/03/14/illegal_immigrants_are_here_to_stay/ Saad, L. (2007, Apr. 25). Most Americans favor giving illegal immigrants a chance – Few back mass deportation option.

Retrieved from http://www.gallup.com/poll/27307/most-americans-favor-giving-illegal-immigrants-chance.aspx