Solving the Long-Term Problem With the Illegal Immigration in America - Research Paper Example

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IN AMERICA Your School of Engineering, Social Sciences, etc Number and of Date of Paper Abstract The paper aims to present a widespread and informative research on current situation of the illegal immigration in America. It begins with the history, the root cause of the problem and lays down the causes or the motivating factors which drive the illegal immigrants to choose to stay in America without authenticated papers. The problems, controversies and effective solutions to address this issue shall be discussed pointblank. It also includes the existing laws being implemented to combat this long-term issue that has conquered America by storm. It will also document the reasons as to why the US immigration policies failed as evidenced by the increasing number of illegal immigrants from all over the world. The role of government is given an emphasis to come- up with domestic policies to ensure that security and anti-terrorism concerns of the country are dealt with by law. Lastly, it will also provide the worldwide effect of immigration in the US and the participation of the other nations on how to prevent their citizens from entering the US without legal documentation. Keywords: illegal immigration, immigration laws, amnesty, legalization, illegal immigrants. ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IN AMERICA Since time immemorial America has been considered the land of “milk and honey” for millions of people from all across the world. Most of the citizens from poor countries aim to reach America as their end destination thinking that this is the place where there is more than enough for everything. It has been perceived as the land of abundance, wealth and endless opportunities. The ultimate goal of the illegal immigrants is to enter US and land a job which will earn them a substantial income to support their families in their country of origin. However, at present time, we all know that America has been experiencing economic recession and even its countrymen were not spared of this crisis, as many became unemployed, homeless and suffered financial distress. Dubbed as the “nation of nations”, Lemay (2009, p. xv) has reported that the United States has absorbed immigrants from 170 countries across the globe. It has been the home of almost 70 million legal immigrants and experienced the influx of an estimated 11 million of illegal immigrants. The unauthorized flow of illegal immigrants entering the America is caused by inefficiencies of the immigration system of the US government to enact stricter laws and policies to address the current problems. History Ngai (2007, p.2) has reported that as early as 1920’s, the unauthorized entry has become the most common form of illegal immigration which has been condemned by both the state and the society. These unauthorized immigrants may either be welcome or unwelcomed by the US. They became in demand by the economic sector as their labor is cheap and replaceable. In the middle decades of the 20th century, they were only billeted in the western and southwestern agriculture. But at present, illegal immigrants have evolved and can be found in almost every region in the United States. Based on the records, the United States documented the number of immigrants who earned the status of authorized immigrants. “An approximate of 70 million of them forms part of the legal immigrants, but as history would tell us, the flow of unauthorized entrants likewise increased. According to LeMay (2007 p.1), the heavy traffic of these illegal immigrants commenced after 1970, and the massive volume was recorded at present time. Today, there is an estimate of 10.5 to 11 million illegal immigrants living in the US. The Evolution of US Immigration Laws In the study made by Kenney (2009, pp. 21-23), she highlighted the significant immigration laws: The Immigration and International Act of 1965 was the law which set the limit on the immigrants coming from the Western Hemisphere, including Mexico. It set a limit of 20,000 immigrants per Eastern Hemisphere Country. The law also provided a seven-category preference system based on family unification and skills to be followed. The Refugee Act of 1980 was the pilot immigration system of the US which created a procedure to accept refugees who wish to enter the American soil. It also allowed an asylum or refugee status for immigrants. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 was the law which established a penalty for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. It also crafted two methods on how illegal immigrants can attain legal status. The Immigration Act of 1990 is the piece of legislation which increased the immigration limits by as much as 40%. It granted more visas to countries with a few number of immigration to the US between 1985 and 1990. It increased three times the employment-based immigration while putting an emphasis on skills and education. How to Live and Work in the US the Legal Way Under the current US law, there are only two methods by which a foreign-born person can attain permanency status or also known as the Green card, recognized by law. These are the following ways: (1.) Sponsorship by a family member who is a US Citizen or marriage to an American citizen; and (2.) Through employment. The employer shall certify that the employee possesses the skill set needed by the job position. Non-compliance of these two requirements renders the person entering the US border as an illegal immigrant if he or she is working without legal documentation, or staying for a period beyond the provisions of their visas. Factors Which Cause Illegal Immigration Most people come to the US with problematic legal documents. Haines and Rosenblum (1999, p. 10) has reported that “the number of illegal immigrants continuous to increase by a quarter of a million persons every year. Some of these people came to the US with legal documents but subsequently stayed beyond the period allowed by the provisions of their documents. They are known as visa-over-stayers. Initially, they are legal migrants or also known as Nonimmigrants in Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) Parlance who outlast their temporary legality, which later on transformed them to illegal immigrants”. Some of these include the tourists and students, who came to the country to visit or study, but violated the provisions and conditions of their visas by working in the US. Some of these illegal immigrants seek refuge, look for jobs that can earn them a sizeable income compared to their jobs in their countries of origin, while some of them want to be with their families. Borders Haines and Rosenblum (1999) stated that “borders are integral part of the state system. They serve as a symbolical mark to indicate who are within the territory or outside of the territory of a particular state. Just like the portion of the US to Mexico. Further, the government must be able to control the border as much as to facilitate movement as to limit the number of entries in the country”. Labor It has been said that labor is the top most reason why people flock to the US, thinking that better opportunities are waiting for them. A significant number of US employers rely on undocumented labor. Another factor which aggravates the number of illegal immigrants is the failure of the US government to impose stricter penalty or sanctions to employers who engage in illegal hiring. These illegal immigrants are thus assured that they can find jobs even without proper documentation. Udall Center Arizona Fact Sheet No. 3 on Immigration Policy (2007) reported that there are “three reasons why the employer sanctions are rendered futile. These are the following: (1.) There is lack of reliable mechanism to verify employment eligibility; (2.) There is insufficient funding of interior immigration enforcement; and (3.) Absence of political will due to the labor needs of America”. Therefore, these illegal immigrants bravely enter the US without bringing capital because they are assured that there are available jobs waiting for them. Fraudulent documentation of these non-documented immigrants continues to proliferate because the US does not have a steadfast method to ascertain if the authenticity and the genuineness of the documents presented before them. They merely rely on the unverifiable data. The scant regard of the US immigration system on the worksite enforcement by not enforcing strict immigration policies give these illegal immigrants opportunity to work in the country without getting apprehended. In the study conducted by Kenny (2008 p. 9), she stated that “although the US immigration has conducted raids in order to seize these illegal immigrants, it could cost millions of dollars to replace the workforce because there is not enough labor to go around. The Pew Hispanic Center has recorded 12 million of illegal immigrants staying in the US since 1996”. They are forced to accept low-paying jobs which include low-skilled labor in farms, restaurants, construction site and other similar industries. These are the jobs which will provide them a huge salary compared to the pay-out that they will receive in their countries of origin, which oftentimes offer low salary packages. Queing Majority of the illegal immigrants are just waiting for their status to be documented. The source of the delay in the processing of their papers has also become the problem of the US immigration because “illegal immigrants double in number at the end of each quarter caused by the long lines waiting to be documented. Some of these people stay in the US with their relatives or work after gaining US experience or attaining American diplomas” (Haines and Rosenblum 1999). Asylum A part from the volume of these illegal immigrants seeks refuge in the country. Haines and Rosenblum (1999) reported that for “the past two decades, the US has admitted over 50,000 people as refugees annually, and has jumped to a whopping 100,000 in the succeeding years thereafter. The Refugee Act of 1980 has set the definition of who is a refugee in accordance with the international conventions but has failed to come-up with a refugee determination process which is a stand-alone course of action which is independent of U.S. foreign policy interests. Majority of these came from Cuba, Southeast Asia and Russian refugees”. Other Causes LeMay (2007, p.2) in his study, pointed out that “some of these unauthorized immigrants decide to move to the US to escape poverty, epidemic diseases brought about by humans or crops, mass starvation and unemployment in their countries of origin”. How to Solve the Problem According to Udall Center Arizona Fact Sheet No. 3 on Immigration Policy (2007), policy solutions are essential to combat illegal immigration. These policies require the following ingredients: (1.) “There must be a reliable mechanism for work verification.; It shall be the responsibility of the employers to see to it that they person/s that they will hire are eligible to work after carefully studying their background and immigration issues. They must device a method or system to ascertain that the employees they will hire fully satisfied the immigration laws requirement. Government must allocate a budget for this program. (2.) Legal avenues for immigrants to enter the country to work; Create temporary worker programs in order to map-out the boundaries between the legal citizen, legal migrants and US citizens. The US must draw its attention to increase permanent economic migration. (3.) Enforcement beyond the border”. Stiffer penalties and sanctions must be imposed on illegal immigrants so that there will be strict implementation of the laws and to instill among them that the US government is practicing the nation’s autonomy to curb-out the number of illegal immigrants throughout the country. (4.) There must also be a slow eradication of benefits which include amnesties, educational subsidies from the government, drivers licenses, illegal alien identification cards, and many others. (5.) The US Congress must update their policies in illegal immigration in or to minimize the global problem of corruption, poverty and overpopulation throughout the country. (6.) The US must also secure the border by installing surveillance cameras and enforce tighter controls on the Mexican border to ensure entry of illegal immigrants and also serve as a preventive measure against terrorism. (7.) The children of illegal immigrants should not be automatically given an outright birthright citizenship Conclusion The unauthorized flow of illegal immigrants entering the America is caused by inefficiencies of the immigration system of the US government to enact stricter laws and policies to address the current problems. Therefore, the key in solving this long-term problem lies on the hands on the US government. The legislative branch should do its part in drafting laws which shall address the issues head-on and provide immediate solutions to this growing problem. For the past decades, the government has miserably failed despite several attempts to finally put this issue laid to rest. In 2002 alone, in spite of the increase in the budget to protect the border, nothing concrete has been done. The number of illegal immigrants at present ballooned over the past nine (9) years. It only goes to show that the government has been remiss of its duties to ensure that immigration laws and policies issues are properly implemented. In sum, there is a weak interior enforcement and shaky political will being demonstrated by the US government with regard to full implementation of the laws so the illegal immigration problems are far from being over. These political pressures must serve as a wake-up call for the US government to act now or otherwise incur millions of losses if they continue to cuddle these unauthorized immigrants, and thus will leave a significant impact on the American economy. References Bardes, Barbara A., Mack C. Shelley and Steffen W. Schmidt.(2008). American Government and Politics Today 2008: The Essentials. Canada, Wadsworth. Bascio, Father Patrick J. and Patrick Bascio. (2009) On the Immorality of Illegal Immigration. Indiana, USA, AuthorHouse. Edmonston, Barry, National Research Council (U.S.) Committee on National Statistics, National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Population. (2006). Status on US Immigration: An Assessment of Data Needs for Future Research. USA, National Academies Press. Haines, David W. and Karen Elaine Rosenblum. (1999). Illegal Immigration in America in America: A Reference Handbook. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Kenney, Karen. (2008) Illegal Immigration. Minnesota, USA, ABDO Publishing Company. Lee, Ronald Demos, National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Population, National Research Council (U.S.). Commission on Behavioral Sciences and Education. (1996) Local Fiscal Effects of Illegal Immigration: Report of a Workshop. Washington, D.C., National Academy Press. LeMay, Michael C. (2007). Illegal Immigration: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara, California, ABC-CLIO Inc. Ngai, Mae M. (2004). Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the making of Modern America. New Jersey, Princeton Press University. Udall Center Arizona Fact Sheet No. 3 on Immigration Policy (2007). Illegal Immigration to the United States: Causes and Policy Solutions. Retrieved on March 26, 2011, from Read More