Summary: The Issue Of Illegal Immigration

Illegal immigrants are often seen as bad people for stealing jobs from native born workers when instead they should be seen as good people that come into our country in search for a better life, while at the same time helping the United States economy get stronger. This issue needs to be addressed because it impacts millions of people’s lives in the country. Fixing this issue could determine the future of the country and many families in the United States. Many people want a strong economy and illegal immigrants could be the solution to the economic crisis. According to Lindsey Cook from the U.S News, 86 percent of population believe that the economy is the most important topic than any other followed by immigration. Lindsey Cook also
According to, The Fiscal Times, “Roughly 8.1 million of 11.4 million undocumented immigrants who work paid more than $11.8 billion in state and local taxes in 2012, even while they were living illegally in the country” (Painin). Eric Painin utilizes this statistic to prove wrong those who disagree that illegal immigrants do pay taxes and to demonstrate how illegal immigrants have a positive effect on our economy.

Illegal immigration is a problem today because many Americans assume that all illegal immigrants migrated to the U.S. to steal jobs, take advantage of government aid and welfare, and not pay taxes. Roque Planas addresses all of these problems in his article, 5 Theories About The Economic Effects Of Illegal Immigration You Shouldn't Trust, and insist that none of the negative things that is being said about the undocumented immigrant is true. One thing Roque Planas touches on is that many of those against illegal immigration being beneficial to the economy argue that illegal immigrants are draining the welfare system. That is not necessarily true because the majority of illegal immigrants do not meet the requirements in order to be eligible to receive help from the government (Planas). Illegal immigrants can be very beneficial to the
Although employing illegal immigrants can result in a positive to the United States economy, they are still seen as a threat by americans and native born workers because they are competing for jobs and using american resources and bringing down wages of native born workers. In an article, Immigration Redistributes Income from Poor U.S Workers, by SIRS Issues Researcher, George Borjas an economist from Harvard, recognized as “America's leading immigration economist” by others insist that illegal immigrants are responsible for reducing the wages of many native born workers. The contribution of illegal and legal immigrants that comes from the negative impact on the native born workers does not come close to the contribution generated by the native born workers.(George Borjas) George Borjas does not deny the fact that business owners and native coworkers can profit from employing illegal and legal immigrants. George Borjas himself says “The profits of business owners and other workers are estimated to increase an estimated $437 billion” (Borjas). George borjas suggest that in order for that to happen more wages would have to be reduced. George Borjas is wrong because like Eduardo Porter explained already illegal immigrants are willing to work for less money so businesses can still exist and