What Is Illegal Immigration In America?
Joshua Hudson
Robin Mangino, Ph.D.
College Writing II (242)
March 10, 2015
A Continent Divided:
Illegal Immigration in America The American Dream: an opportunity to live free, earn living, buy a house, and to raise a family; the opportunity to leave a war torn nation, or a land of poverty in hopes of a better life. What is America? America is a nation of immigrants, on that doesn’t have limitations on the country of origin, ethnicity, or culture of the migrant. The idea of the great melting pot is what defines us as a nation. Ever since our country came into existence our borders have been open to anyone who wishes to enter this country legally. For those who have entered legally, many have found that dream to become a reality for them, …show more content…
For about the past 35 years, the average fertility rate for the US as a whole has been such that the population would be stable in predicted generations (not including illegal immigration). (3) However, due to net annual immigration of about 1.5 million, population continues to increase at a significant rate, and since 2000, it has risen from about 281,000,000 to about 309,000,000, and is projected to be well over 400,000,000 by 2050. (1) It would make sense for someone living in an undesirable nation to migrate to the US. It would be a good deed if we Americans allowed that person to cross our borders freely. However, the problem is that there are billions of such people in the world, and doing so would overcrowd our nation in few generations, causing greater problems to our economy and government …show more content…
According to the Center for Immigration Studies in 2002 “…illegal-alien households imposed, in aggregate, costs exceeding $26 billion on the federal government while they paid $16 billion in federal taxes, thereby creating a net fiscal deficit of $10.4 billion per year at the federal level, or $2,700 per household.” (6) Some of the largest contributors to this were Medicaid, medical treatment (to the uninsured), food-assistance programs, WIC, and free school lunches; the federal prison and court systems; and federal aid to schools. (6) The average immigrant without a high school degree (which is over 60 percent of illegal aliens) will cost taxpayers an estimated cost of nearly $100,000, not including the cost of educating the illegal immigrant’s children (which is a total cost of over a half trillion dollars, estimated). (6)
Problems also arise when dealing with illegal immigration such as increased crime rates and traffic accidents. Although, according to criminologist and former UMass professor Larry J Siegel, Ph.D., large cities in the U.S. with a high number of immigrants (both legal and illegal) have been shown to have a decreased level of criminal activity when in comparison to large cities without. Some studies show the increased revenue for dealing with illegal immigrants criminal
Robin Mangino, Ph.D.
College Writing II (242)
March 10, 2015
A Continent Divided:
Illegal Immigration in America The American Dream: an opportunity to live free, earn living, buy a house, and to raise a family; the opportunity to leave a war torn nation, or a land of poverty in hopes of a better life. What is America? America is a nation of immigrants, on that doesn’t have limitations on the country of origin, ethnicity, or culture of the migrant. The idea of the great melting pot is what defines us as a nation. Ever since our country came into existence our borders have been open to anyone who wishes to enter this country legally. For those who have entered legally, many have found that dream to become a reality for them, …show more content…
For about the past 35 years, the average fertility rate for the US as a whole has been such that the population would be stable in predicted generations (not including illegal immigration). (3) However, due to net annual immigration of about 1.5 million, population continues to increase at a significant rate, and since 2000, it has risen from about 281,000,000 to about 309,000,000, and is projected to be well over 400,000,000 by 2050. (1) It would make sense for someone living in an undesirable nation to migrate to the US. It would be a good deed if we Americans allowed that person to cross our borders freely. However, the problem is that there are billions of such people in the world, and doing so would overcrowd our nation in few generations, causing greater problems to our economy and government …show more content…
According to the Center for Immigration Studies in 2002 “…illegal-alien households imposed, in aggregate, costs exceeding $26 billion on the federal government while they paid $16 billion in federal taxes, thereby creating a net fiscal deficit of $10.4 billion per year at the federal level, or $2,700 per household.” (6) Some of the largest contributors to this were Medicaid, medical treatment (to the uninsured), food-assistance programs, WIC, and free school lunches; the federal prison and court systems; and federal aid to schools. (6) The average immigrant without a high school degree (which is over 60 percent of illegal aliens) will cost taxpayers an estimated cost of nearly $100,000, not including the cost of educating the illegal immigrant’s children (which is a total cost of over a half trillion dollars, estimated). (6)
Problems also arise when dealing with illegal immigration such as increased crime rates and traffic accidents. Although, according to criminologist and former UMass professor Larry J Siegel, Ph.D., large cities in the U.S. with a high number of immigrants (both legal and illegal) have been shown to have a decreased level of criminal activity when in comparison to large cities without. Some studies show the increased revenue for dealing with illegal immigrants criminal