Would America be better off without the illegal immigrants? What should the government do with them?

jim

before we look at a question like this, we must make a distinction between the different types of immigrants...

immigrants can be categorized in four distinct categories:
1) "legal immigrants"
these are the people who come here via some sort of visa or something. Although they may come for a variety of reasons, the two most dominant ones are tourists and students. They aid in the improvement of our economy by bringing foreign money to the United States.

2) "undocumented workers"
these are the people who come to this country undetected. they may come across either one of our four borders (Mexico, Canada, Pacific, Atlantic). their main purpose is either to improve their own lives or those of their families. these are the people who actually come here to work honestly and in such a way help our economy.

3) "illegal aliens"
these are the people who come here into the United States to do illegal actions. these may include killing, selling drugs, terrorism, etc. these people (if they can be called people) may come here under the border from Mexico (which is why a fence wouldn't work) or legally.

4) "freeloading welfarers"
these are the people who come to this country to freeload off of our welfare system. they come here via a variety of ways, and the best way to stop them is to strengthen our welfare requirements.

now that were done with that, we may look at the question...

anti-immigrant groups (such as the minutemen, etc.) have used a series of reasons as to why we should stop and kick out the "illegal immigrants".

here are their most commonly used reasons (along with a rebuttal):
1) "illegal immigrants come here to take the jobs from REAL AMERICANS who would work for fairer wages."

*Undocumented workers do not take anyone's job. Even with immigrants in this country, the job market is pretty large. there is really no reason why there should be any unemployment in this country. Anyone can easily to to <>http://www.caljobs.ca.gov/> or the equivalent in their state and find a job that it suitable for him / her. Anyone can also walk, drive, or commute to any local employer and apply for a job. The odds are extremely good that anyone can find a job within 20 miles from where he / she lives. The claim that undocumented workers work for less is true only for those who get paid "under the table", which means that they get paid in cash instead of with a check. These are basically those who work in the farms or in some factories. This is the stereotypical undocumented worker. Some undocumented workers DO get paid with check, which by the way, also means that they do pay income taxes.

2) "illegal immigrants do not pay taxes."

*Undocumented workers do pay taxes. Stores do not discrimitate between documented and undocumented, so undocumented people also pay sales tax. They pay gas tax, property tax (those who own property, which by the way some do), and all those taxes that our government has imposed. Some (those that get payed with checks) even pay income taxes.

3) "immigrants freeload off of our welfare and public health systems."

*as stated before, undocumented workers do pay taxes, and the vast majority work instead of freeload. anti-immigrant groups have used the media to create a false stereotype of the immigrant who is "dirty", "lazy", and likes to "freeload off of welfare".

4) "illegal immigrants refuse to learn the culture and langueage of the United States."

*some immigrants, due to labor or other constraints, are left with little time to actually learn English. However, it is important to realize that foreign cultures are impossible to practice in this country. Therefore, most immigrants and their families experience a form of "Americanization" of their culture. If you notice, people here do not behave the same as their counterparts in their native lands. Evidently, they have assimilated into the culture of the United States. The only issue is that there the United States is so diverse that their isn't a very clear definition of what the culture of the United States is.

Those are the anti-immigrant points that I can think of so far. Now let's look at some other impacts of how immigrants have improved our country.

If you really look at it, you won't find many company presidents, CEOs, engineers, lawyers, doctors, or other professionals that are passionate about the anti-immigrant cause. Now why is that? Because they are all graduates from our fine universities and they all have nice careers and are not affected in any form of way by the immigrants. Immigrants are surely not competing for their jobs.

Now look at those who do hate immigrants. Let's focus on the minutemen, for example. These minutemen sure seem to have a lot of time on their hands in order to be out there "securing our borders". Let's also remember that there are only 24 hours in a day. These minutemen cannot fit their stuff with an actual full-time job (some can't even fit it with a part-time job). What do they live off of? Only until recently did they begin to receive donations, and even these can't sustain all of them.

Evidently, some of these people live either off of Welfare or Social Security. Oh, but aren't they against those who freeload off of our welfare system?

They claim that they are there to "secure our borders". If they really wanted to do that, they would join our Border Patrol! What they want is to spend some time under the sun while they freeload off of the donations and our public aid systems.

Once again they claim that they are "securing our borders". From what? Undocumented workers that would otherwise help our economy. Even with their guns, they surely wouldn't want to come face-to-face with a drug lord or any of his henchmen. Therefore, they surely aren't protecting us from them. All their doing is popping up on TV and using the valuable time that would otherwise be used for better purposes.

Many propose building a fence on our Mexican border. For what? Immigrants don't come only from Mexico, even though that may be where the majority come from. Let's look at the expected cost of building the fence. I don't have the exact numbers, but it is surely among the millions, maybe billions of dollars (and that's a cheap piece of s*** fence they're talking about). That thing wouldn't last for more than ten years! They we would have to reconstruct it. What's worst, it doesn't extend the whole length of the border. It only covers a few sections here and there. What's worse is that it wouldn't work, since drug lords use underground tunnels and terrorists come here legally!

Sorry for making this too long, but this is only PART of my argument. As can be seen, there really isn't any positive aspect with "kicking out the immigrants".

Lucky

You bet, the time saved on the debate alone would add to the GDP.

Carlangus

I wonder how many people who answer these questions by saying, "they're all illegal! send them home!" have any experience with illegal immigrants. How many of them have actually been to border communities. My family has been here longer than most European families, and I was born and raised 10 miles from the Mexican border in Texas. Some of my very best friends were children and grandchildren of illegal immigrants, and I've seen these friends go off and become doctors and lawyers and people who make a huge positive impact on this society. These are people who work hard for low wages and pay sales tax, property taxes, and many pay income tax.

People talk about how "they" are here illegally. "They" don't deserve this and "They" shouldn't be entitled to that...and blah blah blah, when 98% of this population is American because they were lucky to be born here, very few have "earned" their right to be American.

You don't realize how much luck plays into it until you go to a Mexican border town and see where they are coming from. I am an American and I have a lot more in common with somebody who was born 10 miles from me who happens to live on the other side of the river, than most of the people from northern states with whom I have nothing in common. The only difference between me and a person who grew up 10 miles from me is luck and that's it. And to look down at these people just because they were unlucky to not be born just a few miles north from where they are is stupid. It could very easily have been you.

rlkeebler

I think it is really kind of simple. You take all the ILLEGAL immigrants and send them home and severely fine the businesses that are hiring them. This will force them to hire American Citizens at a fair wage. Then the number of unemployed Americans will suddenly drop lower than it has been it several years.

echo_leader123

I' let them stay to do the crappy jobs that no one wants, like migrant farms, but the other jobs, if they get caught, My first option is to deport them. My second option is to force them to join the military and have them earn their way to citizenship by helping support America's wars by being in the army.

AV8OR

They broke the law. Its illegal. They should be sent home.

llwhateverll

The following 10 facts have been pulled from the LA Times.

1. L.A. County has 10 million people. 40% of all workers in L.A. County are working for cash and not paying taxes. This is because they are predominantly illegal immigrants, working without a green card.

2. Of the 10 million people in L.A. County, 5.1 million people speak English. 3.9 million speak only Spanish.

3. 95% of warrants for murder in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens.

4. 75% of people on the most wanted list in Los Angeles are illegal aliens.

5. Over two-thirds of all births in Los Angeles County are to illegal alien Mexicans on Medi-Cal whose births were paid for by taxpayers.

6. Nearly 25% of all inmates in California detention centers are Mexican nationals here illegally.

7. Over 300,000 illegal aliens in Los Angeles County are living in garages.

8. The FBI reports half of all gang members in Los Angeles are most likely illegal aliens from south of the border.

9. Nearly 60% of all occupants of HUD properties are illegal.

10. 21 radio stations in L.A. are Spanish language only

twiztidsdad

Let's quit confusing these people with immigrants.They are illegal ALIENS!They don't want or intend to be U.S. citizens.Their intention is for us to become Mexican citizens.WAKE UP AMERICA!

hayleylov

yes we would be better off and they should be sent home!

to Carlangus yes i have had experiences with them my sister is married to a illegal ohhhhhhh the drama lol i feel sorry for them but it does not change my view somewhere it has to end we do have laws and hes a nice guy but that has nothing to do with it if mexico does not change no problem will be fixed we cant take in millions of people and expect no social ,population ,and economic ramifications to say other wise would be idiotic mexico has enough resources to take care of their own but wont because of corruption so to ok this is to ok corruption future mexicans will want in due to corruption the people being nice or mean has nothing to do with it nor does race and i have another sister who's son was run over by illegals with no insurance so he almost lost his leg and its mangled now . our government should send them home maybe they could stand up to their own country

leebaugh2

There should be government programs that are required for illegal immegrants to be required to be if they are in this country. Not because of some racism, but because we have laws here and if they're going to be here they must be required to obey them. Any caught not obeying them should be sent back immediately. americans have not worked all their life and many gave their life, so that illegal immegrants could get a "free ride". We don't owe them anything, not even an explination. This is America, That is Mexico.They know all this, so why act stupid?

dragonflygirl

shoot the dirty scabs as they cross the border

jjwannaplay

send them all on a raft back to cuba or a bus back to mexico. That would make sense.

Ricky70

No pros, only Cons.

- Higher crime rate
- Salary lowering caused by them working almost for free
- Higher social costs
- Higher unemployment rate in the lowest social layers of US society, which represents a wide slice of US population.
- The uncontrolled increase of certain types of immigrates can cause US to lose control over some states (see what's happening in California).
- The uncontrolled increase of all types of immigrates (Many of whom, let's not forget, refuse to integrate or come from countries that are declared enemies of the US), can cause the formation of organized forms of protest, if not political parties made up specific racial or religious groups (Latinos, Muslims, etc).

Same thing is happening in Europe, especially in those countries where immigration begun many years ago (Germany, France, Netherlands, UK), which are literally exploding, in all terms. The recent facts happening in Europe show that certain people not only represent a cost for society but they are also dangerous. Let's be clear, also those who are legal or have the citizenship can be dangerous. And that's for this reason that neither the US nor Europe need not any others coming in illegally.

I am Italian, i live in Italy and spend long periods abroad, mainly in Europe. And observing immigration from both viewpoints convinced me that there is a difference between being RACIST (I.e. Hatred against different cultures and traditions, skin colour, social position, etc) and being OVERTOLERANT towards just anyone coming in your (or my) country to basically complain, scrounge, exploit, commit crimes, kill, steal and why not, even work honestly (but entering illegally) although at a lower rate, ruining the market.
We have cases in Europe, like in Denmark, Sweden, Norway etc where the muslims do basically all what they want and the governments don't really know what to do. This will sooner or later lead the people to fix the problem by themselves, with or without the permit of the government (which is, let's not forget, a direct expression of the citizens, the legal ones).

The point is simple. Countries HAVE TO REACT and begin to set limits to immigration (Let's not forget illegals conceive kids too, who are illegal as well and go to pile up with the legal ones, who normally defend the illegals, also because amongst them there are relatives, parents, friends, etc).

naomi2550

I agree most everyone who is saying to send them back have no personal experience with the border towns. Get off your high horse and go check out how poor these people really are and how much hospitality they will offer you, although they don't have very much money they will still offer you food. You should all be ashamed of how hateful you are talking. You were lucky to be born over here and not there so don't be so stuck up. Before you judge people take a walk in their shoes then let me know what you think. I am an Irish Indian from Oklahoma. I knew nothing about the Hispanic race, but I went down there lived there for a bit and I tell you if I could afford it I would have given all my money to those kids who have nothing begging for food. It is a poor country and unfortunately a large country and their government doesn't help the way ours does.

sugarpie

I've said it many times...we need to keep the "good" illegal immigrants who are contributing to our economy. the bad ones...criminals, thieves, gang members should be deported.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think we would be better off because then we could put homeless, hungry people to work.. We would have more jobs for the people that are here legally....If you are here illegaly, go back.....We need the welfare & hospital's for sick & needy AMERICAN'S...We are a rich country,that our ancestors built for us....The legal ones pay taxes, support our government & are PROUD to be here, so proud most learn basic english so they can communicate....This country was built by LEGAL immigrants....The government should make a database, fingerprint & photograph the ILLEGALS, they already broke our LAWS once by coming here........ They should get a warning the first time, second time = jail for 6 months at hard labor, & so on....We are to NICE in this country, I think that is gonna be our downfall..To the Gentleman NAY,(Do not mean to offend you) I have been homeless, starving etc, could not get much help at that time because they had no money left after helping the illegals...I had to go through all the red tape because I am an AMERICAN....If I was a illegal immigrant I would have been helped first............

kelly_brian_420

I think the goverment should ship them all back and on the way back the bus run over a cliff then they could never sneak back in America :)

Magnolia

There are no pros to this issue. They are here illegally. They broke the law by entering this country. They are all criminals. Bush is right. Build the fence to keep them out and no, I'm not racist. Other legalized people will take their jobs. We can and have lived without them in our country. Why are they here? Their own country is so BAD that they must leave it? How about if their own country try to work out its own problems so there won't be any of citizens coming illegally into the US? Terrorists can simply pose an immigrant and walk into the US. This must be stopped!

PANCHA

No we wouldn't be better off,and they should stay.

dantistryfiliya

yeah it is realy big problem what to do with them i realy haven't any idea.maybe we need legalized them becoz they are here and keep strong our border with mexico not allow for other one to invade into the usa

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