Illegal Immigration and Its Effects

In an effort to educate myself and make sense of all the commotion going on in the political arena regarding illegal immigration, I did some internet searching. I set out to compile statistics regarding illegal immigration and its effect on the American economy. In my digging, I found that not much is documented with respect to undocumented folks. I found statistics that varied wildly regarding the numbers of illegals in the U.S. and their countries of origin. I include the graphic as a point of reference. Keep in mind all of this is based on estimates because after all, they aren’t lining up to be counted. The statistics pictured are from the website: immigrationcounters.com. I am quoting these statistics under the assumption that they are accurate at least to the correct order of magnitude.

It doesn’t take much deep thought to conclude that the problems of illegal immigration and border control has many negative consequences that largely outweigh the few benefits to our country. This is by no means the end all and be all illegal immigration solution, but it will outline a few items that must change in order to achieve a more stable economy and employment environment, a reduction in crime in border states, and a more secure border. With the vast amount of information available today, a simple internet search can turn into hours of data mining for something worth reading. I have chosen to break down my findings, opinions, and conclusions into a three part entry that I’ll present this week. I hope you enjoy it, learn something, and will forward to as many people as possible.

PROS: In an effort to be fair, I will first review a few ways America benefits from illegal immigration. Many argue that because many low-skilled agricultural jobs are filled by illegals in the absence of willing Americans we pay less for fruits and vegetables. So, we are saying that because these people aren’t legal, we don’t have to pay them minimum wage? We’ll get back to this later. What about the argument that this country was built by immigrants? True. All that building was done by people who either came here before there were laws regarding immigration or by people who came here legally. Sure, there have been illegal immigrants from all corners of the Earth that have come to America and done great things and contributed to society, but that doesn’t change that fact that they are here in violation of federal law. So, what I am hearing is we can eat better for less, have nice brick work done for less, and mighty Americans are not forced to lower themselves to do jobs that they are better than. You’ve almost got me convinced that things are fine the way they are.

CONS: Financial Drain, Crime, Unemployment, and Security. More to come.