One of the most heated and polarizing debates in modern politics is the argument over immigration. Economic, social, and security concerns as well as the increase in both documented and undocumented immigrants in the US have led some people to fear immigrants and call for stricter immigration law. Others call for looser immigration laws and a path for citizenship for undocumented immigrants due to their economic contributions, humanitarian morals, and support for a diverse and global society. This controversy falls on all sides of the political spectrum, which immigration groups attacking former President Barack Obama for deporting over two and a half million people during his time in office and current President Donald Trump falling under fire for his racialized generalizations about undocumented hispanic immigrants and Muslim immigrants (Marshall). Those opposed to pro-immigration policies like granting amnesty and a path to citizenship rely on three arguments to support their beliefs; that immigrants steal American jobs and drain our economy and welfare system, that immigrants pose a security threat to the safety of citizens, and that immigrants pose a threat to American culture and do not assimilate. These arguments are founded largely in fear and evidence suggests that immigrants are an economic benefit for the US, pose less threat to security than natural born citizens, and both assimilate to traditional American values and ways of life and bring with them multiculturalism that enriches our communities. For these reasons, in addition to the harmful and inhumane effects that deportation and criminalization of immigration has on undocumented people and their children, we must offer asylum and a path to citizenship.
The US economy and by extension US citizen benefit greatly from the presence of immigrants. While the eleven million undocumented immigrants in America make up a little more than 3 percent of the population, they occupy a much larger portion of the workforce, around 5 percent (Krogstad). This reflects a higher labor force participation rate than natural born citizens and highlights just how much the US depends on the labor of immigrants. In Texas if all the undocumented immigrants were deported or stopped working the state’s gross domestic product would drop by a full 2.1% or around 33 trillion dollars (Goodman) (US Department of Commerce). While some may use this dramatic impact of the labor force to suggest that immigrants are stealing jobs that would otherwise go to American citizens, the vast majority of undocumented immigrants fill roles in unskilled labor fields that most naturalized citizens don’t want such as agriculture, which is nearly exclusively dependent on immigrant labor, and service industries. When undocumented immigrants take these jobs they meet a need in our society and strengthen our economy, which reflects back to benefits for documented workers. During George W. Bush’s presidency 5 Nobel prize winning economists and close to 500 other leading economists in the country wrote to him saying that “vast majority of americans will ‘benefit from the contributions that immigrants make to our economy’” (Goodman). Studies by economists such as these have found in recent years that contrary to popular belief that immigrants drive down wages, the wages of documented workers have a positive correlation with the percent of undocumented immigrants in the country (Carden).
Another economic argument used by opponents of immigration reform is that immigrants take advantage of American benefits like welfare. This is blatantly false in many ways. As described by CNN, “undocumented immigrants do not qualify for welfare, food stamps, Medicaid, and most other public benefits… [and] even legal immigrants cannot receive these benefits until they have been in the United States for more than 5 years”. Although they do not qualify for welfare benefits; undocumented immigrants pay over ten billion in state and local taxes. In addition, the IRS claims the between fifty and seventy-five percent of undocumented people in the US file federal income tax, therefore paying into our government and funding many programs they do not benefit from (Santana). Social Security is another program which undocumented immigrants are not eligible and one which is growing increasingly important and threatened as the baby boomer and gen x generations age and the birthrate of US citizens drops. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan recently suggested that to deal with the eighty-one percent deficit between the retiring population and the working population that couples need to have more children (Emba). But an alternative solution would be to draw in more working age immigrants and offer them a path to citizenship, as undocumented immigrants have already contributed more than three hundred billion to the Social Security Trust Fund. That equates to roughly ten percent of the funds retired US citizens depend on (Goodman). Given this information one could turn the argument around and make the claim that citizens of the US are the ones abusing the welfare system by taking the money of others who can not benefit from it.
However, there is more to this issue than just economics. In the last two decades there has been an increasing focus on security issues following the terror attack on September 11, 2001 and a few very public cases of undocumented immigrants committing violent crimes. President Trump has taken a stand on this issue, stating that “illegal immigrants” bring with them “tremendous amounts of crime” and referring to Mexican immigrants “bringing drugs. Bringing crime” and being “rapists” and “bad hombres” (Rizzo). The reality is that immigrants, both documented and undocumented, commit crimes at a much lower rate than natural born citizens. One study done by the Cato Institute found that if natural born citizens committed crimes at the same rate as undocumented immigrants “"about 893,000 fewer natives would be incarcerated" (Bernal). A similar study found that among youths, 8% fewer undocumented teens had committed a crime within the last year than natural born teens (Chalabi). The vast majority of undocumented immigrants are average people that pose no threat to citizens, but just want to live out their lives in peace, without fear of deportation from ICE agents. Former Homeland Security officer and professor John Cohen directly critiques the idea of immigrants posing a threat and points to the rise of domestic terrorists and mass shooters as far more concerning. He calls for focusing on working with immigrant communities to deal with the few and far between criminals in their community, which will address what little threat there may be without criminalizing the innocent (Cohen). This would also increasing the likelihood of undocumented immigrants reporting crimes they are the victims of without fear of the police.
The third reason that many are opposed to more lax immigration laws is a fear that immigrants pose a threat to American culture. This is seen in debates about bilingual education and in viral videos of white Americans harassing others for speaking in their native language. There is this idea that to be American one must speak English, be Christian, and uphold traditional American values like strong individualism. This is tied to a fear that immigrants don’t or can’t assimilate. The Manhattan Institute has released data that suggests these fears are unfounded, as “immigrants of the past quarter-century have assimilated more rapidly than their counterparts of a century ago”. The report states that while overall assimilation rates have remained constant, that number is a bit misleading because newly arrived immigrants drag it down. The new rapid assimilation rate is what allows that number to remain constant despite the influx of newcomers. The report also found that naturalization rate among the children of immigrants has been increasing and that even among those who aren’t naturalized, there are few cultural differences between the children of natural born citizens and the children of immigrants (Vigdor). According to Pew Research, the median time undocumented adults have been in this country is over thirteen years, which suggests that most undocumented immigrants have built lives here, become part of their communities, and are raising their families here (Krogstad).
While evidence shows that undocumented immigrants benefit our economy, provide no security threat, and assimilate into our communities and culture, the US government continues to lock families with children in glorified prisons and deport people back to countries they may barely know. Recently, a man named Amer Adi was deported from the Ohio community he had lived in for thirty-nine years, where he had married a US citizen and raised 4 girls who were also US citizens. He owned several business in town he lived in and was described as a “pillar of the community”, the very definition of an assimilated immigrant that benefits the US economy (Karadsheh). Deportation tears apart families like this every day and the terror immigrant families face is only increasing. Obama was declared “Deporter in Chief” for deporting more people than any president for him and Trump seems to be following in his footsteps as he has repealed DACA protections for undocumented people and the country has seen an increase in immigrant arrests in his year in office.
Deportation causes intense harm and must be stopped unless a person poses a threat to the nation. The one of the demographics most harmed by deportations is actually the citizen children of undocumented parents. There are 5.3 million children of undocumented immigrants in this country, over eighty percent of which are naturalized citizens. These kids face ““psychological trauma, material hardship, residential instability, family dissolution, increased use of public benefits and, among boys, aggression” after their parents are taken from them. In addition to that, the children of deportees are found to have less access to education, healthcare, and social services (Deportation). Ripping people from the communities they live and work in and leaving children without parents or resources is not simply an economic or security or social issue, it is a human rights violation. For this powerful reason, in addition to all of the benefits that immigrants provide for the United States, it is time to treat undocumented people as people with dignity and rights that should be protected. It is time to create a path to citizenship and rewrite our immigration laws so that they are bases on facts and humanity, rather than fear.
The US economy and by extension US citizen benefit greatly from the presence of immigrants. While the eleven million undocumented immigrants in America make up a little more than 3 percent of the population, they occupy a much larger portion of the workforce, around 5 percent (Krogstad). This reflects a higher labor force participation rate than natural born citizens and highlights just how much the US depends on the labor of immigrants. In Texas if all the undocumented immigrants were deported or stopped working the state’s gross domestic product would drop by a full 2.1% or around 33 trillion dollars (Goodman) (US Department of Commerce). While some may use this dramatic impact of the labor force to suggest that immigrants are stealing jobs that would otherwise go to American citizens, the vast majority of undocumented immigrants fill roles in unskilled labor fields that most naturalized citizens don’t want such as agriculture, which is nearly exclusively dependent on immigrant labor, and service industries. When undocumented immigrants take these jobs they meet a need in our society and strengthen our economy, which reflects back to benefits for documented workers. During George W. Bush’s presidency 5 Nobel prize winning economists and close to 500 other leading economists in the country wrote to him saying that “vast majority of americans will ‘benefit from the contributions that immigrants make to our economy’” (Goodman). Studies by economists such as these have found in recent years that contrary to popular belief that immigrants drive down wages, the wages of documented workers have a positive correlation with the percent of undocumented immigrants in the country (Carden).
Another economic argument used by opponents of immigration reform is that immigrants take advantage of American benefits like welfare. This is blatantly false in many ways. As described by CNN, “undocumented immigrants do not qualify for welfare, food stamps, Medicaid, and most other public benefits… [and] even legal immigrants cannot receive these benefits until they have been in the United States for more than 5 years”. Although they do not qualify for welfare benefits; undocumented immigrants pay over ten billion in state and local taxes. In addition, the IRS claims the between fifty and seventy-five percent of undocumented people in the US file federal income tax, therefore paying into our government and funding many programs they do not benefit from (Santana). Social Security is another program which undocumented immigrants are not eligible and one which is growing increasingly important and threatened as the baby boomer and gen x generations age and the birthrate of US citizens drops. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan recently suggested that to deal with the eighty-one percent deficit between the retiring population and the working population that couples need to have more children (Emba). But an alternative solution would be to draw in more working age immigrants and offer them a path to citizenship, as undocumented immigrants have already contributed more than three hundred billion to the Social Security Trust Fund. That equates to roughly ten percent of the funds retired US citizens depend on (Goodman). Given this information one could turn the argument around and make the claim that citizens of the US are the ones abusing the welfare system by taking the money of others who can not benefit from it.
However, there is more to this issue than just economics. In the last two decades there has been an increasing focus on security issues following the terror attack on September 11, 2001 and a few very public cases of undocumented immigrants committing violent crimes. President Trump has taken a stand on this issue, stating that “illegal immigrants” bring with them “tremendous amounts of crime” and referring to Mexican immigrants “bringing drugs. Bringing crime” and being “rapists” and “bad hombres” (Rizzo). The reality is that immigrants, both documented and undocumented, commit crimes at a much lower rate than natural born citizens. One study done by the Cato Institute found that if natural born citizens committed crimes at the same rate as undocumented immigrants “"about 893,000 fewer natives would be incarcerated" (Bernal). A similar study found that among youths, 8% fewer undocumented teens had committed a crime within the last year than natural born teens (Chalabi). The vast majority of undocumented immigrants are average people that pose no threat to citizens, but just want to live out their lives in peace, without fear of deportation from ICE agents. Former Homeland Security officer and professor John Cohen directly critiques the idea of immigrants posing a threat and points to the rise of domestic terrorists and mass shooters as far more concerning. He calls for focusing on working with immigrant communities to deal with the few and far between criminals in their community, which will address what little threat there may be without criminalizing the innocent (Cohen). This would also increasing the likelihood of undocumented immigrants reporting crimes they are the victims of without fear of the police.
The third reason that many are opposed to more lax immigration laws is a fear that immigrants pose a threat to American culture. This is seen in debates about bilingual education and in viral videos of white Americans harassing others for speaking in their native language. There is this idea that to be American one must speak English, be Christian, and uphold traditional American values like strong individualism. This is tied to a fear that immigrants don’t or can’t assimilate. The Manhattan Institute has released data that suggests these fears are unfounded, as “immigrants of the past quarter-century have assimilated more rapidly than their counterparts of a century ago”. The report states that while overall assimilation rates have remained constant, that number is a bit misleading because newly arrived immigrants drag it down. The new rapid assimilation rate is what allows that number to remain constant despite the influx of newcomers. The report also found that naturalization rate among the children of immigrants has been increasing and that even among those who aren’t naturalized, there are few cultural differences between the children of natural born citizens and the children of immigrants (Vigdor). According to Pew Research, the median time undocumented adults have been in this country is over thirteen years, which suggests that most undocumented immigrants have built lives here, become part of their communities, and are raising their families here (Krogstad).
While evidence shows that undocumented immigrants benefit our economy, provide no security threat, and assimilate into our communities and culture, the US government continues to lock families with children in glorified prisons and deport people back to countries they may barely know. Recently, a man named Amer Adi was deported from the Ohio community he had lived in for thirty-nine years, where he had married a US citizen and raised 4 girls who were also US citizens. He owned several business in town he lived in and was described as a “pillar of the community”, the very definition of an assimilated immigrant that benefits the US economy (Karadsheh). Deportation tears apart families like this every day and the terror immigrant families face is only increasing. Obama was declared “Deporter in Chief” for deporting more people than any president for him and Trump seems to be following in his footsteps as he has repealed DACA protections for undocumented people and the country has seen an increase in immigrant arrests in his year in office.
Deportation causes intense harm and must be stopped unless a person poses a threat to the nation. The one of the demographics most harmed by deportations is actually the citizen children of undocumented parents. There are 5.3 million children of undocumented immigrants in this country, over eighty percent of which are naturalized citizens. These kids face ““psychological trauma, material hardship, residential instability, family dissolution, increased use of public benefits and, among boys, aggression” after their parents are taken from them. In addition to that, the children of deportees are found to have less access to education, healthcare, and social services (Deportation). Ripping people from the communities they live and work in and leaving children without parents or resources is not simply an economic or security or social issue, it is a human rights violation. For this powerful reason, in addition to all of the benefits that immigrants provide for the United States, it is time to treat undocumented people as people with dignity and rights that should be protected. It is time to create a path to citizenship and rewrite our immigration laws so that they are bases on facts and humanity, rather than fear.
