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Jasmine Phutornsri
Mrs. Welker
Eng 1010
10 April 2014
Illegal Immigration
Introduction
Leaving home and going to an unknown place isnt always easy but if itll create a better
life for them and their families, why not take the chance for a new beginning? Many people
come to America because their parents force them to, because they believe that America is The
Land of Opportunity, a place where there are more job offers with better wages than back home
and a chance for a better education. Whether its an illegal or legal immigrant they all migrate to
America for one reason which is to start a new life but what they dont see is the challenges they
may have to face.
Native born Americans arent too happy with immigrants coming into their home and
taking their jobs away but to all honesty immigrants have less of an education than native born
Americans so chances of them getting a job is less than a native born American. I personally
believe that employers will hire a worker due to the skills they have therefore if the millions of
unemployed Americans would get up off the couch and acquire the skills they need to work then
those illegals wont be taking those vacant jobs. Unauthorized aliens often succeed in finding
jobs because theyre not picky about the wages theyll be receiving. For instance, the jobs that
most illegal immigrants acquire are housekeeping jobs, painting houses, lawn mowing, and
babysitting which arent jobs that most Americans look for (Campbell 12). Citizens also believe
that because these illegal immigrants are so desperate for work that theyre responsible for low
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wages. This is a problem I agree with, but if these immigrants are allowed to work and receive an
education, then theyll soon receive the wages they personally deserve and ultimately wages will
go up. I would like to see these unauthorized aliens become citizens and be able have a job to
support their own. Wages wont be an issue if these illegals become citizens because theyll be
just like any other legal resident of America.
These illegal immigrants have to deal with the hate they receive from the public and the
authorities because theyre undesirable (Marrero 38) theyre believed to be the ones who cause
conflicts but frankly citizens of America cause conflicts as well, being illegal has nothing to do
with it. Why spend millions of dollars keeping these immigrants out? When we could keep them
here and have them pay taxes to help our economy.
Keeping unauthorized aliens out has been an ongoing problem in America. Our United
States Government needs to come up with an immigration reform to better the system, to
ultimately keep the chaos at minimum or eliminate them all together. Illegal immigration will
always be an ongoing problem in my eyes because no one is opened to change. Over the years
the Government has been trying to keep these aliens out but have they tried to just accept those
who genuinely want to live and work in America. Since, our country started everyone from all
over the world wanted to come to America because it was known as a new world and simply
the Land of Opportunities, a place where a new beginning can happen. If there wasnt a
problem before than why should there continue being a problem?
Part 1: Kill the America Dream: Nativism
Natural born citizens of America arent very fond with these illegal immigrants coming
into their home. It didnt matter what group of foreigners were coming to America they just
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didnt like the fact they were taking all the low-wage jobs. Although, technically there were no
legal and illegal immigrants at the time, people began thinking of certain groups as desirables
and undesirables (Marrero 38). The groups were based upon their level of education and
poverty, religion or country of origin, and because of the perceived effect their arrival would
have on salaries and the economic health of the country as a whole (Marrero 38). Is this really a
good reason to dislike a group of foreigners? Just like Americans all these immigrants want to do
is create a better life for themselves and a future for their family.
Today politicians use well-worn arguments, for example Republican congressman from
Texas Lamar Smith said,
Of course we are a nation of immigrants, and our generosity towards immigrants will
continue. But our current immigration laws are broken and must be fixed. When 40
percent of the births in the public hospital of most populous states are to illegal
aliensWhen five million illegal aliensuse fraudulent documents to obtain jobs and
welfare benefits, its not a problem, its a crisis(Marrero 40).
After reading what Lamar Smith had to say, I now realize what the whole chaos about illegal
immigration is all about. I always felt like these immigrants should have the right to live and
work were they wanted, but now I see what theyre doing is breaking the law. They are taking
away the resources of Natural born citizens and theyre abusing the generosity of the United
States Government. How can we stop these illegal immigrants from abusing the government?
Part 2: Killing the American Dream: The Obama Era a Perfected Deportation Machine
During Obamas election in 2008 he stated that he wanted to give amnesty to the illegal
immigrants who are currently in America. He made a promise, I can guarantee that during the
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first year of my term, we will have an immigration reform package which I will vigorously
support, and will personally promote. And I want to do this as quickly as possible (Marrero
164). Making this promise Obama got 67 percent of Latinos to cast their ballot which was a great
advantage for Obama, but when he won the election, did he keep his promise?
If immigration had been one of Obamas top priorities during his campaign then his
priorities have changed. The focus became application and swift execution of the deportation
laws and penalties for the undocumented (Marrero 168). Obama practically stabbed the backs of
the 67 percent of Latinos who voted for him. He wasnt working on helping them but working on
deporting them.
Obama and his Administration came up with the paper raid.
The new, Aggressive strategy requires thousands of companies to open their
books to verify the eligibility of their workers for legal employment, with a
special focus on most serious infractions of the labor laws, such as a company
having a large number of unauthorized workers on payroll (Marrero 169).
From these paper raids Obama and his administration shut down 225 companies and filed
charges against 196 employers. They believed that if employers are fined then theyll stop hiring
illegal immigrants which will cause the illegal aliens to self deport.
Although, Obama broke his promise; he did his job as President. He figured out a way to
control illegal immigration in America. Fining the employers is a great way to do so, because if
employers dont hire illegal aliens then theyll stop coming to the United States. No one would
want to migrate into a country that wont give them the opportunity to create a living.
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Part 3: The (illegal) immigrant Effect
"It was a necessity," said Javier in Doug Campbell's article, "The (illegal) Immigrant
effect". He needed to earn a living and to this day he regularly sends home what cash he can to
his family in Mexico. Campbell states, Depending on your view, he is either an essential part of
the U.S. Labor market or a criminal who is taking jobs from native-born Americans. More so the
overall gains to the economy from unauthorized migrants do not appear to be huge, nor do the
losses (Campbell 4). Immigrants come from all over and depending on the immigrant they'll
either create a good or bad impact on the United States.
Do these illegal immigrants take our nation's welfare? Actually, immigrants don't qualify
for welfare therefore immigrants do come to America to work and about 90 percent of the
nations undocumented immigrants are in fact working (Campbell 28). In reality, these
immigrants contribute about $6 billion each year to social security but due to the fact that they're
illegal they cannot obtain welfare benefits.
Doug Campbell clearly wrote his article to inform us that these immigrants do not make a
huge impact in our economy. They come here because it is necessary for them to support their
families. They are misunderstood by many natives because citizens believe their jobs are being
taken from them but in reality, immigrants work at jobs that aren't even liked by natives. Also,
these immigrants seem to be helping the economy by paying social security and not actually
being able to obtain welfare benefits due to them being illegal. These unauthorized aliens are
building are economy rather we see it or not. So, why not keep these working immigrants in
America? Keeping them will help build our economy; bring money in without having to pay
them back in welfare benefits, since they're unauthorized.
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Part 4: Deporting illegal immigrants
I then read an article by Roger D. McGrath called, Deporting illegal Immigrants he
starts off by informing his audience that mass deportation of illegal immigration has been done
before which means that the government simply just does not want to do it. McGrath believes
that if illegal immigrants are taken into custody then the other illegal immigrants will fear arrest
and simply self deport. Immigrants tend to stay because they are provided assistance from their
employers. Is this even legal?
Border Patrol agents tell stories of rounding up illegal aliens on large farms, only to
have them released after the politically connected employer called the right people (McGrahth
6). If employers start to enforce the laws then illegal immigrants wouldnt think they could get
away with breaking the law. Since, employers are desperate to pay low-wages to illegal aliens
theyll go through any trouble to get them to come back. When we start enforcing the law these
various businesses are on their own going to replace their illegal workforce with a legal work
force (McGrath 15).
McGrath is right; if employers stop helping these immigrants and start helping the natives
then illegal immigration will no longer be the problem. American citizens will no longer have to
compete for low wage jobs; Americans will then become employed again and start paying taxes
to help our economy. After reading McGraths article I realized that theres a lot of law breaking
going on when it comes to keeping illegal immigrants. Its absolutely absurd that politicians
would help employers release the immigrants that have already been arrested. The problem we
have is to keep these immigrants out and if people keep helping these illegal aliens then theyll
just keep coming to America to seek the opportunity.
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Part 5: Ending Point
Throughout my research my feeling about illegal immigration has changed tremendously.
Before my research I thought; why not keep these immigrants here? Theyre not hurting anyone.
Little did I know theyre hurting our economy; using fraudulent documents to obtain social
benefits that they clearly do not deserve. If these immigrants didnt do things illegally, then they
wouldnt have acquired so much hatred upon them.
One argument from an immigrant that truly stood out to me was, Everyone wants to stay
hereHere, the life is much better (Campbell 1). Life is truly better here, with all the
Government assistant that is provided to citizens. Third world countries do not have the
resources to give their citizens a good place to live; like America does. Coming from a family of
immigrants, Ive learned that if we didnt migrate to America then our lives wouldnt be as good
as it is now. We got to receive an education that will truly help us in the future; thatll help us
become employed in our dream career. Im sure these illegal immigrants want the same but
theyre just doing it the wrong way.
Illegal Immigrants arent the only ones at fault, so are the authorities. If borders were
strongly protected and documents were being thoroughly searched then illegal aliens wouldnt be
getting away with fraudulent documentation. Am I right? When George W. Bush was president
he raided companies to arrest undocumented workers this was Obamas response, I think these
raids are a show that doesnt solve the problem (Marrero 69). Hes right, how can arresting a
bunch of illegal aliens here and there solve the problem? Wouldnt it make more sense to arrest
those who are providing them with jobs? Then, I learned that Obama and his administration
came up with the paper raid. I thought to myself, Finally change. The paper raid was a
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way to crack down unauthorized workers but those workers werent arrested; the employers were
fined and companies were shut down. This was definitely an effective way to get these
immigrants out because if they arent given jobs then theyll just stop coming.
A method I thought about while doing my research was, why give the illegal immigrants
that are here now citizenship? Then, close our borders and keep out those who want to come in.
It is estimated that it costs taxpayers $23,000 to deport one immigrant (Marrero 177). Thats
just ridiculous. Why not spend the money to toughen our borders? Also, if we give the illegal
immigrants amnesty then theyll become regular tax payers that will help benefit our economy
and help pay for our national security.
I really am not satisfied with the argument of the Native-born citizens because honestly
illegal immigrants are illiterate they cant speak out language, so how could they even be
competition for jobs? I mean, sure employers want to hire at a low rate but if citizens werent so
picky about what job they wanted then there wouldnt be so many unemployed Americans. My
mother for example, she worked minimum wage; yet she still had the financial stability to
support three children. So if Americans believe that they cant live on minimum wage, they
should think again.





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Works Cited
Campbell, Doug. The (Illegal) Immigrant Effect. Region Focus Vol. 10, No. 3 2006: 19-23.
SIRS Issue researcher. Web. 14 Mar. 2014 <http://sks.sirs.com>.
Marrero, Pilar. Killing the American Dream. New York: Macmillan,2012.Print.
McGrath, Roger. Deporting Illegal Immigrants. New American Vol. 26, No. 15 Jul 19 2010:
35. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 14 Mar. 2014 <http://sks.sirs.com>.