Immigration

Immigration Immigration is the act of entering a country with the intention of staying there permanently. “In 2001, more than one million aliens settled in the United States, about 1,000,000 legally and an estimated 500,000 illegally. This is nearly four times as many immigrants as the United States was receiving only 30 years ago.”( Camarota, October 2001) Americans now realize that the costs of our present high level of immigration, legal and illegal, are enormous and growing. “The Center for Immigration Studies estimated in 1995 that immigration costs us a net $29 billion a year--more than the combined budgets of the Departments of State, Justice and Interior.”(Camarota, October 2001) These costs include both programs targeted toward immigrants, as well as the increased costs of education, health care, and welfare programs that are used by immigrants. Immigration has a profound impact on the issues that Americans say matter most to them. Frequent concerns about national security, the quality of education, high tax burdens, urban sprawl, and many other “front burner” issues are directly affected by an influx of more than one million immigrants annually into the United States. The U.S. Census Bureau (2003) projects that with the current trend and policy, “Immigration immigration, immigrants, illegal, proposal, americans, united, states, security, costs, about, workers, reform, national, legal, issues, country, aliens, 2001, years, state, public, programs, president, population, poll, out, one, october, nation, million, mass, lives, january, issue, increase, includes