Immigration_Reform

Immigration Reform Elizabeth Garza English112 October 15, 2011 Immigration Reform The question of whether or not to allow illegal immigrants to remain in this country and eventually become citizens of the United States is a hotly debated issue. Illegal immigrants should have the right to amnesty. It does not make sense to spend billions of dollars rounding people up, breaking up families, shutting down businesses, and deporting people who are working, learning English, and putting down roots here. For immigrants who do not have a legal status, we should require them to come out of the shadows and register, pay taxes, and start working towards becoming Americans, while keeping their families together. Amnesty for immigrants is a good thing. Immigrants, even undocumented ones, are an economic asset. Immigration reform that legalizes currently unauthorized immigrants will create flexible legal limits on future immigration in the form of full labor rights. This would help American workers and the U.S. economy. “Immigration reform would raise the “wage floor” for the entire U.S. economy, to benefit both immigrant and native born workers” (Hinojosa-Ojeda, 2010). University of California at Los Angeles study says granting amnesty to illegal immigrants would boost economy. “Dr. Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda concluded that based on the data from the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act the nation’s gross domestic product would increase by 1.5 trillion dollars over the next ten years, if illegal aliens were to be granted amnesty” ("UCLA study,”2011). The professor bases his findings on the information he had gathered from the Department of Labor and other government agencies on the behavior of the nation’s economy after the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act was passed. Reforming immigration will help protect all workers from exploitation and unfair competition. Currently there are millions of workers, one in twenty in the U.S. workforce, that are vulnerable to employers who seek unfair pay wages. There are employers who are unfair and take advantage over their competitors by not paying workers minimum wage or by ignoring labor rights protected by law. Many undocumented workers do not complain about the low wages they receive from their employers for fearing that they might be fired or deported. Many illegal immigrants have their families here and are just trying to make a living to support their families. Some employers take advantage of the fact that they know people are undocumented, so they pay them below minimum wage, knowing that illegal immigrants would not turn it down since that is their only way of bringing in money to support their families. By bringing in undocumented workers into the system, it will allow them to stand up for their rights and to unionize. When illegal immigrants are on an equal level as with other workers, employers who are unfair will not be able to easily put one group of workers against another, which would stop driving down wages for all Americans. Workers should not settle for a downwardly spiral competition for lower wage jobs. United States needs more jobs, more rights for workers, and better wages, and no more laws to keep workers out or to keep workers down. Amnesty for illegals would have an increase in gross domestic product, but amnesty would also create new jobs and increase wages for American workers as well. Many increases in new jobs would come from legitimizing existing gray economy jobs that the illegals hold today (Hinojosa-Ojeda, 2010). By extending amnesty to illegal immigrants, it will also directly benefit Uncle Sam. According to Hinojosa-Ojeda, “Being legitimate and lawful employees means that the immigrants will be paying federal and state income taxes that they are not doing today. It also means that they will be paying into social security and that will cause their employers to contribute as well” ("UCLA study,”2011). Now there are others who do not agree with giving amnesty to illegal immigrants. Unfortunately, the problems with illegal immigration interfere with this idealistic point of view. People say that high paid American workers “willing to work hard” are often laid off, because illegal immigrants are willing to work just as hard, but for a lot less money. That is true; illegal immigrants will work hard for jobs that do not pay much money. “Between 40 to 50 percent of wage loss among low skilled American workers is due to the immigration of low skilled workers. American workers lose their jobs through unfair competition. An estimated 1,880,000 American workers are laid off from their jobs due to immigration. Corporations interests gain the benefits of cheap labor” ("Amnesty for illegal," 2011). Even though this may be true, immigrants will fill a lower paying job that an American worker would not fill. Millions of laid off American workers will resist taking jobs held by undocumented immigrants in places such as hog pens, chicken processing plants, and in motels cleaning toilets (Kelly & Martinez, 2009). One example is the law in Alabama that went into effect in June. The Alabama law states that all contracts entered into by undocumented immigrants are void. They claim that requiring employers to check immigration status preserves the jobs for legal residents. Except legal workers have refused to fill the agricultural and manual labor jobs usually held by undocumented immigrants, even though many pay more than minimum wage. Millions of dollar’s worth of produce now lies rotting in Alabama fields for lack of workers to harvest it ("Immigration reform debate:," 2011). Breaking the law is another thing people say illegal immigrants tend to do. People who receive US citizenship through amnesty have no reason to follow US laws. Considering they have been rewarded for their illegal immigration activities, which beyond just their illegal status, could include associated crimes ranging from forgery to fraud. Identity theft, use of fraudulent social security numbers and green cards, tax evasion, driving without licenses represent some of the crimes that are committed by a majority of illegal immigrants on a day to day basis just to be able to hide their illegal status ("The dark side," 2011). Even though these allegations are true to a certain point, illegals feel that they have to do these kinds of things just to be able to stay in this country to work and support their families. Just because illegal immigrants cross over illegally does not mean they are criminals. Immigrants leave their own country and cross over to America to escape political or religious prosecution, and to try to better themselves. Illegal immigrants come to this great country of ours in order to be able to provide a better life for themselves, and their children can have more opportunities than they did. Numerous studies made by independent researchers and government commissions over the past one hundred years repeatedly and consistently have found that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes because of their legal status, which would mean they will be deported back to their origin country. The crime we have in the United States is not caused by immigrants regardless of their legal status. Immigrants come to this country of ours to pursue economic and educational opportunities not available in their home countries and to build better lives for themselves and their families. Immigrants have little to gain and much to lose by breaking the law. Giving illegal immigrant’s amnesty would stop them from having to think they need to assume another identity in order to work and not be deported. Overall amnesty is the better choice for America, us citizens, and immigrants in the long run. Immigrants, even undocumented ones, are an economic asset, according to just about every government study and economist. It is clear that fixing the broken immigration system will help strengthen the economy, while deporting undocumented workers would only make it worse. Representative Zoe Lofgren of California is one politician who is forcing the issue head on. Lofgren’s congressional district has the largest Latino and Asian populations, where half of the new businesses that have been started were by immigrants, up from twenty five percent a decade ago. Lofgren mentions names of three immigrants, who came to the United States as children and became job creators: Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google; Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo; and Andrew Grove, who served as chairman and chief executive officer of Intel. “None of these (immigrants) came because of their skills, and yet they are responsible for hiring tens of thousands of my constituents, and they are glad for the work,” Lofgren emphasizes (Kelly & Martinez, 2009). Immigrants are more likely to start their own little businesses, whether it is landscaping, or tamale stands; immigrants do help the economy bring in more money and create more jobs for Americans. Families of immigrants can stay together if given amnesty. It is wrong to separate families when all they want to do is work to be able to make a living for their families. Separating families would only cause immigrants to do whatever they have to in order to put food on the table for their children, being that most of the immigrants that are deported are the bread winners of their home. Family is the basic unit of our society, and immigrants who have the support of strong families are more likely to contribute to society, pay taxes, and start new businesses, which will create more jobs. Dividing families and keeping their loved ones apart for years and even decades, will discourage immigrants from following the rules and working within the system ("Why reform," 2011). Illegal immigrants help the economy for the better. Industries like agriculture that requires a large workforce have been unable to plan their business strategies around an unstable workforce. These businesses have relied on immigrant workers to do those jobs. The hospitality, restaurant, business services, and manufacturing sections are facing similar problems. Americans workers are not willing to do those types of jobs. They should let the workers, who will do those jobs, which are illegal immigrants, receive amnesty. Reform will be a vision that immigrants and Americans can work side to side to achieve better wages, working conditions, and labor protection that will build a stronger America ("Immigration reform debate:," 2011). People automatically assumed that just because some illegal immigrants do commit small crimes, that all immigrants are criminals. Many illegal immigrants just want to give their children the opportunity of a better life. My parents were born in Mexico, and they did come over to the U.S., but they did it legally. Their hopes and dreams were to have a family and what better place than the United States of America. My father worked two jobs for many years just to be able to give his kids a better life in this country. All of his kids were born in America, which gave them a head start at a good life. After so many years, both of my parents became U.S. citizens. They followed all of the rules and did all the paper work that was necessary for them to become citizens. People are very bad when it comes to profiling on illegal immigrants. All illegal immigrants just want a chance to try to live a normal peaceful life like everyone else in this country. They do not intend to take jobs away from Americans. Just give them a chance to prove themselves. We all deserve a chance to a better life. Breaking apart families is not the right thing to do. It is morally wrong to separate children from their parents because of their legal status. Taking away the parents will create more orphans. What are these kids supposed to think of this great country of ours now if society does these sorts of things' Imagine if someone is trying to separate you from your kids. This is not right at all. Society will become monsters if we start doing what our enemies in other countries do to their own people. Americans live in a land that stands for freedom, hope, where dreams can come true. People are all humans, so are these illegal immigrants, society tends to forget that. References Hastings, M. (2011, October 2). Latino Voices. Retrieved from www.huffingtonpost.com Retrieved on October 3, 2011 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/28/obama-hispanic-issues-immigration_n_986324.html De Leon, E. (2011, July 21). The economic argument for immigration reform. Retrieved from news.feetintwoworlds.org Retrieved on October 3, 2011 from: http://news.feetintwoworlds.org/2011/07/21/de-leon-the-economic-argument-for-immigration-reform/ Immigration issues. (2011, October 2). Retrieved from www.fairus.org Retrieved on October 3, 2011 from: http://www.fairus.org/site/PageNavigator/issues/illegal_immigration.html Amnesty for illegal aliens. (2011, October 2). Retrieved from www.theamericanresistance.comRetrieved on October 3, 2011 from: http://www.theamericanresistance.com/issues/amnesty.html Ucla study. (2011, October 2). Retrieved from www.usimmigrationsupport.org Retrieved on October 3, 2011, from: http://www.usimmigrationsupport.org/amnesty-immigrants-ecomomy.html Schaper, D. (2009, April 16). Amnesty for immigrants is a good thing. Retrieved from www.huffingtonpost.com Retrieved on October 3, 2011 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/donna-schaper/amnesty-for-immigrants-is_b_187063.html Hinojosa-Ojeda, R. (2010, January). Raising the floor for American workers. Retrieved from www.immigrationpolicy.org Retrieved on October 7, 2011 from: http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/docs/Hinojosa%20-%20Raising%20the%20Floor%20for%20American%20Workers%20010710.pdf Kelly, A. M., & Martinez, G. (2009, November 30). Immigration reform is good for economic recovery. Retrieved from www.americanprogress.org Retrieved on October 7, 2011from: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/11/immigration_economy.html/ Immigration reform debate: envisioning society. (2011, October 3). Retrieved from www.deseretnews.com Retrieved on October 7, 2011 from: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700184503/Immigration-reform-debate-Envisioning-society.html The dark side of illegal immigration. (2011, October 7). Retrieved from www.usillegalaliens.com Retrieved on October 7, 2011 from: http://www.usillegalaliens.com/impacts_of_illegal_immigration_crime_summary.html Why reform. (2011, October 7). Retrieved from www.reformimmigrationforamerica.org Retrieved on October 7, 2011 from: http://reformimmigrationforamerica.org/blog/why-reform/ Rough Draft |   | Total Points Pos. | 60 | Total Points Ernd. | 0 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | Pts. Pos. | Pts. Ernd. | Comments | Thesis: The thesis is a complete sentence which is located at the end of the introduction. It reflects the persuasive purpose; it takes a position on an issue. | 10 | 10  |   | Organization: Each developmental paragraph contains a topic sentence (a point of the thesis) and support sentences that contain facts, examples, reasons, statistics, etc. to explain the topic sentence. | 20 |  20 |   | Content: The developmental paragraphs contain specific information and no generalities. Transitions are used to move from point to point. Conclusions are drawn at the end of each developmental paragraph. | 20 |  20 |   | APA: APA rules are followed in content and format. | 5 |  3 |  Alphabetize the references. Place the period after the parenthetical references | Grammar/Spelling/Mechanics--The paper reflects correctness of expression. | 5 | n/a  |  Total points = 58 |