As seen in the last presidential election, immigration has become a hotly contested issue. With somewhere near 12 million illegal immigrants in this country and the numbers in no way slowing down, the issues must be dealt with in some way. As early as the 1850’s with the Know-Nothing Party, immigration has come under fire. Recently, it has become even more of a hot button issue because more and more illegal immigrants just keep coming here. Everyone seems to have a solution, including national ID cards or guest worker programs or many other solutions. However, it is important to look at both sides of the issue. While immigration, legal or illegal, certainly does have its drawbacks, it also has advantages for American society.
One of the benefits of immigration is that immigrants do pay taxes like property taxes, social security, sales tax and income tax providing for a boost to the U.S. economy. In fact, many of them pay social security taxes and never collect it because they give fake social security numbers to their employers so they are not caught and deported. They are also consumers of so many products that they are a boost to our economy. They use their money to buy goods and services, which in turn, boosts the economy. In fact, according to some experts, as much as ninety-percent of the money earned by illegal immigrants is spent within the United States. Only about ten percent of their wages are being sent home to family, contrary to popular belief.
Another huge advantage to illegal immigration is that businesses can hire people for much less money, increasing their profit margin. The profit margin can be even higher because businesses do not have to pay for insurance on illegal immigrants or any other non-wage costs. They can also more easily force illegal immigrants to work longer hours for less money. Business make money and most Americans do not feel the impact on their paychecks. Most Americans are not directly competing with illegal immigrants for jobs anyway. Largely, illegal immigrants take jobs that other Americans don’t want.
Illegal immigrants may actually allow services to be provided for lower prices to American citizens. Because illegal immigrants are largely unskilled, they end up in low level jobs, like agriculture, construction, housekeeping, landscaping or restaurants. According to a study by Patricia Cortes, a graduate student at MIT, cities that have many illegal immigrants provide these services cheaper than cities that don’t have large numbers of illegal immigrants (Immigration’s Costs). With most illegal immigrants concentrated in four areas (farming; food preparation, hospitality, and tourism; construction and personal service), these services can be offered to American citizens at considerably lower prices than they would be if they were staffed by American workers. For example, if most of the housekeepers in a certain area are illegal immigrants, that means the Americans can pay their housekeepers less and still remain competitive. The money a family saves on this service can be used elsewhere in the family budget. Unfortunately, there are also many negatives that come with illegal immigration.
One of the negatives to illegal immigration is that they do take services that some may say belong only to citizens, such as public education, government assistance, etc. The most costly among these services are “Medicaid ($2.5 billion); treatment for the uninsured ($2.2 billion); food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches ($1.9 billion); the federal prison and court systems ($1.6 billion); and federal aid to schools ($1.4 billion)” (Center for Immigration Studies). In fact, according to one recent study hospitals in Texas have spent about $677 million a year just to provide health care for illegal immigrants. Even though in a place like Harris County, the amount they spend on illegal immigrants is only ten to fourteen percent, it is still significant (Elliot). Although many also say that illegals tend to shun services like that because they are afraid that these services will provide a link back that they can be tracked down and deported.
Some will also say that when the services they take are compared alongside the money they pay into the system, there is a net deficit. One such organization is The Center for Immigration Studies. In fact, they estimate that “households headed by illegal aliens imposed more than $26.3 billion in costs on the federal government in 2002 and paid only $16 billion in taxes, creating a net fiscal deficit of almost $10.4 billion, or $2,700 per illegal household” (Center for Immigration Studies). They may take more than they pay out, but they also create additional services.
Some believe that illegals take jobs from Americans. While they chiefly take low-paying jobs that Americans do not currently do, some argue that anytime the supply of workers is increased, the effect will be negative on American workers. This increased supply may lead to wage depression for all. However, according to Sheldon Rampton of Research Director at the Center for Media and Democracy, “”For the most part, no. Illegal aliens are typically hired to perform low-paying, menial jobs that most Americans simply prefer not to do” (Rampton). There is one group who would benefit from less illegal immigrants. That group would be high school dropouts. According to Adam Davidson, the average high school drop-out would get $25 more per week if there were no illegal immigrants.
Another disadvantage is that illegal immigration leaves the United States forever stuck in the bilingual debate. Right now schools and other institutions must fund bilingual education but how they fund it is largely left to each state. Some feel that English-only is the way to go. If you live in this county, you must speak English. The way we learn English is through public school, especially for illegal immigrants who probably have parents at home speaking Spanish. Some would argue that this idea of English only is racist. After all, the first settlers of the United States did not speak English. In fact, they probably spoke Spanish.
There are all kinds of programs proposed to help stop illegal immigration, including something called Operation Jump Start. This is where the national guards aid border control. The real crux of the issue is that a very poor country is butted up against a very rich one with thousands of miles of border in between. Why wouldn’t a Mexican want to come here to make a better living for his/her family? It seems to me that American citizens want the benefits from illegal aliens but don’t want to pay any of the prices for these benefits. If illegal immigration is truly to stop, it must stop with jobs. Businesses must be made not to hire illegals under punishment of a hefty fine. If illegals came here and could not find work, they would go back home. We cannot continue to hire them and exploit them to make a buck and then complain about them using medical services or public schools. It doesn’t work both ways. If we can’t do that, then maybe we should just work harder at accepting and embracing the diversity that illegal immigration brings. The value of diversity can never be underestimated.
Works Cited
Immigration’s Costs and Benefits. http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB115100948305787940-tA5PP0Ya_9U0AlXBQQhnaDyMIYc_20060725.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top
The High Cost of Cheap Labor. Center for Immigration Studies. http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
Sheldon Rampton, Research Director at the Center for Media & Democracy, in a Nov. 30, 2007 email response to ProCon.org, provided the following:http://immigration.procon.org/viewanswers.asp?questionID=852
Davidson, Adam. Q & A: Illegal Immigrants and the U.S. Economy. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5312900
Elliot, Janet. Study: Illegal Immigrants’ Care costs state $677 million. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6160505.html
On the Fence: Are Illegal Immigrants Good or Bad for the U.S. Economy. June 13, 2007. http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1754
