Nevarez 1 Cristian Nevarez Professor Mary Hays RHET 105 Date: April 6 th, 2017 Word Count: 2027 Deportation of Illegal Immigrants Effect the Economy Negatively Many immigrants come to the United States, legal as well as illegal, with the hope of having a better life for themselves and their families. Many Americans believe that immigrants live a life of crime and poverty, which in fact is what they are trying to avoid by coming to the United States. Many Americans also view immigrants as lazy people. It really bothers me seeing people call immigrants, such as my parents, lazy because when they come home from work, they are exhausted from the jobs that they stole. If they pay taxes and aren t out committing crimes, why are they any different than those born in the United States? A lot of people must realize that the reason that the United States is here is because of immigrants. The United States is the country it is today because of immigrants. A plaque on the statue of liberty says, Give us your tired, your poor, your hungry, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door. (Lazarus, 1) Deporting illegal immigrants who have done nothing wrong would greatly affect the country s economy negatively. Debating on who to call an immigrant is controversial because the only people who aren t immigrants are Native Americans. The article that supports this statement is written by Ramanujan Nadadur who has a Master s in Forced Migration at Oxford University, Before looking at the history of illegal immigration to the US, it is important to examine the general pattern that has characterized illegal migration streams. This pattern
Nevarez 2 begins with an initial migration of pioneer migrants who were generally young males working in agriculture or other low-wage jobs. Over time, these pioneers made multiple trips and accumulated experience and knowledge of the US. With this experience, more of these illegal migrants settled permanently in the US. After the pioneer males settled, family integration ensued as wives and children were brought over and relatives encouraged to migrate. The maturation of the migrant stream also included the introduction of friends and acquaintances into the migratory stream. (Nadadur, 7) Nadadur is referring to the pilgrims, who were technically illegal immigrants when they came to North America. The only difference is that there was no government set up for it to be considered a problem at that point. Yet, however Americans feel today when illegal immigrants take their jobs, that s how the Native Americans might have felt when the pilgrims would take over their land and kill their livestock. Many illegal immigrants who come to the United States do come with the hope of doing better for themselves and giving their families a better life. People argue that immigrants, either illegal and legal, steal jobs away from citizens. Most of the people that are being stolen out of a job are either high school dropouts or only have a high school degree, but those aren t the only people that they take the jobs from. They believe that this is the reason the government spends a lot of money supporting these families that happen to be out of a job. Steven A. Camarota, the Director of Research for the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), says, Immigrants are poorer than natives, but they generally earn wages commensurate with their skills, which as a group tend to be much lower than natives. (Camarota, 3) Jobs are becoming so much more competitive. Immigrants are eager to find jobs, so any job that they find is a great job, even if they know that they are being underpaid. Immigrants will start from the bottom and work their
Nevarez 3 way up to eventually earn more money. The downside to them willing to work for a cheaper wage, is that the wages go down for everyone else as well. But it really doesn t effect many people because the jobs that illegal immigrants take on, are such as working in fields, bussing tables, cleaning houses, and so many other jobs that most citizens wouldn t take. This also allows for us to get cheaper items such as fruits, go out for dinner with your family, and many more items. Legislators of the United States were interviewed by Human Events and asked how they feel about deporting illegal immigrants and how would that affect the economy. Two out of the seventeen interviewed believe that illegal immigrants should be deported no questions asked. The other legislators believe that illegal immigrants who have committed crimes should be deported because they aren t of any good use for the United States. Then there are those that question if they should be deported because they acknowledge that they are a large portion that contribute to the economy. When asked, Should we deport millions of people? referring to people as illegal immigrants, Representative Lois Capps, a democrat from California, responded Agriculture in my state of California would stop. It would be at a standstill. It s a dilemma. (The Impact of Immigration on the American Workforce, 1) Like many others, Rep. Lois Capps, is aware that illegal immigrants do many jobs that others won t do willingly, such as agriculture, and for a much lower pay. Without immigrants, many items wouldn t be available at a low price. Because the low wage of illegal immigrants, others benefit because food is so much cheaper then what it is. Besides offering cheaper food, they also offer several other services for a cheaper price. I recall seeing a video of an American who personally loved having illegal immigrants work for him because they would go out of their way to fix something that they weren t told to fix, just
Nevarez 4 because their boss was a genuine man. He explained how these illegal immigrants were willing to work for a cheaper price but he couldn t manage to give them a low salary because they had a lot of skills as well as work ethic that other workers didn t have. (I couldn t find the source of the video because it was on social media.) There s other places in the world that also have a slight issue with illegal immigrants, yet they find how to work with it. Maurizio Ambrosini explains in his journal of social welfare how illegal immigrants in Italy find jobs. They tend to be women who take care of the elderly and children. They are paid and given a place to stay at while they care of the family. This helps both sides of this situation, the family saves money by hiring the illegal immigrants and maintains the respect of the elderly instead of sending them to a nursery. On the other hand, the illegal immigrant has a stable job and saves money by staying at the family s place. (Ambrosini) This is what illegal immigrants try to do, both benefit themselves as well as the party which is giving them the opportunity to advance in life. Regarding saving money, the government saves money and gains money as well with illegal immigrants. In the article written by Francine J. Lipman for the Harvard Latino Law Review, she stated that Many Americans believe that undocumented immigrants are exploiting the United States economy. The widespread belief is that "illegal aliens" cost more in government services than they contribute to the economy. This belief is demonstrably false. "[E]very empirical study of illegals' economic impact demonstrates the opposite... (Lipman, 1) As previously stated, studies on economic impact clearly show that illegal immigrants consume a lot of goods and fill millions of job vacancies that result in productivity increase. Even though illegal immigrants do add a fiscal cost, both at the local and state level, the cost should be dealt by efficiently designating resources between the state and federal governments. The journal, Harvard Latino Law Review, collected data about the illegal immigration
Nevarez 5 population. The government also doesn t spend any money for their Social Security nor Medicare/Medicaid because they are undocumented. The illegal immigrants not only save money, but they also are a huge contribution to the economy. The economy of the United States has experienced a steady growth with close to 24.3 million jobs added while the proportion of the labor force that was foreign born rose from 9% to around 14% in 2009. (Cordero-Guzman, 1) There were several items taken into factor when plotting out the date to figure out who the workers contributing to the economy were from. They found out that a clear majority of the people contributing to the economy were either from Mexico or any other Central American country. Many groups have formed since the deportation of the illegal immigrants, and others who aren t immigrants also join and stand up for them. These people, who stand with the illegal immigrants, acknowledge that the illegal immigrants are a huge contribution to society, and it would be a great loss if they were to get deported. The deportation of those illegal immigrants who have a criminal record is backed up by everybody, I personally agree with their deportation. On the other hand, the illegal immigrants who don t have any sort of record (illegally that is) and are supporting their families should be taken into thought. These immigrants have a lot to lose if they were to get deported, and no one in the right mind would be able to deport them. Another way that they found to protest the deportation of immigrants is by not going to work. New Yorkbased journalist, Felicia J. Persaud, persuaded immigrants and those who support illegal immigrants to not attend work nor school and not to buy anything at all for a day to show everybody, including the government, how a day without immigrants would be. A group of protesters were able to stop the Correction Corporation of America from building deportation jails. There is also another group of protesters that marched from Chicago s
Nevarez 6 Little Village to Crete, a three-day process. Jacqueline Stevens article discusses how the groups who have been protesting, have saved this certain corporation millions of dollars because they would have to spend it on buying the land from the state as well as a daily percentage of what they are receiving from the government. (Stevens, 20) The article, The New Abolitionism, also states that even though nativist patriots scream for control of the borders, they don t want to take part in the building of a 2,000-mile wall with minefields and machine-gun towers because they know that it would be a costly expense. Acknowledging that both the building of the deportation jails and the wall which would separate the Mexican-American border would be a costly, is great for these groups. They have contributed into helping that deportation of illegal immigrants to decrease. The deportation of illegal immigrants whom have a clean record and are currently contributing to the economy would be a waste of money and too expensive to follow through with. Without illegal immigrants, there wouldn t be anyone who would help the economy by lowering the cost of several items, those who are willing to work for a lower wage, and the contribution of paying taxes without having to do so because they can t benefit from it. On the other hand, the deportation of those illegal immigrants who have bad record should be done.
Nevarez 7 Sources: Ambrosini, Maurizio. "Surviving underground: Irregular migrants, Italian families, invisible welfare." International Journal of Social Welfare, vol. 21, no. 4, 18 May 2011, pp. 361-371. Web. 22 Feb. 2017. Camarota, Steven A. "The Impact of Immigration on the American Workforce. Center for Immigration Studies, 16 Nov. 2005, cis.org/node/553. Accessed 22 Feb. 2017. "Congressmen: Illegals Here to Stay." Human Events, vol. 57, no. 13, 2 Apr. 2001, pp. 3-4. Cordero-Guzman, Hector, and Desiree Nuñez. "Immigrant Labor and the U.S. Economy: A Profile." New Labor Forum, vol. 22, no. 2, 1 May 2013, pp. 16-27. Web. 23 Feb. 2017. Lazarus, Emma, and Susan L. Rattiner. The Poems of Emma Lazarus. Mineola, NY, Dover Publications, 2015. Lipman, Francine J. "The Taxation of Undocumented Immigrants: Separate, Unequal, and Without Representation." Harvard Latino Law Review, vol. 9, Spring2006 1 Mar. 2006, pp. 1-58. Web. 23 Feb. 2017. Nadadur, Ramanujan. "Illegal Immigration: A Positive Economic Contribution to the United States." Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, vol. 35, no. 6, 1 July 2009, pp. 1037-1052. Web. 22 Feb. 2017. Persuad, Felicia. "A day without immigrants. The New York Amsterdam News., 2 Feb. 2017. Web. 21 Feb. 2017.
Nevarez 8 Statue of Liberty National Monument: Emma Lazarus Famous Poem. EMMA LAZARUS; FAMOUS POEM: "THE NEW COLOSSUS", www.libertystatepark.com/emma.htm. Accessed 10 Apr. 2017. Stevens, Jacqueline. "The New Abolitionism." Tikkun, vol. 28, no. 3, Summer2013, pp. 28-30. Web. 20 Feb. 2017.