Effects of Illegal Immigration on America

My family and I came to America as illegal immigrants. We came here without Visa or green card as with many people I know for better life, education, job, and environment. My parents had to work under cold eyes of their fellow workers for two years in which we paid tax and obtained a visa. After those harsh two years, we became legal immigrants of America. I have been an illegal immigrant once and I know better than anyone the hard-work and time that illegal immigrants have to spend under the harsh eyes of the fellow neighbors and colleagues. I never understood why we had to be so hated. For this reason, I have decided that I wanted to find out that reason. After days of research, I understand that reason. Illegal immigration does hurt America.

First, illegal immigration has detrimental effects on the quality of healthcare on America. According to Rand study, "undocumented immigrants are younger and healthier, and they use the health-care system less often. The study estimates that undocumented immigrants ages 18 to 64 cost the health system about $6.5 billion a year in 2000 dollars. The cost to taxpayers is about $1 billion in 2000 dollars, or $11 per household." (Perkes) Thus, illegal immigration has been shown to cause some medical consequences including importation of diseases such as polio, plague, dengue fever, drug-resistant tuberculosis, the chagas disease, and others, which are often described to be serious according to World Net Daily.

Next, illegal immigration has various effects on economy of America. According to Borjas, illegal immigrants work for far less than average American citizen. For that reason, illegal immigrants are favored by business owners, since business owners can operate their business for far less than hiring to do the same work by the American citizen. The reason that illegal immigrants work for less is because illegal immigrants do not have to pay tax, so the minimum wage law does not apply to them. Also, the illegal immigrants will do any job that they can find, and often they do not have the education to do any high paying jobs. So, the poor who will do any job that they can find, even minimum wage jobs, will have trouble finding jobs due to business owners who will hire illegal immigrants to save the money.

Illegal immigration is also connected with many illegal activities which are harmful to the United States. First, according to Olga R. Rodriguez, "Mexican traffickers supplied 77% of the cocaine, 53% of the methamphetamine and approximately 50% of the heroin that enters the U.S." So, the illegal immigrants, who are largely Mexican, are connected with most of trafficking of drugs which are connected with many of the illegal activities that go on in the United States. Also, according to a Maldon Institute report, MS 13 "appears to be in control of much of the Mexican border and, in addition to its smuggling and contraband rackets, the gang collects money from illegal immigrants that it helps [move] across the border into the United States. Its members have committed murders, severing limbs, assault, robbery, and rape and are protected by international law with El Salvadore." (Domash)

In conclusion, the illegal immigration really does hurt America. I was actually relieved that what my family did does not have any grave effects on America. I think that illegal immigration is bad, but I still think that the illegal immigrants are human that deserve what we all have, especially the rights we have here in America. They also should be given a chance to live in America.

Work cited
Borjas, George J.. "Mexico's One-Way Remedy." The New York Times 18 jun 2000 .
Borjas, George J.. "The Evolution of the Mexican-Born Workforce in the United States." National Bureau of Economic Research .
Camarota, Steven. "The High Cost of Cheap Labor." August 2004 .
COURTNEY PERKES, RONALD CAMPBELL and AMY TAXIN, "Illegal immigrants and health care." The Orange County Register 16 nov 2006 .
Domash, Shelly . "America's Most Dangerous Gang." Police the law enforcement magazine .
"Illegal aliens threaten U.S. medical system." worldnet daily exclusive 10 dec 2006 .