U.S. Immigration Debate

The issue of immigration has been one of the central debates among the mass of American politicians and their respective constituents, since the mid-1800's, with the influx of new immigrants from Asia and Western Europe. According to studies concluded by M.R. Davie, I. Glazier, and L. DeRosa; and a separate study conducted by V.N. Sinha, D.R. Steiner, and A. Richmond, in the time period between 1820 and 1930, "the United States received about 60% of the world's immigrants". One of the leading causes for this dramatic increase in immigration to the United States, was the vast available land and superior means of transportation.

As immigration to the United States continued to increase, the U.S. Congress decided that it was time to institute measures to attempt to limit the amount of people that would be allowed into the country in order to retain a permanent residence. This measure was known as the "first permanent quota law", and it was implemented in 1924. The primary immigration factors within this quota law often were race or (former) nationality. Later, as a result of the unsuccessful attempt to reduce the continuing population growth, Congress furnished the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1952; race ceased to be considered to be a factor any longer, however nationality still was. An amendment was passed in 1965 that removed the nationality criteria.

Much like the time period between 1820 and 1930, the 1980's saw a new immigration high; in fact, the most immigrants since the early 20th century. As a direct measure to attempt to reduce the amount of illegal and undocumented immigrants residing in the U.S., Congress passed an ordinance in 1986 that imposed large fines against employers that had hired them. Congress also was generous by giving a number of illegal immigrants legal status. Later, in the Immigration Act of 1990, the total amount allotted for immigrants was raised yet again, and the "preference system" was reorganized. Congress, seeing the continuous trend of failure in combating this growth, decided to take harsher measures, and in 1996, Congress passed the Illegal Immigration and Reform Responsibility Act. This led to immense deportation of illegal aliens, and was later re-applied following the September 11th attacks.

The United States' Congress has finally come to the realization that illegal immigration is a growing epidemic in the United States, and drastic measures must be taken to reduce the problem. Over the last few years, numerous plans on how to best prevent illegal immigration and equip U.S. Border Control, have been presented by a number of politicians and lobbyists, however one plan seems to be one of the front-runners at the present time. The plan is entitled the "Guest Worker Plan", and was proposed by the U.S. Chief of State, President George W. Bush. President Bush's proposal would permit companies to offer individual work visas to unlawful aliens already residing in the country, if the businesses can display fully, that the position filled by the immigrant, would not be filled by a U.S. resident worker. The agenda intends for the "guest-workers" to fill positions within the country (especially manual labor: horticultural, agricultural, produce, manufacturing, et al), that otherwise would suffer avoid of being filled. According to Jonathan Weisman and Jim Vandehei, correspondents for the Washington Post, "the visas would last for

Scores of the critics of President Bush's plan have called for a harsher, more severe punishment for aliens who have not obtained proper documentation from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services prior to entering the country. Proposed punishments include heavy fines, jail time, deportation, or any combination of the punishments. This plan, as some may argue, encourages other foreign residents to illegally access the country in hope of obtaining more lucrative jobs and salaries than what they might be able to achieve in their own respective countries. This inadvertently takes said jobs and salaries away from American citizens and residents (who obtained the permission to enter the country legally through the I.N.S.). Other critics of this immigration, in general, argue that illegal immigrants do not pay enough into the system in which they exploit the benefits offered to Americans.

Supporters of President Bush's plan could argue, however, that on the contrary, these illegal immigrants actually fill the positions that American residents aren't willing to take. Therefore, these immigrants are thought to actually help the economy, in terms of performing manual labor that allows for mass production of goods. Additionally, as several argue, the vast cultural and lingual diversity has made America what it is today. They argue that the United States is a country whose foundation was built by immigrants from the European states (and later, in early American history, Asians, Africans, et al. added to that foundation). On the contrary of the critic's worry about immigrants not paying enough into the programs that they utilize the benefits/services of, "undocumented workers pay about $7 billion a year into Social Security, but they will never receive the benefits."

As I researched the issue of immigration, I decided that the most appropriate way to "touch base" with the issue, was to conduct personal interviews on those that are directly affected by the Guest Worker Plan and other proposed immigration legislation. For this reason, I had inquired with a few employees of a local landscaping firm to find out what their take was on the immigration issue. The employees consulted are of Mexican (and some cases Mexican-American) descent and though the majority claim their legality, it is suspected that some have obtained false documentation from local black-market identity thieves. For this reason, they have requested that their names be omitted from this paper. When asked why they had immigrated to the United States, rather than their own country, one employee replied that he had, "immigrated here [to the United States] because where I am from, there are few jobs that I can do". Later, I asked another employee if he had ever utilized the hospital's clinic (which is essentially free to immigrants), he replied by saying "Yes, my daughter and wife have had to go to the clinic before because we do not have health insurance; they have received shots at the clinic before

My personal belief is that the illegal immigrants from Mexico, Cuba, Sudan, et al, are actually a drain on the United States economy. There are plenty of working illegal aliens who are respective of the country that they wish to become part of, and pay the taxes that are required upon them, and do not use services/amenities that are not intended for them. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. However, I personally believe, that the working community is in the minority, and that the overall intention of illegal immigrants is to come to the United States and exploit the benefits that are offered. When I make this argument, my intention is not to sound like a bigot or that I am racist/prejudice in any way however, I am still firm in my beliefs, until I can be persuaded otherwise. The legal United States residents have plenty of problems within their own communities to deal with, rather than the illegal immigrant communities that tend to not want to adapt to the American way of life (language, discipline beliefs, et al).