Who is to Blame for Illegal Immigration?

These are my opinions of who is to blame for the illegal immigrant problem in the United States.

I feel that the illegal immigrant themselves is the main person to blame. Some will tell you that they come here to better their lives. Others to avoid political persecution in their country. Sometimes their reason is even to avoid criminal prosecution. There are also the ones that will even tell you that they applied for a visa and got tired of waiting. No matter what the reason is, they and they alone chose to enter this country illegally. No one made them cross the border. They chose to pay someone $500 to hide them in the back of a truck or they ran across the border avoiding the border patrol. They had every opportunity to apply for a visa. Our government restricts its Visas to 40,000 a year. These Visas are supposed to be given to people who have a certain job skill. The people who obtain a visa have to pay a fee of $4,000. They go through a rugged background check. When they do this background check, if a person has a criminal record, depending on the crime, they might be denied entry into our country. Considering how hard it is to get a visa and the cost of said Visa, and also considering there are no fines for entering illegally, I can somewhat understand why they do it. However I don't feel it justifies what they have done. If that were to be the case, then why shouldn't every American citizen who is down on their luck, or who works very hard but can never seem to make enough money to have a nice house, a nice car, and so on, be able to break the law to obtain a better life? Some people would argue that there's a difference because of the living conditions in the places that the illegal immigrants are coming from. It is sad that things are bad where they are, but their government and the people themselves should try to make living conditions better. There are problems in our own country with homelessness, unemployment, and poor living conditions also.

Secondly to blame are companies that advertise in and near Mexico that they will provide certain things if you come and work for them. Of course there are also companies, small businesses, and even churches/religious organizations that provide illegal immigrants with jobs, and often more after they have snuck into America. Most of your big companies like to hire illegal immigrants for three reasons. The first of is to keep wages down. The second is to keep a union out (if it's not union already). The third would be to save money on things such as insurance, medical, and retirement funds. Often times if the illegal immigrant starts complaining about the wages or work environment it will be pointed out that they are illegal and that Homeland Security can be called. If they talk about voting in a union, the company all of a sudden realizes that these people are illegal and then they are fired. Most any business is concerned with generally one thing, which is to increase their profits. The use of illegal immigrants in the work force is a big tool for their profits.

Thirdly to blame are the governments. A lot of people would argue that they are the main reason. It is my opinion that they are not the ones crossing the border so I don't see the governments as the primary at fault. The U.S. government is not the only one to blame. The governments from where the illegal immigrant came from are also to blame. When their government failed to take care of them they let that person down. When the country is over-populated and the government encourages their people to go to greener pastures to live, that government is to blame. China is a great example of an over-populated country. To try to offset the over-population they restrict their families to only one child per family. So if you want to have more, you need to leave the country. Mexico is a prime example of not taking care of it's people. The Mexican government has done very little since the signing of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Act). With NAFTA the Mexican based companies don't have to worry about tariffs. Which means they can raise the cost of their product and in turn raise the wages of their employees. Well the companies raised the cost but not the wages. So instead of the government raising (or setting) a minimum wage for their workers, they encourage them to migrate to the US. Thus they don't have to deal with the problem. After all in Mexico there are two economic classes, the rich and the poor. Only about 4% fall into the rich. Meanwhile, all of the people who have come to America illegally are sending back millions of dollars every year to their families still in the country they came from. In turn that money is generated back into the country and benefits that government.

It is a somewhat similar situation with the U.S. government. Our government is to blame for many reasons. They are concerned with money from big business. They know that social security numbers are being illegally used by the illegal immigrants, which sends money into social security that ends up in a "limbo account", which the government will benefit from. I also believe that they have a hidden agenda with the Mexican government, although I am not quite sure what that may be yet. It could have to do with all of the oil in Mexico that is just sitting there unused. They know where most of the illegal immigrants work, being mainly the meat industry, construction, food services, farming and hotel. They have done some raids on them, but not enough. They have apprehended an estimated 5,000 illegal immigrants. Five thousand out of an estimated 12 million. This isn't even close to 1 %. If they considered what the American people wanted then they would have passed laws for immigration reform by now. I don't mean laws that slap them on the hand and say don't do it again. Or laws that reward them for breaking the law. They need to pass a law that would deny admittance into this country at any time if you have been caught entering illegally. One that sentences them to 3 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. A law that gives a $25,000 fine per illegal immigrant found employed by a company. Give the CEO and human resources personnel officer a 5 year jail sentence per illegal they employ. Top it off with a $20,000 fine for them. For the person that aides them a 10 year jail sentence and $50,000 fine per illegal. Perhaps a loss of property used in the crime. This would give these people the understanding that we are not going to let you get off easy like in the past. Entering here illegally has a price. Right now the only ones really paying the price are the taxpaying citizens of this country. If our government was to pass laws similar to what I have mentioned, then there would be a lot less illegal immigrants here.

The sad fact of all of the problems caused by illegal immigrants is that there are many who do want a better life here in America, and who are willing to respect this country. It's not beneficial to all of the American citizens who will continue to pay the price of rising health care costs, lower wages, not being able to find a job, being at risk for identity theft, and so much more, to help the illegals that are serious about living here as an American. Granting amnesty, or even work visas, to all of the illegal immigrants already here, will be destructive to this country. There is only one solution, which is to implement a way to find all of them, from whatever country they came from, send them back, make new laws and actually enforce them, and do a complete overhaul of the immigration laws so that this will never happen again. It would also be of great help if there were some way to get the governments of the county's that the illegals come from to actually take care of their own country and people.