Immigration -- the Challenge Illegal Essay

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Scores of illegal Latin Americans work in the hospitality industry, construction, meatpacking, agriculture, and landscaping sectors. In fact, in some of the states it is said that almost half of the construction workers are from Latin America. There are arguments that if all these illegal immigrants were removed these jobs would improve the unemployment situation for the American citizens. It is also generally argued that the pay scale for low skilled jobs would also increase. Also, most of the illegal aliens utilize healthcare, education and other services without paying taxes causing significant drain for the government.

The above points are clearly valid but there are both positive and negative effects of illegal immigration. Economists feel that totally eliminating illegal workers would only marginally improve the pay scale for high school dropouts and would not have any significant impact for workers with higher qualifications. Furthermore, illegal immigration contributes positively as Americans pay reduced prices for food products, construction, restaurant meals, etc. Also illegal immigrants spend a lot of money for their own food and other goods. They buy automobiles and other electronic gadgets which all contribute to the economic demand and jobs elsewhere. Economists argue that the overall economic impact of illegal immigration is slightly on the positive side.

The author also refers to previous legal reforms to tackle illegal immigration. One has to agree with the author that the 1986 immigration law that granted amnesty to illegal aliens and punished employers of illegal migrants with heavy penalties is largely a failed measure. As shown in a recent movie about immigration titled 'Crossing Over', forging of documents has become so prevalent and employers do not show any interest in verifying these documents.

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In fact employers routinely use these forged documents as a loophole against costly penalties. The author infers that an electronic document verification solution akin to the ATM cards system should solve the forging issues and recommends that private sector should be entrusted with the implementation of such a system. As the author advocates immigration reforms should include a careful consideration of the demands of the labor market. Legalization of those immigrants who are already in the U.S. For years and a policy that encourages the assimilation into America is the key to any immigration reforms or regulation policy.

Conclusion

Illegal immigration has economic, security and law and order implications. In a dynamic economy such as the U.S. It would be a shortsighted measure to focus on confronting illegal immigration as a purely economic defense as labor mobilization is a natural response to the capitalist labor market demands. However, as a national security policy and a law and order problem, illegal immigration should definitely be addressed effectively. Eliminating illegal aliens would go a long way in controlling the drug trafficking and related violent crimes. This could be accomplished by way of enforcing stringent employment regulations and severe sanctions on failing employers, building a physical fence along the entire stretch of the border and allocating more resources and patrolling force. However, "legalizing and regularizing the flow of immigrants according to the market demands" [Michael Barone] is as important as any of these other measures to effectively tackle the illegal immigration problem. As the author puts it "immigration is not just a challenge, it's an opportunity." [Michael Barone]......

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