
                     Immigration and illegal Immigration is an important topic in today's society. Immigration is the movement of people into a destination of a country, which they are not natives of or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle or reside there, especially as permanent residents or naturalized citizens, or to take-up employment as a migrant worker or temporarily as a foreign worker.(USCIS) The Department of Homeland Security estimated that "11.4 million illegal aliens were living in the United States in 2012'' (Immigration Road)  Even in the presidential campaign candidates are arguing about the topic of illegal immigration and immigration.  The main issue that most voters look at when voting for a candidate is there stance on immigration. The ABC news channel did a poll on the most important topics in the presidential campaign and terrorism and immigration were some of the top ones. Therefore, this is an important topic to discuss and think about.

             The issue of illegal immigration has been going on since the founding of the country. Gheen states "During the 1920s illegal immigration was the subject of heated Congressional debates." (1) Therefore this subject has been debated in the government for a long time.   In 2010 approximately 150,000 green cards were issued.  There are many ways to receive a green card.  Some examples are through family, through a job and by becoming a refugee. In 2015, there were 535,000 VISAS given out in United States.   There were more Visas distributed than green cards (Immigration Road). Some people may remain in the United States on an expired visa or may enter the United States without a visa or a green card. These immigrants who come into our country illegally have been shown to take jobs from the lower and middle class people (Fairfederation) Also, another issue is the taxes being raised for US citizens due to illegal immigration.  An example of higher tax rates is the 10 billion dollars of tax money being paid each year in the state of California due to the amount of illegal immigrants. (Geissinger) All of these things have led to large debates about immigration into the country and everyone has a different view on how to handle it. However, the negative effect of illegal immigration and concerns about immigration show that immigration policy needs to be changed.  Therefore, illegal immigration and immigration should be minimized in the US; due to the negative effect it has on the US economy and due to recent security concerns. Some possible solutions to minimize immigration are to secure the border, and more carefully screen Visa applicants. 

                                            An issue illegal immigrants bring to our country is the effect it has on the economy and job market for American citizens. Illegal immigrants come into the country and use the resources we provide for lower class citizens. Many use social programs, like hospitals and schools, that cost taxpayers, which adds to our $16 trillion national debt. (Davidson) Therefore this is effecting the economy and putting our country more in debt and if we fix this problem then our country can start getting back on track.  Illegal immigrants from Mexico are mainly coming to California, Florida, and Texas because they are close to the border.  Texas is attracting many of those immigrants because of "how well its economy weathered the recession (PEW). A major problem with this in Texas is that the lower class to low middle class is being effected because their jobs are being taken because some immigrants will work for less than minimum wage whereas home grown American's know they need more than that to survive. Also companies break the law allowing illegal immigrants to work for them to gain more revenue.  This has an effect on businesses who do not hire the illegals, because their competitor is hiring them they lose money and then eventually go out of business. (Fair Federation) So this causes American citizens to lose jobs.   The border is extremely porous allowing it to be easier for illegals to come through the southwest border of the United states: The United Nations reported that 97 percent of the illegal immigrants who enter the U.S. clandestinely do so across the nearly 2,000-mile Mexican border, but only 20 percent of those who cross illegally are caught. (NBC) This shows that the border needs a lot more work providing better vehicles for border patrols. Also, we need to work on a plan to come up with ways to slowly ease out the population of illegal immigrants. 

In the current presidential election, the Republicans are focusing on decreasing immigration and illegal immigration by securing the border.  Ted Cruz recently stated:

We can build the fence. We can triple the border patrol. We can end sanctuary cities by cutting off...funding to them. We can end welfare for those here illegally. And what is missing is the political will, because too many Democrats and, sadly, too many Republicans don't want to solve this problem.  (Cruz)

However, Donald Trump's has a more extreme view on how to decrease illegal immigration:

Make Mexico Pay For The Wall: (Trump) "I will build a great wall  --  and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me  --  and I'll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words." 

Though his idea of the border is more extreme he states an argument on why he believes this needs to happen. 

For many years, Mexico's leaders have been taking advantage of the United States by using illegal immigration to export the crime and poverty in their own country. (Trump)

Although some people think Trump has extreme ideas he was given prominent support for his ideas on the dangers of illegal immigration: Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani told MSNBC that while most people who cross the border come for economic reasons, "hidden with them, because they're coming across unchecked, are people who rape, murder people, kill people and are terrorists." (MSNBC) This leads to security concerns surrounding immigration. One of peoples main concerns is there safety and terrorism regarding immigration. (quote about recent terrorist attacks caused by immigrants)  

                        The US citizens have dealt with lots of recent attacks whether it was gun violence or terrorist attacks. "US are explaining there concern for allowing more immigrants in from foreign countries especially the Middle Eastern countries" look over (Frum). Recently Obama allowing Syrian immigrants into the US was headline news for the country. People raised concerns about allowing them into the country and they were worried about having a higher risk of terrorist attacks. This is what causes Americans to second guess on who we allow to become legal immigrants from other foreign countries such as the middle east whom cause safety issues.  The Visas that they are given should be examined more thoroughly.  Although there is lots of paper work and screenings, people still slip past the system.  In Istanbul, Turkey there was a terrorist attack bombing said to be done by an immigrant who came from Syria and was involved in ISIS (Botelho).  This just goes to show the security has people slip the system quite often of those coming from another country wanting to become a citizen.

 Another safety issue is that immigrants have raised the crime rate due to illegal drugs coming into town, which cause lots of disputes and gang violence.  This causes safety to be less secure near the borders between Mexico and the United States. (Taylor) The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration reports that the Mexican drugs near the Southwest border are very dangerous than any organized crime currently happening in the United States. If this is so then we should be focusing on securing that area of the United States. Although, the powerful drug cartels, and the human smuggling networks and gangs leverage control.  The Southwest border of the Unites States poses a big challenge for the law enforcements. These cartels are known to have military grade weapons and technology and other enforcers. This cartel is becoming more and more violent if we keep up what we are doing the states around the border will become very unsafe for people to live. In the United States Hispanics account for 17% share of gun homicide victims was about equal to their 16% proportion of the total population. (PEW) This goes to show violence is a huge issue and becomes more of one with the more immigrants allowed in and if the border does not get more secure and the immigration policies when checking for foreigners trying to get VISAs or green cards for the U.S. Also, research has shown that Hispanics who have come over legally and have settled down believe that illegal immigrants should not be allowed into the country if they don't want to become legal citizens. (Davidson) This shows concerns about illegal immigration are not just found among white Americans.

               Another safety issue is human smuggling and human trafficking. "Fair Us" talks about illegal immigrants getting into the country easily they will be able to take girls and women to sell.  The illegals get paid more money if they smuggle women in the United States rather than their home country because people tend to pay more for American women. And so this is why it is imperative to understand the importance of fixing the border between Mexico and the United States so we prevent illegal actions from happening and having safety risks for Americans.

                Some believe that immigration helps the United States economy because immigrants will work and stay out of trouble. Hillary Clinton states: "We should be deporting criminals, not hardworking immigrant families who do the very best they can and often are keeping economies going in many places in our country." (Clinton) Though I believe with her point of allowing immigrant families to stay if they are hardworking. However, immigrants who over stay their visas are committing a crime.  Therefore, under Hillary's definition of who we should be deporting would be these immigrants who have overstayed their visa.  If you are not here on a visa or it is expired these people do not help the economy because they often don't pay taxes and aren't on a payroll.

Another issue is that people think that immigration should be reformed because American citizens hire them anyways, and are willing to take advantage of illegal immigrants. Stated "Illegal Immigration", Some people claim that illegal immigrants represent an assault on our sovereignty. If this is true, then it might be the first time in world history that a country has employed its invaders. When illegal immigrants cross the border, there's a citizen waiting to hire them and benefit in some manner from their labor. The sooner our country realizes that immigration reform should be based upon the views of economists and nonpartisan academic researchers, rather than think tanks and radio show hosts, then Congress will finally be able to help solve this national dilemma.  I agree with the idea of needing an immigration reform.  However, just because there are some American's hiring illegal immigrants doesn't mean illegal immigration is not a problem. Therefore, the reform should include a consequence to the people that hire illegal immigrants to work for them.

       Also some people who know my background, from being from Texas they would think I have a bias opinion about illegal immigration because I live right near the border.  Although I have to say I think I am more informed than most people because I am right in on the action and hear many people's views.  Whereas people from the north may not understand the impacts it has on certain states because they do not affect these Americans from there.  However, the economy is effected due to these states so this topic should be important. 

               In "The Economist" article Obama talks about easing the border control for the younger children trying to escape the violence of their city and find a way out. I agree with this statement of helping children find a way out and start a better life.  However, I still think there should be a tighter restriction for adults and should also be careful to maintain control over the children and women trying to come over for a better life. 

                           In conclusion, a new reform should be made for immigration.  One way to reform immigration would be to tighten restrictions on green cards. Therefore, this will allow the United States to carefully screen immigrants.  This allows us to keep people from getting a green card who should not be receiving one.  We need to come up with a better plan to keep illegal immigrants out of the country. The next president should work on the goal of slowly toning down how many immigrants can get green cards as well as controlling the border by putting up secure fences.  Immigrants cause danger to most Americans, because they cause driving hazards and bring in guns and drugs into the country.  NBC reports that illegal immigrants pose a danger on the roads: About 4.5 million illegal aliens in the U.S. drive on a regular basis, many without licenses or insurance or even the ability to read road signs written in English.  The New York Times reported that in Arizona, 63 percent of cited drivers have no license, no insurance, and no registration for the vehicle, and 97 percent of them are illegal aliens. Of the 188,380 deportations of illegal aliens in one recent year, 23 percent had committed criminal traffic offenses, primarily driving under the influence. Rep. Steve King of Iowa has estimated that illegal alien drunk drivers kill 13 Americans every day." (Meyers).  Deportation of illegal immigrants doesn't keep them out of the country: Due to the wide-open Mexican border, the number of people prosecuted for coming into the country illegally after being deported has increased by 175 percent since 2005, according to a report cited by the Constitution Party website. This shows that more people are becoming aware of illegal immigration and the US justice system is becoming more involved in these cases.  However, this shows it is becoming more relevant but the following situation still shows it is a problem.  The illegal alien recently accused of randomly murdering a woman in San Francisco had previously been deported five times. Also most have been arrested more than once after being deported they still come back and commit crimes, "Many illegal alien convicts have been arrested multiple times: A Government Accountability Office study of 55,000 illegal aliens found that they were arrested at least 459,614 times, averaging about eight arrests per alien. About one-quarter of them had 11 or more arrests." Therefore, if we focus on the basics of what need to be done with immigration and illegal immigration we can solve a lot more issues in the United States and become a better country all around.  The fundamental issues for the problem of immigration are easy access to green cards and visas.  Finally, we should look at securing the border in order to make this area it safer and decrease the amount of illegal immigration. 

 
