Today Immigration is one of the most highly debated topics in the United States. Both legal and illegal immigrants come to America in what is perceived as a steadily increasing amount. As a nation that has been built by immigrants, in many ways one might think that this would not be a problem. Since most people's ancestors migrated here from another country, it would be easy to think that people would welcome these new immigrants who are chasing the same dream as their own family did. However, as the United States' economy begins to slow and the country's population begins to swell, many citizens are not as willing to embrace the next generation of immigrants. This polarizing issue has led most people to take one of two sides, anti-immigration or pro-immigration. Those who support an anti-immigration policy favor tightening of border security, allowing less people into the country every year, and strict enforcement of deportation for illegal immigrants. These people believe that immigrants take jobs away from natural American citizens and put stress on the country's welfare system. The other side of the argument is a pro-immigration policy. This ideological group favor continuation of current immigration levels, and relaxing regulations for those trying to work in the United States. People of this mindset believe that immigration helps the American economy by filling holes that others do not want, and brings some of the brightest members of other countries to America. The economic side of each argument is what divides the most people. The slowing of the American economy has led many to look for a scapegoat for the problem of low economic output. With immigrants coming in high volumes, Americans more and more point the finger at immigrants as the reason for economic stagnation. These two events however, are not necessarily correlated. People who blame immigrants for America's economic issues have not truly looked at the big picture of what immigration's effect is on the American economy. Though not everything that immigrants bring to the United States is help to the country, most of what they do is an economic help. Some of these benefits include keeping costs of goods and services low and filling niche jobs, while some of the drawbacks include increasing government welfare spending and costs of incarcerating criminals. However, the positives of allowing immigrants into the country outweigh the negatives. Immigration brings economic prosperity to America and therefore should be embraced by the current citizens.

One of the main benefits of immigrant labor in the U.S. is that it allows for the price of goods and services to be lower. Many immigrants are willing to take wages that are below the national minimum wage to find work and provide for their family. With a lower input price into products that people consume daily i.e., fruits and vegetables people are able to buy more and producers make more money. This makes everybody in society better off because of the cheap labor that foreign workers provide. As many states take a tighter stance on the legality of immigrants working in the agriculture industry, the supply of cheap labor has diminished. As a result, revenue has decreased significantly. One major example is in the state of Georgia which has passed legislation that forces employers to use a legal citizenship verification system in order to hire a person as an employee. For many undocumented workers who are just looking for seasonal work this law makes it incredibly difficult to find a business that will hire them. This leads to them leaving to go to another state that allows for them to work with less restriction. As a result Georgia is facing the possibility of an over a quarter billion dollar loss in their fruit and produce industry (Esses). Even worse for the American economy is that more states are implementing legislation similar to that of Georgia which is likely to yield negative consequences according to Esses, "Across the United States, bills such as this are predicted to cost as much as $9 billion in lost farm production annually" (135). With that much of impact on just one industry alone it is hard to see why people would be against immigrants. 

Another major industry that uses labor of undocumented workers is construction. Similar to that of the agriculture, industry costs of production are greatly decreased by employers hiring immigrants who will work for wages that cover little more than the cost of living, "$25,000 a year, which is considerably less than the average entry wage for New York City" (Davidson). By providing cheap unskilled labor, construction businesses can cut cost by not having to pay the price demanded by skilled labor for the same job. As a result contractors can take on more jobs and continue to make even more money. This concept can also be applied to the restaurant industry (Davidson). If legislators continue to try to take undocumented workers out of the economy the effects would be felt nationwide. Serious anti-illegal immigrant supporters feel that the next step would be for the government to start enforcing penalties on the employers of undocumented workers (Haessler). By putting fines on the employers this would most definitely lower the amount of immigrants working in the economy. One simple solution to this would be to offer guest worker permits similar to that of the European Union (EU). Guest worker permits allow people to live and work in the country without being citizens of the country. The permit doesn't entitle them to the benefits of being a citizen allowing the government to save money. Most who come to the country are not looking for permanent residency they just want to make money due to the lack of jobs in their home country. Guest worker permits would allow them to do just that, which would then put them on the government's watch for taxation purposes and allow them to leave legally when they no longer need to work in America (Bandow). It is not hard to see that the cheap labor provided by immigrants creates a lot of economic prosperity, and without it there would be sizeable losses. 

Many people argue against the high levels of immigration, because it puts a financial stress on the welfare system of the United States. Due to the way the American education system is set up all children who enter the country who are of age to attend school must do so. What citizens argue is that these families are not paying the cost in taxes that the state and local government has to pay to school their children. According to York poor immigrant families receive large assistance from the government, "In 2004 ... low-skill households received an average of $32,138 per household ... $22,449 more in benefits than it paid in taxes". With the government netting a large loss such as that multiplied by the amount of poor immigrants living in the country can create a large government deficit in welfare spending. To make up for the loss the government would have to raise taxes on the middle and upper class. Understandably this would anger many people who do not want to have to provide for somebody else to live comfortably. The total sum that the taxpayers have to pay to make up for the cost of undocumented immigrants coming to the country is around $113 billion a year. This amounts to over one thousand dollars per household per year in extra taxes. The majority of the costs are coming from the cost of education which totals over $50 billion a year (The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Taxpayers). Even though immigrants do allow for economic prosperity they do create a strain on American households to help provide for them. This is not an easy ask for most people as the majority of the population does not have a thousand dollars that they are willing to give out to someone who  is not even a legal resident. From a positive viewpoint the goal of spending money to help the poor immigrants today can be seen as an investment in them being able to provide more for the American economy in the future. Currently though, it will remain as one of the many problems that people have against immigration.

A very important competition for jobs in America one must step back and look at what that refers to. Many Americans are well educated and are not competing for blue collar jobs. When talking about competitions in the job market it is usually referencing higher paying jobs. With that in mind it can be seen that many jobs still need to be filled at the lower level of the economy. That is where immigrants come into play. The vast majority of them start out in low level jobs such as custodial, and food service. These jobs tend be overlooked by people in the upper class, because they are very below them. However without many foreign workers filling these positions the traditional workforce would be stretched to find individuals willing to work these positions. Not only that, but it would cost more to pay a more skilled worker to do the same job (Griswold).  The immigrants who come to the United States at the same time do not just supplement the bottom third of the labor force. There are sizeable numbers who come to the country with an entrepreneurial spirit. Companies such as Google and Ebay were started by immigrants (Lenzner). By starting their own companies this requires them to demand labor which translates to an increase in jobs for Americans and an increased revenue, "companies with at least one immigrant cofounder produced $52 billion in sales and employed 450,000 workers in 2005" (Griswold). With immigrants both filling and creating jobs it is hard to see why it is not a benefit to have them in the country. By having more employees in the labor force productivity is able to skyrocket. The amount of immigrants who come to country needs to continue as they provide a valuable supply of labor and entrepreneurial ambition.

Another major issue that many opponents of immigration bring up is that not every immigrant is here to help the country. This claim has been made famous by Donald Trump during his run for the 2016 Presidential nomination. He clearly states that in particular Mexico is sending some of their worst people over the border and therefore the United States ends up picking up the cost of incarcerating them (Donald Trump Doubles Down On Calling Mexicans 'Rapists'). The cost of incarcerating these individuals is very high; "incarcerating these criminal aliens at the federal level is estimated at $1.5 to $1.6 billion per year ... administration of justice costs at the federal level related to criminal aliens at $7.8 billion annually"(Illegal Immigration 2015). This is a high price to pay for the American people for the wrongdoings of those who are not citizens of the country. What also has to be considered is that it is not only a monetary burden on the people, but it is also a safety issue. It is not reasonable for people to be subjected to illegal aliens entering the country and breaking the laws. If the United States is to continue to let immigrants enter the country in the amount that they do; the screening process should be improved so that people are not negatively affected by crime caused by illegal immigrants. It's also worth mentioning that it is not just those who are coming to the United States from South and Central America that are committing crimes. Immigrants from countries all around the world commit crimes and are incarcerated for them. Crime by immigrants in this country is definitely a valid reason for people to take an anti-immigration stand in the debate. Both the fiscal and social cost it creates are undesirable for American citizens to bear. These are fixable issues that can be dealt with if the government is willing to put the time, effort, and money into fixing the problem. Again this is another undesirable problem that spouts from immigration, however the negatives of immigrants do not completely outweigh the positives.

After a deeper look into the debate over the effects of immigration on the United States economy, one can validate that there is a noticeably positive effect. Though the positive effect is not considerably ahead of the negative effects it is still enough to show Americans are better off because of immigrants. This can be seen in one way by how the labor they provide in turn reduces prices of goods and services significantly for the rest of American society. Without the labor both consumers and producers would be worse off, producers would have to pay higher wages for labor and the overall price level for consumers would increase. From that standpoint, one can see that it is important to have immigrants working in American society due to the fact they keep costs down. Another positive that immigrants offer to the American economy is that they fill jobs along with creating them. When immigrants come many start out by filling the low level jobs that most others do not desire. By having these jobs filled, businesses are able to be more productive which leads to higher profit. Not only do immigrants fill lower level jobs many people who come to America represents their countries brightest, and come here to start businesses. By starting businesses in the United States they create more jobs for Americans, which is an all-around benefit. Again this shows that immigration can vastly help the American economy by filling jobs at the lower levels and creating jobs, therefore decreasing the unemployment rate in the country. Even with all the positives that immigrants bring, not everything that they do is a benefit to the economy. One major problem that many believe is a reason why immigration should be limited is that they pull significantly on the welfare system of the country. Since many immigrants are coming to this country with little amounts money they require government assistance to get them off their feet. This pulls on the American taxpayers to pay more which most do not favor. However, it should be looked at as an investment into future prosperity of not only the immigrant but the country. Another issue taken up by many is that not every person migrating into the country is here to be prosperous. There is a large portion of spending that goes towards the incarceration of immigrants who are not law abiding. This is the biggest drawback to the pro-immigration argument. It is hard to justify continuing to let people into the country if the government will end up having to pay to keep them off the streets. However, the majority of immigrants are not criminals that have to be put in jail. The benefits of immigration on the economy outweigh the drawbacks. Although it is not a perfect balance the government can make simple adjustments. This could include giving out guest worker permits, and having stricter background checks on those entering the country as mentioned earlier. In conclusion immigration brings economic prosperity to America and therefore should embraced by the current citizens.

