Immigration reform has been an important and relevant topic in the upcoming presidential election. Conservative politicians believe that as a country we must get rid of Obama's amnesty and deport all illegal immigrants because they are stealing American jobs, don't pay taxes, and are criminals. On the other hand more liberal politicians believe that deporting 11 million illegal immigrants isn't the answer, costing an estimated 600 billion tax payer dollars. However, I believe that most immigrants aren't unlawful and are valuable assets to our workforce. If we deport criminals and make immigrants who haven't committed crimes receive a background check, learn English, and pay back taxes, and then let them work legally, the country would generate a large amount of revenue.

In an article from the International Business Times called Immigration Reform 2016: More than $11B in Taxes are Paid by Undocumented Immigrants Each Year, the article states that " ...  undocumented immigrants' contributions account for about 8 percent of local income taxes. By comparison, the nation's wealthiest 1 percent pay 5.4 percent of local taxes. "If illegal immigrants are providing more taxes than the wealthiest 1 percent why should all of them be deported and not just those who have been unlawful during their time here? Those number are also just the immigrants that pay taxes right now. If we establish a reform policy that gives all law abiding undocumented immigrants the chance to legally work here if they pay all of their income taxes then the country will collect a large amount of money.

Although an immigration reform policy, like the one previously stated, would immensely benefit the country others disagree. For example in an article from the Chicago Tribune called, The Ugly Roots of Donald Trump's Immigration Plan, the article quotes Donald Trump calling illegal immigrants "criminals, drug dealers, and rapists". In addition the article states that Trump would use a "deportation force" to deport the estimated all 11 million undocumented immigrants back to Mexico and secure our borders by building a wall. Although, many Americans agree with plans similar to Trumps the truth is that it won't make America greater, it will only hurt it even more. Trump claims that building a secure border will only cost 8 billion dollars. But the trade deficit that it would create between the United States and Mexico will also be a minimum of 50 billion dollars. Also, according to an article published by The Atlantic called, Immigrants in the Workforce, State by State and Industry by Industry, the article states that undocumented immigrants make up 17 percent of the workforce. If we just deported 17 percent of the workforce then there would be a massive problem because the majority of illegal immigrants work in the service, construction, production and repair, and agriculture industries. The only thing we would be doing by creating this unnecessarily expensive border would be making the national debt higher and destroying lives of millions immigrants.

Another critical factor about this whole immigration policy problem is that most people don't take into account is that a large majority of immigrants that come illegally into our country is to make money and send it back to wherever they came from. They do this to try and provide a better life for their family that are back home. They also do this because they believe that coming to America would give them the work opportunities that they would never be able to get in their own country. For example, currently in our country the minimum wage is rising anywhere from 10 dollars to 15 dollars an hour. The minimum wage in a country like Mexico is currently around 80 pesos which translates to 4 dollars an hour.
