
One of the most controversial issues in modern day America is the issue of illegal immigration. It has been an issue for decades and there is a great deal of misinformation about the issue. This makes dealing with the issue even more difficult than it already is. Illegal immigration is a complex issue that cannot be easily solved, although some attempted solutions can alleviate the issue. By analyzing historical examples and statistics the best way to deal with illegal immigration is to provide temporary work for migrants.

Illegal immigration is an issue that changes heavily on the current status of many countries. The economic and social situations in Mexico and the United States are the largest cause for most changes. Use of foreign workers for cheap labors has been very common throughout history and Mexican workers are one of the largest migrant worker groups in the United States. The migrant workers were often deported when jobs were scarce up til world war 2.  Huffingtonpost describes the war as being a turning point in the migrant worker situation "The situation changed again during WWII when many men went to war and the domestic workforce was concentrated in the war industries. There were not enough men to work in the fields, so the US government instituted the Bracero program to bring temporary contract laborers from Mexico" (Kelly-Gagnon).  The program was one of the first programs focused on giving migrant workers temporary works to fill up jobs on farms and in the field.  The cancellation of the program was a major cause in the increase of illegal immigration. With the program gone it was difficult for farms to legally hire the migrant workers from Mexico. The change did not decrease numbers of migrant workers, but instead make them illegal workers. It was a while before more attempts to legalize migrant workers were made.  President Regan created an act that would support migrant workers and give them temporary visas. An article by Huffingtonpost  notes that a problem eventually arised with the act "Under President Reagan, the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 legalized some two million undocumented workers. However, it did not create work visas for future workers, so the problem resurfaced a few years later." (Kelly-Gagnon).  Later attempts to make a longer lasting version of the act failed due to anti-immigrant groups. The groups saw these acts as equal to pardoning a criminal from a crime and blocked all attempts for those sorts of laws. The constant blocking of solutions is a large cause for the current illegal immigration crisis. The treatment of migrant workers is not the only part relating to illegal immigration to change, the state of border security has changed much through the years.

Border security has increased to far beyond what it started with. Border security was very loose at the beginning until illegal immigration increased in the 1980's and 1990's.  This has caused the government to double down on illegal immigration by instating strict border policies. An article by Edward Alden discussing border security says that most Americans are not convinced that the strategy is working "Most Americans remain unconvinced that border security is improving; a Rasmussen poll taken in May 2011 found that two-thirds of the public believe the border with Mexico is not secure." (Alden, 108). Despite all of the money that the government has thrown towards border security the majority of the population is unconvinced that is enough. The government cannot afford to spend even more money on border control especially since it is difficult to convince the population that the border is safe. Another problem with high border security is the effects that it has on all immigrants. Alden states that it prevents lots of legal immigrants from easily entering the country "Tourism, business travel, crossings at the land borders, and other legal entries into the United States have all been flat or falling over the past decade. Skilled immigrants have been discouraged and sought out more hospitable countries." (Alden, 109). Skilled immigrants are important for the workforce and reducing their numbers can cause lots of economic cost.  If border security gets worse than even less skilled immigrants will enter the country which is a problem in itself. 

One of the major arguments used against illegal immigrant is the idea that they lower the wages of American workers. Statistics have shown that this is not only incorrect, but the opposite is actually true. A Forbes article citing a symposium on the economic effects on illegal immigrants details the results "Using data from Georgia, Julie Hotchkiss, Myriam Quispe-Agnoli, and Fernando Rios-Avila find that documented workers' wages rise with increases in the share of undocumented workers in a worker's county and employed by their employers." (Carden).  Having more illegal immigrants is actually beneficial to documented workers in terms of wages. Illegal immigrants are also accused of taking jobs from American workers, which is also a false statement. Many of the jobs by illegal immigrants are low wage back breaking work that most citizens avoid doing. In reality it is not illegal immigrants that reduce American employment, but rather the measures taken to deal with the issue. The Forbes article again cites the symposium to describe the negative effect of the E-Verfiy programs has on us "Meanwhile, rules preventing illegal immigrants from getting driver's licenses raise our car insurance premiums and E-Verify requirements raise the cost of doing business and reduce employment." (Carden).  The steps taken to try to oppose illegal immigration achieve the same negative effects that illegal immigrants are said to cause. The 2007 Legal Arizona Workers act was noted in the article to have a similar result regarding employment.  The statistics show that these solutions are either harmful or do not help with the problem. Trying to prevent illegal immigrants from coming to work is the incorrect solution. Even doing little to deal with illegal immigration is more beneficial to the problem than the costly ineffective programs. 

The best solution to dealing with illegal immigrants is to hand out temporary work visas. Attempts to try and use work visas have been successful, but were not continued or faced opposition from anti-illegal immigrant groups. (Kelly-Gagnon). Many of the illegal immigrants come to the United States not to live, but rather for the cheap available work. Letting them easily travel legally through the border allows the work from the immigrants while not needing to be paid welfare by the government. A Huffington Post article details this idea as bringing back all of the best parts of the previous attempts while improving upon the mistakes "One obvious solution would be to distribute enough temporary work visas for the farmers to be able to hire the workers they need legally. The positive aspects of the Bracero program should be revived, while eschewing its mistakes." (Kelly-Gagnon). The biggest problem with this solution as noted in the article is that it is only effective when dealing with illegal immigration from Mexico as opposed to illegal immigrants from Colombia as an example. The use of illegal immigrants to work is very important and a major reason for why it should be kept. Professer Myer's from USC believes that the workforce in Arizona may shrink in the coming years "USC's Myers predicts that the American labor force will start shrinking in some parts of the country by 2015, and that as boomers reach old age they'll create even more demand for workers" (Campo-Flores). Having a good number of immigrant workers is always a good backup in case of unexpected work force number changes.  They can fill in jobs that most people do not want which means that these jobs will always be filled as long as illegal immigrants are able to come and work.

Being a largely researched issue, there is a wealth of statistics relating to the topic of illegal immigration. Some of the most important statistics are ones that pertain to possible solutions for illegal immigration. An academic article used a computational method called the pairwise comparison method. It compared six possible solutions in regards to their coast compared to the benefit. The results show giving temporary work visas to be one of the best solutions statistically speaking "The model indicates that the best alternative is "Make All Current Illegal Mexican Immigrants US Citizens ... " with a normalized value of 28.0684%. The second highest priority among the alternatives was "Guest Worker Program" with a value of 21.2325%."  (Crowe, Lucas-Vergona, 8).  The first solution may be better in the short term, but it doesn't too much to help in the future. It will end up running into the same problem that the act created by President Regan faced. The best solution is too mix the two different solutions as the two solutions are not mutually exclusive. The two worst solutions to immigration were opposite extremes to each other "The two lowest ranked alternatives, "Deport All Illegal Immigrants ... " and "Institute a Completely Open Border ... " have tremendous costs and risks that outweigh any possible benefit that they could provide." (Crowe, Lucas-Vergona, 10). Deporting immigrants is an huge undertaking and morally dubious while giving very little in return. An open border was successful during the earlier years in history, but the situation has changed too much for it to remain a feasible option.

One of the biggest problems created from illegal immigration is the formation of organized crime. Criminals have made a lucrative business out of smuggling illegal immigrants into the country. This makes the situation worse, and the borders become even more dangerous which can drive more Mexicans to cross the borders. Alden describes the growing problem on the border in his article "Again, the evidence is sparse but it suggests that tougher enforcement is increasing the price for anyone wanting to enter the United States illegally. At the Southern border, most of those attempting to enter illegally use smugglers and the costs of entry have grown significantly." (Alden, 116). Examples through history such as Prohibition show that trying to legally outlaw a product in high demand only increases its value when obtained illegally. The longer the situation is left undealt with than the more money that smugglers make off of illegal immigrants. This grants them even more influence which makes dealing with them in the future even harder.

The most effective solution for illegal immigration is to distribute temporary work visas out for migrant workers.  This allows for cheap legal workers that can be more easily tracked and monitored.  Illegal immigration is a problem with a long history, and many complex factors. It is difficult to fully understand the issue let alone solve it completely. Tackling the issue in better ways can prevent it from getting worse and slowly fixing it over time.

