
"They have to go," says Donald Trump about the many illegal immigrants that live in the United States. (Miller)  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 this essay will argue the best way to deal with illegal immigration is to provide temporary work for migrants.

Illegal immigration is an issue that depends heavily on the economic and social status of the countries involved. The use of foreign workers for cheap labors has been very common throughout American history and Mexican immigrant workers have been and still are one of the largest migrant worker groups in the United States. During the Great Depression, these migrant workers were often deported since jobs were scarce until World War 2.  The Huffington Post's Kelly-Gagnon describes the war as 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 work visas to fill up jobs on farms and in the field.  The cancellation of the program was a major cause to the increase of illegal immigration. With the cancellation of the Bracero program it was difficult for farms to legally hire the migrant workers from Mexico. The change did not decrease the numbers of migrant workers, but instead made them illegal workers. (Kelly-Gagnon)  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. Another article by The Huffington Post notes that a problem eventually arose with this 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 for 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 progressed far beyond what it was originally conceived as. Border security was much smaller 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 "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 into border security the majority of the population is unconvinced that it 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 fewer skilled immigrants will enter the country which is a problem in and of itself.  Skilled immigrants are important because they bring new knowledge and advancements in technology and science. 

One of the major arguments used against illegal immigrant is that they lower the wages of American workers such as Donald Trump. Statistics have shown that this is not only incorrect, but that 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 performed 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 which is an internet based system for determining work eligibility 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 in the U.S is the incorrect solution. Even doing nothing to deal with illegal immigration is more beneficial to the problem than these 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 illegal immigrants come to the United States not to live, but rather for the readily available work. Letting them travel legally and easily across the border allows undesirable work be done by the immigrants who will not need 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 South America as an example. The use of illegal immigrants to work is very important and a major reason for why the bracer program 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 free to come here 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 cost compared to the benefit. The results show giving illegal immigrants 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 of making all current illegal immigrants citizens may be better in the short term, but it doesn't do much to help in the future. It will end up running into the same problem that the act created by President Regan faced as it will have to be done again and again for each new batch of illegal immigrants. The best solution is too mix these two different solutions as they are not mutually exclusive. This would help future workers as well as the ones that already live here. The two lowest ranked solutions to immigration issue according to the "pairwise computation method"are extremes were opposites 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 a huge undertaking and morally dubious to boot 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 since order security has grown so big.

One of the biggest problems created by 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, since the borders have become even more dangerous, which in turn 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). Historical examples 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, the more money that smugglers will make off of illegal immigrants. This money 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. Immigrants have been very important to American history with all they have done to help America. America would not be what is today without them, and their continued efforts should not be ignored.

