from immigrants and revolutionists.” This quote was uttered by FDR almost one century ago and its meaning is still relevant to this day. Immigration has been a powder keg in the United States ever since its foundation, but it has been picking up steam ever since. Immigration played a key role in helping the voters decide as to who to vote for president in the 2016 election. The current state of immigration in the United States is getting worse by the day, many changes need to occur both in the U.S. and outside.

The immigration issue is hurting both immigrants and United States citizens and in order for the U.S. to move forward; the government must find a solution. The 2016 election shocked the entire world. The emergence of Donald Trump and his nationalistic ideals had the entire country wondering whether crucial issues had been ignored before the 2016 election. Immigration reform was mostly what Donald Trump ran his campaign on. After the election, the exit polls said that immigration was the main issue in the minds of the voters. Most people would agree that there needs to be a change in immigration, but there is disagreement in the type of change that needs to happen. Most liberals believe that there needs to be an easier way for both legal and illegal immigrants to gain citizenship; while most conservatives believe that illegal immigrants should get deported immediately and that legal immigration should be toned down by the United States government. 

Once common thing that both parties agree on is that Congress needs to step up and fulfill the role that it was assigned. In order for immigration reform to start Congress must step out of the shadow of the Executive branch. Article 1, Section 8, Clause 4 of the Constitution entrusts the legislative branch with the power over immigration. Over the last decade Congress has not fulfilled its duty towards the American people when it comes with dealing with immigration. Congress has become overly-partisan and its power over immigration has fallen solely to the President. Former President Barack Obama had to deal with this when it came to Dreamers(DACA). Congress couldn’t reach a census so President Obama stood up to the plate and used the power of the Executive Order and temporarily gave Dreamers a place in the United States. Fast forward to 2017 and the issue is back at hand again since President Trump was sworn into office. Executive Orders aren’t like laws passed by Congress. Executive orders were something that President Obama swore to stay away from, but at the end even he could keep his promise. Executive orders are essential to a President especially as of late since Congress has become less bipartisan. They can be easily changed when a new president is sworn into office. Immigration reform will fall and rise will Congress. President Trump deferred the Dreamers to Congress and now they must step up and fulfill their duty. If Congress doesn’t come up with new legislation then families with be torn apart. The American economy would lose teachers, doctors, and many more just because Congress cannot decide on what to do will DACA. Congress also must come together and decide on what to do with immigration limits and illegal immigration control. Congress has the most power when it comes to immigration and it can help ease the voters tension when it comes to dealing with this issue. Another rising issue in the United States is that of sanctuary cities. California has a lot of them and it wants to declare itself a sanctuary state. What this means is that illegal immigrants could enter that state or city and not be in trouble with the law enforcement. President Trump is threating to hold federal funding for those cities which would crumble their economy. Congress must step out and find a solution for this problem. Congress claims to be the world’s greatest deliberative body, and this issue would be the perfect opportunity for congress to prove itself.

The most pressing issue that should be fixed in the United States is illegal immigration. Illegal immigrant’s households receive close to 25 thousand dollars a year from the government. Amnesty provides illegal immigrants access to 80 welfare programs. Illegal immigrants cost American citizens billions of dollars every year. American citizens shell out over 130 billion dollars to cover the cost of 12.5 million illegal immigrants. That is a lot of money that could be put in better use. Economists believe that the money spend on illegal immigrant could stimulate the economy. Illegal immigrants also do not pay any taxes. In the United States taxes are very crucial. Illegal immigrants unlike many hard-working Americans don’t report how much money they make to the government. Tax money is used by the government to fund programs such as Medicare and Medicaid which have been facing problems with the influx of immigrants. Medicare is one of the programs that is hurt the most by illegal immigrants. Statistics show that stats spend anywhere between 10 billion to 20 billion dollars on welfare programs for illegal immigrants. Medicare was created to help those who were truly in need during the Great Depression, but now just like with any government program people have found ways to take advantage of it. The influx of immigrants has significantly hurt the South’s economy. Most illegal immigrants don’t travel as far when they enter the country so they tend to settle in the bible belt. On average in the south minimum wage tends to be lower than some states in the north and west. Having illegal immigrants work more in the South isn’t doing much in closing that gap.  Illegal immigrants work for lower wages than US citizens, which makes them more desired by companies. Illegal immigrants send their money back to their home countries which reduces secondary profit. On the other hand, illegal immigrants take jobs that U.S. citizens do not want to do. Most illegal immigrants work those low paying jobs, because to them it does not matter as long as they’re making money. 

 The U.S. government could do one of two things. First, they could make illegal immigration “legal”. They could get make it easier for people who are in need to come to the United States. The United States and other countries around the world could do more in taking in refugees who have suffered a lot in their lives. Illegal immigration hurts immigrants the most. They are treated as outcasts when they come to the United States and as second-class citizens. Illegal immigrants live their lives in fear. They are often mistreated, because people know that they can’t speak up. They live their lives in fear of deportation. U.S. citizens have a sense of entitlement, which makes them not want to work those underpaying minimum wage jobs. Illegal immigration could be fixed in ways that it benefits both immigrants and the US economy. Illegal immigrants aren’t criminals though. Most of them lived in poverty and wanted to pursue a better life in the United States. Most illegal immigrants come to the United States so that they can provide for their families back home. This then leads to a trickle-down issue in where families aren’t worried about their children’s education, rather they’re worried about surviving. Illegal immigrants suffer from human rights violations. Their lives are put at risk when they are illegally crossing the border. There is human trafficking involved in illegal immigration. A lot of families have had to separate, because they couldn’t all make it in the United States.  The other option would be for the U.S. government to work hand-in-hand with the countries that these people are coming from. Most of these countries suffer from poverty or injustice, and if that problem would be fixed there wouldn’t be a reason for illegal immigrants to come to the United States. The countries that are suffering are usually “3rd world countries”, where the government is extremely corrupt.  Most of the U.S. citizens now are “illegal immigrants”. Our founding fathers came to the new world and took a land that wasn’t theirs. Indians were kicked out of their land and slaughtered.  The general public now should not judge illegal immigrants, because they are doing what our founding fathers did over 300 years ago. Illegal immigration sometimes is a necessary evil. Immigration has happened ever since the beginning of man-kind. Early civilizations of humans were nomads, which means that they lived in different places throughout their lives. Fast forward to the 21st century and humans still need to immigrate. Most immigrants leave their home nations because it’s a necessity. They do not want to leave their childhood homes, but in hope of a better life many people have had to sacrifice everything that they previously possessed in search for a new beginning. 

One of the biggest issues with immigration is a lack of enforcement from the government. There are certain laws put in place by the government that prohibited illegal immigrants from coming to the United States, but new laws have been introduced which hand-cuff police and most notably ICE. What’s the point of having laws if you fail to enforce them?  The government needs to enforce their laws and also create stricter laws when it comes to immigration. The government has taken a laissez-faire approach to immigration and its finally coming around to hurt us. The government has always taken a hands-off approach in times of peace when it comes to immigration. Sometimes when the government has taken hands-off approaches it came back to hurt the U.S. later. The trail of tears was caused, because the government before Andrew Jackson had taken a laissez-faire approach to the Indians, but when Andrew Jackson became president he decided that the white men mattered more than the Indian. The U.S. economy does not need unskilled immigrants, rather it needs people that will help the country move into a brighter tomorrow. The U.S. government shouldn’t focus on allowing illegal immigrants to work low paying jobs, rather it should seek to educate the nation’s youth and also find workers from overseas.  Immigrants make up over 13% of the United States population (over 40 million people). Immigration in the United States has become a joke. Just like many programs in the United States immigration comes with a long list of loopholes which many people have made sure to take advantage of.  These loopholes have existed for quite sometimes and there is no sign that they’re going to be removed. Most immigrants that come to the United States come because of family. Many of these people that come to the United States are unskilled immigrants who provide nothing to the economy other than taking up space. There has been a need for a merit-based system that allows people to come to the United States, because they would be able to work. President Trump has proposed a plan that would cut legal immigration in half within a decade and would slash people’s ability to bring their family members into the country. Many have argued that a plan to curb legal immigration would hurt the U.S. vision of helping the poor and needy. The United States shouldn’t care about such trivial things. With a struggling economy the United States can’t afford to be the savior of the world. American families need to be put first over the interest of foreigners. About 140000 thousand people are allowed entry into the United States based on job skills; three times as many people a year are allowed to enter the United States based on family connections. Most immigrants are emitted based on family ties. Immigration reform in the United States should try to implement what Canada is doing. The goal of their immigration reform is to attract the “best and brightest workers from across the globe”. The people who would like to immigrate to Canada must fill out online profiles which is basically like a resume. The people must include their age, how many languages they know, and what sort of education they have. Then the next step is the government monitoring these profiles to see which people would provide most to the economy and which people would integrate faster. It is a point based system where the people who are offered jobs are higher on the list. The United States has an outdated immigration system where quotas and caps are still intact. Canadas and the United States differ in how they view immigrants. In the United States immigrants are viewed as a threat to the workforce; while in Canada views immigrants as assets that could help boon the economy. The main difference is to why this problem exist is because of how the government conducts its business. In Canada the government has a laisses-faire approach to labor market policy; meanwhile in the United States labor market policy has always been handled by some sort of government whether its local or the state government. This problem has existed in the United States ever since its foundation. The state and local governments have always struggled to gain more control over the markets. The United States still has the highest immigrant inflow almost double that of the nearest two countries which are Germany and Spain. Canadas immigrant inflow is five times lower than that of the United States. The United States needs to do a better job of admitting the right people. The United States shouldn’t seek to be the savior of the world, rather it should look out for its own interest first. Immigration reform is the most controversial it’s ever been in the United States ever since its foundation. It’s not that the United States is becoming more “racist”; it’s the fact that people are scared what might happen in the U.S. ever since Donald Trump’s election. Many people go overboard and compare Trump to Hitler or Stalin just because his rhetoric. The Obama administration deported more people that the Trump administration when you compare them side to side during this time of their presidency. Immigration reform could make or break Americas future. The United States is stuck when the rest of the world is moving forward. Immigration reform must happen, because immigration at its current state is doing more harm the good. The United States government must find a way so that both immigrants and U.S. citizens can prosper. 

Immigration reform could make a big difference in how much the economy in the U.S. advances. A reform in immigration would help both legal and illegal immigrants who are coming to the U.S. Immigration will continue to be a controversial topic until real action is taken by the government. A reform in immigration would not just be about helping U.S. citizens, rather it would focus on broader issues like human rights violations and the rights of the less fortunate who are seeking a better life. 
