Illegal Immigration | Teen Ink

Illegal Immigration

June 1, 2008
By Anonymous

Illegal Immigration is a very hot topic in the United State’s news and media. In most cases, the feedback is directed towards sending Illegal Immigrants back to their home countries. Today, there are over 21,000,000 illegal immigrants in our country. Many Americans agree that our government needs to find a way to stop illegal aliens from coming into our country.

There are many reasons why illegal immigrants should not be allowed to come into this country. The most obvious is that they are entering the U.S. unapproved. When illegal immigrants enter our country unapproved, they rapidly raise the population number, crowding our country. There are millions of people who go through the correct process to become citizens of the United States. However, if even more people are coming in illegally, the wait to become a citizen becomes longer and longer. In order to make this process fairer, the U.S. needs to really crack down on making sure illegal aliens are not coming into this country, especially along the Mexican border. Some suggestions both politicians and the media have made include building a giant wall and putting more troops along the border. Building a wall would be the most helpful because then our troops could stay home instead of guarding a border.

Another main issue is that the illegal immigrants are working American jobs. About 10,500,000 skilled jobs have been taken by illegal aliens. Since many people who enter the country illegally are willing to work for less pay than many American workers, business owners are more than happy to hire them. To make the situation worse, some business owners pay “under the table”, meaning the owners pay illegal workers in cash. This way, they will not be caught hiring them. Paying under the table also means the business owners themselves along with the workers do not have to pay taxes, resulting in significant savings. Many Americans and legal immigrants are left jobless as a result. The U.S. government should monitor this situation more closely and put higher penalties on business owners who try to get away with such practices. In these economically trouble times, our government needs to protect its own people before trying to help those who enter the country illegally.

The impact illegal immigrants have on our health care system is also a major issue. From 1996 to present day, the U.S. has spent over $350,000,000,000 to pay for the costs of social services for illegal immigrants. Since illegal aliens have no money when they come into this country, they are granted free health care, food stamps, and other services to help them live in the U.S. When they have medical bills, they can’t pay them, so their health care or another public program has to. The problem is that health care costs for legally working individuals rise to help pay for this. American citizens are paying larger and larger sums of money for their own health care, when people who are not American citizens get it for free! The U.S. government has to deny health care to illegal immigrants if they can not pay for it; it is unfair to have American citizens take money out of their own pay checks to pay for someone else’s care. Our government needs to take this issue into consideration and do everything it can to stop granting free health care to illegal aliens. Once again, they need to look out for the American people before illegal immigrants.

Looking at these few facts on illegal immigration, one must conclude that something has to be done to stop it. The government needs to come up with a better system by which immigrants can enter the country legally. Writing new laws is not the answer; this problem can only be solved by enforcing the law to the fullest degree. An immigrant who wishes to come into this country must be willing to adapt to the language and culture of the U.S., just as an American would have to do if they were to live in another country. Immigration is one of the most controversial issues in America today, but it would not have to be an issue in the country if it was done properly, legally, and fairly.


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on Apr. 26 2011 at 6:19 pm
In complete honesty I find this to be a very judgemental opinion and a very ignorant essay. Put yourself in the immigrants shoes. People come to America because they want these things because their coutries dont have these things. America is known as a great country which is why immigrants escape their poverty filled countries to live and work in the US. How can you deny another human the right to a better life? Yes coming here illegally isnt right but if you think hard enough you'll realize thats the only choice most immigrants have. The truth is America almost always denies citizenship to these people (Mostly Hispanics). So how else are they going to get a better life in America if we deny them , coming illegally of course. Another thing that makes my blood boil is you talking about how unfair it is to have to pay for an immigrants healthcare. I find that very cruel that people would deny people health care just because your paying for it. Think of the children Of immigrants, and the elderly, all age groups in general;just because there illegal that means we should leave them to suffer without healthcare? How would you feel if you werent getting healthcare just because of the way you got into the US. And another thing that angers me is that people complain about the jobs the Illegals are taking. They take those jobs because no one else will, and thats all they can get, and americans are suddenly wanting these jobs? If america wanted jobs so badly why didnt they take the jobs beforehand when they were available? Also I believe that everyone against illegal immigration is racist. I know that may sound ignorant but it is the truth. America only seems to worry about Mexican immigrants, and the border between mexico and america. Why does the US focus on Mexicans? What about immigrants from Canada,Japan,Germany,Russia,China, and Irerland? No one seems to complain about immigrants from those countries, and immigrants from those countries are rarely denied citizenship, and they are rarely mentioned when they come to the country illegally.And if you think about it America wouldnt be America without immagrants. America was founded by immigrants. Unless your a native american then you shouldnt even oppose immigration because you are an immigrant. All this talk about how terrible immigration is just complete BS. America should leave immigrtion alone and worry about other things. You dont have to agree with me but thats what I believe.