I think that it's seriously about time to stop illegal immigration. I haven't seen much of an attempt to do this because many people don't realize that it is nothing but a detriment to our nation's economy and safety. The one politician whom I trust that has the capability of fixing this problem is Mitt Romney. He has a wonderful plan basically saying that if you stop giving them food, money, and jobs, they'll leave! I mean, seriously, is it that hard to understand? One of the problems I had with the Bush Administration is that they did not do enough to attempt to stop illegal immigration.
Since 1996, our nation has had to pay approximately $400,000,000,000 for social services for illegals. We are obviously in a tremendous amount of debt right now, and the last thing we need is to be paying 400 billion dollars for people who shouldn't even be here! Also, they are responsible for taking over 11 million SKILLED jobs. Now, pardon me for believing that these jobs should be handed over to the many, many unemployed legals in America who are willing to work hard. I mean, after all, they are the ones who live here legally. Additionally, since 1996 we have had to pay about 15 billion dollars for their education (K-12), which is incredibly unfair. We could have used all of this money to better the educational programs on which some schools need improvement.
The crime rate and drug trafficking has severely increased due to illegal immigrants. There are around 730,000 illegal alien fugitives. Many of the members of some of our nation's most vicious gangs that traffic drugs are illegals. The cost of incarcerations of illegal immigrants since 2001 is approximately $1,500,000,000. Plus, I watch America's Most Wanted sometimes, and many of the criminals wanted are illegal aliens.
Please don't misinterpret my argument. I am not against immigration, just illegal immigration. I just want to show you how detrimental it really is. If you want to come to America, please join us. But do so legally, and learn English.
(Note: these statistics were taken from an illegal immigration hotwire, immigrationcounters.com)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I just have a few questions for you, Nick.
ReplyDelete1. How reliable is immigrationcounters.com?
I tend to be a bit sceptical of .com websites.
2. Do you know that, had the money not been spent on illegal immigrants and had the jobs not been given to illegal immigrants, the money and jobs would have gone to Americans?
Buraucracies work is strange, convoluted, and inefficient ways, so I always question where money is going, and where it would ahve gone. Also, it is possible the skilled jobs that went to illegal immigrants were only available to them because the companies that hired them could not aford to pay full wage to skilled American workers.
Just trying to play devil's advocate. I personally believe illegal immigration should be stopped and legal immigration should be made a lot easier. It may also help companies transition if the minimum wage was lowered, but that is an entirely different argument.
Last Summer, I went to a lecture at The Newberry Library in Chicago by Fernando Lozano, a professor of economics at Pomona College. He explained his different view of immigration that was based on economics and sociology.
ReplyDeleteOn the North Shore, not many people personally know illegal immigrant, so it is important to set straight some of the myths. First of all, these are not people who just weren't good enough to find a job in Mexico. They are, for the most part, hard-working and industrious people searching for better jobs. Far from being a leech on our society, they work more hours on average than Americans.
Also, it is important to note that they are not illegal aliens out of choice. Some Americans are under the impression that illegal immigrants do not want to be citizens so they don't have to pay taxes. Legal immigrants earn 22-27% more than illegals for the same work (http://econ.arizona.edu/downloads/Seminars/SorensenS08.pdf). Illegal immigrants would be willing to pay around 10% to become citizens, according to the study, and a mass legalization would significantly strengthen the U.S. labor force.
I agree that illegal immigration needs to be stopped, but the best solution is to be more open to legal immigrants.
I agree that illegal immigration should be stopped, but why should everyone have to learn English? I'm just curious because in Business Management, we have a "topic of the day" everyday, and one of them was how a woman that couldn't speak english was given a ticket because of the miscommunication. We also talked about how this one man made his employees change their names to more "American" names for his employees. So, I was just wondering why the language thing meant a lot to you.
ReplyDeleteI am taking issue with a few of the things that you have said. Most of the jobs held by illegal immigrants are not jobs that any legal citizen would do. For examlpe, the illegal pickers in states like California, Texas, and even Michigan work for far less than minimum wage. They are also often children under ten years old who should be in school, working illegally. The tiny wage that the farmers can pay these people keeps the cost of produce mush lower than it would be otherwise. Let's face it, we need illegal workers who will take such bad jobs to keep our economy running how it is currently.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that this state of affairs is acceptable, but it it now deeply rooted in our economy.
The fact is, we can't just stop illegal immigrants, as everyone has said, because they are too important for our country. However, I do agree with Nick that there are many things we can do to ease the problem. Currently, laws in America are very kind to people in the country illegally. Not only do they get free medical service, but if they have kids here, those kids become legalized american citizens.
ReplyDeleteTaking away legislation like these, at least to some degree, while letting in more legal immigrants, would greatly discourage illegals from coming to the country, and would encourage them to come in legally. Even though legally coming into the country is a long and arduous process, in the long run it would help both the immigrants and the country as a whole.
Nick I like the attitude you exhibit ("seriously" in opening sentence) and your focus in general. BUT, I agree with some of your colleagues that your source material is dubious at best (way different than the AZ Business School (Thunderbird) where Dan Quayle taught, btw. That illegal aliens are taking jobs away is largely a myth. In fact, our economy could not run without their presence. Last: careful of terms like "illegals" -- the adj. without the noun (people). This last point is also an argument for 4 yrs., of English!
ReplyDelete