Illegal Immigration

Illegal immigrants in the United States (US) have long been a topic of debate for policymakers and the public. The rationale about them is that they do not pay taxes; they add to the costs of taxpayers and use up funds in resources meant for assisting citizens and legal immigrants (the legal citizens). Therefore, they are perceived as a threat to the US economy. The true impacts of illegal immigrants on the US economy are discussed by debating over the economic benefits as well as economic costs of these immigrants. The negative impacts, discussed first, presented the decreases in low skilled jobs’ wage rates for legal immigrants and citizens instigated by illegal immigrants, the social services such as educations and healthcare that they utilize and add to taxpayers. Then contrary to the negative impacts, the positive impacts reveal benefits of low production costs, increases in the local market sales, undocumented tax generation, impact on growth and employment brought forth by illegal immigrants. These impacts, both negative and positive, are independently analyzed and weighed against each other. The discussion does show a slight net positive impact on the US economy in contrast to the normal belief about illegal immigrants.

Illegal Immigrants and the United States Economy: Is It that Big of an Issue?

The journey from a few cave people to seven billion humans on this planet has been characterized by the physical movement of Homo sapiens from one place to another, sometimes over thousands of miles, either individually, or in the form of flocks, both voluntarily as well as involuntarily. This act of leaving ones’ ground and moving to another land with a motive is known as migration. The motive can be anything such as bett...

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...ob security, and pay sufficiently low. They include, picking fruit and vegetables, cleaning houses, hotels and offices, and farming and construction labor. These jobs are not preferred by many working Americans, but they are certainly necessities in society. Illegal immigrants have no other option but to agree to do these jobs for the little money they get. Therefore, they play a vital role in carrying out these jobs.

The bigger picture of low wages and in effect, low production costs should be considered. As the wage rates decrease, the whole population benefits from it by paying low prices for construction, agricultural produce, restaurant meals and cleaning services. It is estimated that because of illegal immigrants, an average American’s wealth is increased; though that increase is remarkably small and accounts for not more than 1 percent (Davidson, 2006).