Persuasive Essay On The Cost Of Immigration

For several years, the United States has experienced difficulty with the problem of illegal immigrants crossing the border. Often these illegal immigrants come in search for jobs with higher wages that they were not able to find in Mexico, or in hopes to start a better life in the land of opportunities. Recently, advocates have been demanding citizenship for all illegal immigrants currently living in the United States, however several of the illegal immigrants are willing to settle for a pass that would at least allow them to work legally in the states. This is because their main goal is to earn enough money to send to their families in Mexico, and usually plan on returning once they have gathered enough to live comfortably in their

Some illegal families do not earn enough to provide everything for their children, so several illegal students become unable to attend college and only receive education up until high school. This only expands the number of unskilled workers in the United States. The aspiration for that to change sparked up with the Dream Act though, but will that lessen the cost of immigration? Competition for college is arduous enough already; the costs for tuition keep rising and almost every student is rushing for financial aid. Adding aid to about “1 million illegal immigrants” will end up costing “American taxpayers $6.2 billion per year” ("Dream Act Would Be Nightmare for America," B02). However, legalizing them and providing educational aid will benefit the economy in the long run, as it will increase the number of skilled workers over time. Still, it is something that will take great effort to reach, as some citizens might not agree. One school, The University of North Carolina allows illegal immigrants to admit if and only the undocumented immigrants graduate “from a U.S. high school, pay out-of-state tuition and do not get government financial aid” ("Educating Illegals," A10). Although it is a step for illegal immigrants to reach for something higher in their life, there remains the drawback of not being financially stable in the first place to pay for university. If other universities or colleges began to execute the same

Some people believe that the illegal immigrants are needed to fill in job positions were minimum skill is required, however there is no labor shortage, in fact the “unemployment among unskilled workers is high—about 30 percent”, demonstrating the overflow of unskilled workers (Malanga). If companies restrained themselves from accepting illegal workers, the chances for unskilled citizens to obtain jobs will increase and illegal immigrants might turn back home. However, most businessmen “want cheap labor that actually shows up and works”, so they stick to hiring illegal immigrants, only encouraging more to come pouring in (Reed 35). Once word of jobs accepting undocumented immigrants reaches families or friends of the hired illegal immigrant, it becomes a tempting deal that convinces further immigrants to come illegally despite the risks. This problem arises from the “employers who are ignoring the rules against hiring illegal immigrants” for their own benefit (Berlatsky). Since illegal immigrants have to remain cautious in the U.S. it becomes simple for employers to take advantage and hire them for cheap labor. Employers know illegal immigrants will not go “to the government to report that they were paid less than the minimum”, because of the fear of deportation back to Mexico (Henderson). One writer described this as being the “illegal "black market" for