The Pros And Cons Of Illegal Immigration

In the election cycle of 2016, one of the nominees, Donald Trump. proposed a strong immigration policy, including “an impenetrable physical wall,” the end of so-called catch and release programs, and a mass deportation of “criminal immigrants”(Trump). This caused a sort of a controversy and brought immigration policy to the forefront again, as it does during every election cycle. It is a policy that strongly deeds both political sides. MPI estimated eleven million unauthorized immigrants resided in the United States in 2013. Over time, this has surely increased, as more people would want to come to the United States to attempt to get a better life for them or their family. The definition for Illegal Immigration is a foreigner who enters the

U.S. without an entry or immigrant visa.

Illegal Immigration is not good for the United States and is a burden to the US economy, and an unnecessary risk to the lives and property of US citizens.

Illegal immigration is a burden to the U.S. Economy. An article from reason.com, written by Ed Krayewski argues that “Illegal Immigration is good for the economy,” and that “Illegal Immigrants already pay taxes” (Krayewski). The idea the Illegal Immigrants already pay taxes is indeed a true one with the Social Security Association noting in 2013, that Illegal Immigrants pay approximately twelve billion dollars a year. This may sound like a lot of money, and it is, but it is a drop in the bucket when you compare it to the $113 billion that Illegal Immigrants cost both Federal and State/Local Governments. This number is according to a study done by FAIRUS in 2013. It states the almost one-half of this number, 52 billion, is for the education of the children of illegal immigrants. A study done by the Center for Immigration Studies found that “62% of households headed by illegal immigrants used at least one major

welfare program” (Investors). This is compared to the 35.4% of All Americans that receive federal benefits from the government. This difference is very surprising, as the people that are not here legally receive benefits from the government at a higher rate compared to the people that are legally in the US. This is disturbing because these people are receiving benefits from a government of a country that is not theirs. Also, Illegal immigrants pay a lower tax rate than the average American. The media will say that Illegal immigrants pay 8% of their income on average when the 1% pay only 5.4% of their income. What they do not tell you is that the average taxpayers, based on The Tax Foundation data, pay an average of 9.48%. If the illegal immigrants that were in this country were deported, we would lose out on eleven billion in tax revenue, but we would gain many times that in money that the government spends on schooling, among other things.
Illegal Immigration is an unnecessary danger to the lives of US citizens.

One such case of this is Rolando Mota-Campos. He was put in prison for multiple things including kidnapping, and threatening to decapitate someone with a machete. He said to America that he if gets deported again, he will come back. He has been deported three times and has come back each and every time that he has been deported. There are many cases of illegal immigrants doing crimes, getting deported, and then returning to the United States illegally. The number of crimes that they commit is extremely high considering what percent of the population they make up. One example of this is that “ according to the data compiled by the U.S. Sentencing Commission for the year 2014, they accounted for 20 percent of kidnapping/hostage-taking cases, 16.8 percent of drug-trafficking cases, and 12 percent of murder convictions.” (Qtd. In Leddy ). These kinds of crimes are not crimes that should be taken lightly An FBI study found that illegal immigrants committed “53 percent of the burglaries reported in California, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and Texas” (Qtd. In

Leddy).
Illegal immigration is not the only way to get into the United States. You can also come here legally, through a fairly detailed and complicated process. Some people may say that this process will take too long, but this in part because you are trying to get into a country, and you must show perseverance in seeking to become a US citizen. Some people may say that there are already too many illegal immigrants to try to do anything and fix the problem, but I could compare this to a leak in the damn, and they will try to say that enough water has leaked through that you should not even try to plug the hole. This does not simply make that much sense as if too much water would get through, and the hole may widen and eventually take down the entire dam. They will also say that “Undocumented workers build many of our homes, cook our meals, maintain our landscapes” (Krayewski). However true that this may be, the fact remains that these people are illegal, even if they do important jobs such like the one mentioned.
Besides my view on illegal immigration, I can see that the illegal immigrants are people too, and deserve an opportunity in life. There are plenty of sad stories from families that have been separated from each other, and lives that have been shattered because certain people got deported. However illegal immigration is still illegal, hence the name. In fact, and almost every person in the United States immigrated here, or their ancestors immigrated here. But most of this was legal immigration, and it was not breaking the law. Hopefully, through the facts that I presented in this Argumentative essay, and the analysis of those facts, hopefully you will see Illegal Immigration is not good for the United States and is a burden to the US economy, and an unnecessary risk to the lives of US citizens.