Immigration Problem
The world has gone through a revolution and it has changed a lot. We have
cut
the death rates around the world with modern medicine and new farming
methods.
For example, we sprayed to destroy mosquitoes in Sri Lanka in
the 1950s. In one
year, the average life of everyone in Sri Lanka was
extended by eight years
because the number of people dying from malaria
suddenly declined. This was a
great human achievement. But we cut the death
rate without cutting the birth
rate. Now population is soaring. There were
about one billion people living in
the world when the Statue of Liberty was
built. There are 4.5 billion today.
World population is growing at an
enormous rate. The world is going to add a
billion people in the next eleven
years, that's 224,000 every day! Experts say
there will be at least 1.65
billion more people living in the world in the next
twenty years. We must
understand what these numbers mean for the U.S. Let's look
at the question of
jobs. The International Labor organization projects a
twenty-year increase of
600 to 700 million people who will be seeking jobs.
Eighty-eight percent
of the world's population growth takes place in the Third
World. More
than a billion people today are paid about 150 dollars a year, which
is less
than the average American earns in a week. And growing numbers of
these
poorly paid Third World citizens want to come to the United States. In
the
1970s, all other countries that accept immigrants started controlling
the number
of people they would allow into theircountries. The United States
did not. This
means that the huge numbers of immigrants who are turned down
elsewhere will
turn to the United States. The number of immigrants is
staggering. The human
suffering they represent is a nightmare. Latin
America's population is now 390
million people. It will be 800 million in the
year 2025. Mexico's population has
tripled since the Second World War. One
third of the population of Mexico is
under ten years of age, as a result, in
just ten years, Mexico's unemployment
rate will increase 30 percent, as these
children become young adults, in search
of work. There were in1990 an
estimated four million illegal aliens in the
United States, and about 55
percent of them were from Mexico. These people look
to the United States.
Human population has always moved, like waves, to fresh
lands. But for the
first time in human history, there are no fresh lands, no new
continents. We
will have to think and decide with great care what our policy
should be
toward immigration. At this point in history, American immigration
policies
are in a mess. Our borders are totally out of control. Our border
patrol
arrests 3000 illegal immigrants per day, or 1.2 million per year, and
Two
illegal immigrants get in for every one caught. And those caught just try
again!
More than 1 million people are entering the U.S. legally every
year. From 1983
through 1992, 8.7 million of these newcomers arrived-the
highest number in any
10-year period since 1910. A record 1.8 million
were granted permanent residence
in 1991. Because present law stresses family
unification, these arrivals can
bring over their spouses, sons and daughters:
some 3.5 million are now in line
to come in. Once here, they can bring in
their direct relatives. As a result,
there exists no visible limit to the
number of legal entries. Until a few years
ago, immigrants seeking asylum
were rare. In 1975, a total of 200 applications
were received in the U.S.
Suddenly, asylum is the plea of choice in the U.S.,
and around the world,
often as a cover for economic migration. U.S. applications
were up to 103,000
last year, and the backlog tops 300,000 cases. Under the
present asylum
rules, practically anyone who declares that he or she is fleeing
political
oppression has a good chance to enter the U.S. Chinese are almost
always
admitted, for example, if they claim that China's birth-control policies
have
limited the number of children they can have. Right now, once aliens
enter
the U.S., it is almost impossible to deport them, even if they have no
valid
documents. Thousands of those who enter illegally request asylum only
if they
are caught. The review process can take 10 years or more, and
applicants often
simply disappear while it is under way. Asylum cases are
piling up faster than
they can be cleared, with the Immigration and
Naturalization Service falling
farther behind every year. At her confirmation
hearings at the end of September,
Doris Meissner, Clinton's nominee as
commissioner of the Immigration and
Naturalization Services, conceded,
'The asylum system is broken, and we need to
fix it.' Adding the numbers of
legal and illegal immigrants, 50 percent of all
U.S. population growth
comes from immigration. While Americans try to have
smaller families,
immigration threatens our nation. If immigration rates
continue to be this
high, more than seventy million people will be added to the
United States
population in just fifty years, with no end in sight. We are
taking in more
people than all of the rest of the world combined. As have all
the other
countries of the word, America needs to control its borders. As every
house
needs a door, so every country needs a border. And yet, our borders are
full
of holes. We have clearly lost control over our future. Our children will
pay
the price of uncontrolled immigration. The United States is no longer
an
empty continent. In 1886, when the Statue of Liberty was built, there were
58
million people in the United States. In 1984 there were 240 million
people,
that's four times the total population in less then a century The
U.S. cannot
and should not be the home of last resort for all the world s
poor, huddled
masses. We are not doing a good job with our own poor, as we
see more people
without jobs. Supporters of immigration use many arguments to
support their
side. Let's look at a few of these arguments: Illegal
immigrants take jobs no
Americans want. The fact is that the average
illegal immigrant arrested in
Denver, Colorado, made more than seven
dollars an hour. Many were making over
100 dollars per day. Denver
identified 43 illegal aliens making 100 dollars per
day as roofers, while 438
people were registered in their employment services
who would have loved
those jobs. The average illegal immigrant arrested in
Chicago makes $5.65
an hour. More than thirty million American workers make less
than that. A
common belief is that aliens fulfill many of the least desirable
jobs.
However, most experts agree that in today's economy,there is no shortage
of
Americans competing for many of these same jobs. Actually, many
Americans
already work in these low-paying jobs. For example: the poor black
woman, who
works as a seamstress, Her boss asked her to train a new employee,
an illegal
immigrant. As soon as she finished training her new charge, she
was fired. Her
position, of course, went to the illegal immigrant, who was
willing to work for
less pay, and under deplorable working conditions. This
is one example of how
illegal workers depress wages, and slow, stall or
prevent unionization or
improvements to working conditions. Another myth
cited by supporters of
immigration is that illegal immigrants work hard, pay
taxes, and do not go on
welfare. Thesad truth is that these folks seem to
learn the ropes of the welfare
system with incredible speed. Today's illegal
immigrants apply for and receive
benefits from the government that citizens
need. According to Donald L. Huddle,
an economist at Rice University in
Texas, legal and illegal immigrants cost the
nation a net 42.5 billion
dollars in 1992.The Huddle study also found that in
1992, more than 2
million Americans were displaced from their jobs by illegal
immigrants. This
resulted in an additional 11.9 billion dollars in public
assistance. In
California alone, they cost more than 18 billion dollars a
year.
California currently has an estimated 300,000 illegal immigrants
now attending
grades' 0-12. This will costs the California tax payers an
estimated 1.5 billion
dollars. This is 10 percent of the students currently
enrolled in our elementary
schools today! California has 49.8 percent of the
countries illegal aliens,
therefore, California pays multiple costs for its
leaky borders. Providing
health care for illegal immigrants costs California
tax payers 400 million
dollars annually. Illegals drain about twobillion
dollars a year for
incarceration, schooling and Medicaid from the budgets of
such major destination
states as Texas, Florida and California. For
California alone, a 1993 study by
the California Legislature estimates
criminal justice costs involving illegal
immigrants to be 385 million dollars
to the state, with an additional 112
million dollars to local or county
government. This is a total cost of 497
million dollars, paid by the
California tax payer, each and every year! Illinois
did a study showing that
it paid 66 million dollars in unemployment benefits to
illegal immigrants in
one year, despite alaw that was supposed to stop illegal
immigrants from
getting unemployment benefits. Los Angeles estimates that it
spends 269
million dollars in social services on illegal immigrants each year.
Every
person added to our population drains our natural resources and
contributes
to the destruction of our environment. In a Pulitzer-Prize-winning
study, the
Des Moines Register found that for every person added to our
population, 1.5
acres of the richest farm land goes out of production to make
way for new
houses, roads, and shopping centers. If this continues, the United
States
will stop shipping food to other countries shortly after the year
2000.
How can the United States feed the hungry people of the world? The
national
majority now says it favors cutting back on legal immigration. A
TIME/CNN poll
determined last week that 77 percent of those surveyed felt the
government was
not doing enough to keep out illegal immigrants. For years
now, the battle has
raged between the federal authorities who are supposed to
police the borders and
the states who pay the price if they fail. In an
attempt to reduce illegal
immigration, Nevada Senator Harry Reid, has
introduced a bill that would
establish an annual limit of 300,000 newcomers,
including ''immediate
relatives,'' and a national identification card.
Congress passed legislation in
1986 that stipulates fines and other
penalties for employers who knowingly hire
illegal aliens. The bill includes
provisions to grant amnesty to illegal aliens
who were in the United States
prior to January 1, 1982, and to aid farmers who
have relied on illegal
aliens to harvest their crops. Does anyone benefit from
the rising tide of
illegal immigration? Businesses that can profit from
employing illegals at
low wages do. And many illegals are better off here than
in their own
countries. But many others are exploited by dishonest employers
andare
treated like slaves. These immigrants are denied the rights and
privileges we
want every person in the United States to enjoy. In closing, we
must all
realize this issue will not go away. Other generations of Americans
made
great sacrifices so that we today can enjoy the freedom, the quality of
life,
and the standard of living that we have. When I think of what
uncontrolled
immigration will do to the dreams of my parents and
grandparents, what it will
mean to the future of my children, I realize that
we will find a way to control
immigration. Because we
must.
Bibliography
Primary And Secondary Sources (These listings
are in order of their
importance, in category.)"Immigration: Identifying
Propaganda
Techniques" Bonnie Szumski & JoAnne Buggey, Ph.D.College
of Education,
University of ' Minnesota(Greenhaven Press
1989)"Immigration-Opposing
Viewpoints" David Bender & Bruno Leone,
Series Editors William Dudley,
Book Editor(Greenhaven Press 1990)"The
Essential Immigrant" Dan
Lacey(Hippocrene Books 1990)"Immigration" Kelly
C. Anderson(Lucent
Books 1993)"Immigration-A pictorial History of" Oscar
Handlin(Crown
Publishers 1972)"Immigrants, Refugees, and U.S. Policy"
Grant S
McClellan(H. W. Wilson Company 1981)"Immigration and Illegal
Aliens"
Mark A. Siegel, M.A., Ph.D. Nancy R. Jacobs, B.A., M.A. Patricia
A. Von Brook,
B.A., M.S.(Information Plus 1989)