Here's my essay

American Dream or American Nightmare


Our government shouldn't deport illegal immigrants, who aren't true criminals. According to the Department of Homeland Security, there're about eight to eleven million immigrants that have entered this country illegally. Although, this number is just an estimate there're many, in Capitol Hill, who want a quick resolution. Furthermore, Congress has drafted a bill that will make all illegal immigrants into criminals; even though, the only law they broke was entering this nation without permission, often refer as "entry without inspection--- (EWI)". There're three major reasons that illegal immigrants, who aren't true criminals, shouldn't be deported.


Firstly, The United States needs the influx of illegal immigrants; plus, we shouldn't deport the illegal immigrant workforce that's already here. If there is a lack of illegal immigrants in the sectors of service, construction, and agriculture; employers would have a hard time finding people to fill the jobs. For instance, the Pew Hispanic Center, a non partisan research organization for the understanding of the Hispanic population, reports that Hispanics, who are illegal immigrants; in fact, are the largest workforce in the agricultural sector. One example, Univision News, a Spanish news broadcast network, reports that Hispanics are the reason agricultural jobs get done; then adds, that in the state of California, farmers have already suffered great losses in the millions. All this is due to increase border security since the introduction of the immigration bill. As a consequence, many of the fruit and vegetable picking jobs aren't getting done due the shortage of illegal farm workers; prior to the bill, these jobs were on high demand. Furthermore, this has caused a shift of illegal immigrants in Border States to start searching for safer jobs in other states. Jeffrey S. Passel, a senior research associate at the Pew Hispanic Center, informs that construction has been attractive for illegal immigrants due to the fact that is the fastest growing area for unskilled workers; as well, that there's has been a boom in construction jobs in the inner states. Then he points out, that many immigrants are moving specially to the South, filling the construction jobs taking place there. According Univision News, illegal immigrants have a huge impact on the economy of this nation. For example employers without illegal immigrants would have to pay more and then pass that expense to the consumer, for the products that now illegal immigrants produce. To sum up, take a look for yourself who is actually feeding and building America. Furthermore, what would happen if America didn't have the help of these illegal foreigners, who are willing to do the jobs nobody else wants? For now, they are still out there, day and night working; that's a never ending story for today's illegal workers.


Secondly, not all immigrants are true criminals like the name "illegal alien," emphasizes. For example, some may say that illegal immigration is a crime, one such organization call the Federation for American Immigration Reform, wants a stronger immigration bill that would deport all illegal immigrants. For instance, FAIR says that illegal entry into the United States should be a felony, but this isn't the view of all Americans. An example, if an immigrant decides to cross the border into the U.S., in search of the fundamental necessities of a human being, does this makes he or she a criminal? That person has only broken one law, which got in the way of the survival of a human. Then, what is the right thing to do; deport that person, or let that person stay? Many would say, "That's the law, that person should be deported," then they would add by saying, "That person shouldn't be here in the first place". Thomas Hobbes, a great English political philosopher, once wrote this concerning law in his famous book the Leviathan, "What makes a good judge, or interpreter of the laws are, first, a right understanding of the principal law of nature call justness; which, depends not on the readings of other men's writings, but on the goodness of a man's own natural reasoning". So, in order to start judging that all illegal immigrants are criminals, we must apply the natural laws to the reason a person decided to immigrate. For example, the Pilgrims and the founders of Jamestown, were all aliens in a strange land, were they also criminals for coming in a search of their dreams. Finally, this is a reminder of what humans can do in order to search for freedom, prosperity, and the pursuit of happiness; is it not this what we all want or have you forgotten. The human spirit is stronger than any law that opposes the unalienable rights from God.


Thirdly and lastly, has America forgotten what we stand for; since we already achieved what our founding fathers fought for, so then we go ahead and deny this for others? Furthermore, this can be the turning point in the history of immigration. Everyday thousands of dream seekers search for the north in order get a taste of that American Dream. Now, because this bill makes it alright to look down on illegal immigrants we have already seem the consequences of this racist bill. Many anti-immigrants groups have taken in arms in order to block those who pursuit what we have. For example, the Minutemen, compose of mostly white middle-age men, is using this bill as an excuse to hunt down and capture illegal immigrants. Is history repeating itself? Which is very similar when southern slaves were escaping to the North in search of freedom and prosperity; then, our government came up with the Fugitive Slave Act in order to stop does from coming north, which created bounty hunters to hunt and captured runaway slaves. Furthermore, many anti-immigrant groups also want illegal immigrants that have children born in America to lose their citizenships. One example, Fox News, Bill O'Reilly, a commentator for the station, argues that children born from illegal immigrants shouldn't be citizens, and then adds by saying that nobody born in another country should become American citizens, that is base on birthright. In addition, our country needs to remember that this nation was built by slave and immigrant labor since the very start and we now forget about it. All in all, if it's self-evident that all humans are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that guides men and women hope for a better tomorrow, we as Americans should be that light upon a hill that guides the world into believing that such things are possible.


Last words, all the nations of the world look at America as place of democracy and a nation under God; we should set an example for the entire world that this country doesn't build walls to keep the less fortunate out. Illegal immigration is not only happening in this nation, it's a world phenomenon, that's happening to developed nations everywhere. For example, France, Spain and England are experiencing illegal immigration from Africa and Asia, so you see is not only in America that people are searching for their dreams. A famous Spanish rock band once said, "Immigrants are like the seed that gives life to the air you breed; the more dirt they get the stronger they grow". Finally, if coming into this great land in order achieved what Thomas Jefferson talked about in, The Declaration of Independence is a crime, and then "We the People of The United States of America," are all criminals.

by Joseph Roland (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments) on Thursday, November 16, 2006 at 4:18:58 PM
 

Under Bush, Defense Against Illegal Immigrants Evaporated

It's unbelievable how precipitous a drop in fines and charges there was from Clinton's time to Bush's. Why aren't the democrats trumpeting this like crazy? This is a gift that should add points to every democratic campaign this fall.

by Rob Kall (809 articles, 3927 quicklinks, 333 diaries, 1707 comments) on Thursday, July 6, 2006 at 1:14:29 AM
 

illegals

everyone needs to get the semantics on this one straight. Americans are not against legal immigrants, they're against PEOPLE ENTERING THE COUNTRY ILLEGALLY. They're against MEXICAN PARAMILITARY CRIMINALS coming into the U.S. at will and assassinating American citizens who get in their way. They're against a WIDE OPEN BORDER that allows Mexican gangs to get away with this stuff. And we should be against getting a Mexican majority in the U. S. that will ultimately take our own country away from us. Oh, I know. Ultra liberals think that's a racist idea, because they don't want to see the drug traffic cut off.

by terri Kionka (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 83 comments) on Thursday, July 6, 2006 at 4:01:12 PM
 

Illegal Immigrants & Wage Suppression

My biggest concern with illegal immigration is the flood of illegal workers into this country that greatly increase the labor supply and suppress wages as a result.

Illegal immigration reduces wages in 3 ways.

1. Illegal immigrants, as a whole, are willing to work for less. As a result, employers pay them less than they would pay American workers for the same jobs. In order for Americans to work at the same job, they must accept lower wages than they would have otherwise, in order to remain "competitive" with the illegal immigrants who've replaced them.

2. Illegal immigrants increase the labor force size, thus increasing the "supply" of labor. Increasing the supply of labor has the same effect as increasing the supply of any consumer good. It reduces the "price" of labor, which means it reduces wages. Illegal immigrants are currently employed in 7 million of America's 143 million jobs. There are a total of 150 million workers considered to be "participating" in our labor force. The subtraction of the 7 million illegal workers would reduce this number to 143 million participating workers. The effect of such a "supply" reduction would be to INCREASE the "price" of labor by basic supply & demand effect. Again, the increase in "price" of labor equates to an increase in wages.

3. As a result of the above 2 wage-suppressing effects, illegal immigration suppresses total aggregate labor income. Labor economist George Borjas puts the annual wage suppression at 4%, or $1700/worker. Multiplying that $1700/worker losss times 143 million workers gives a total loss of $243 billion dollars annually. That reduces potential consumer spending by $243 billion/year. The reduction in consumer spending reduces demand for production, and the demand for workers to provide that production. The result of this reduced demand for labor is a further reduction in wages.

Just 1 of the above 3 would reduce wages by itself. All 3 together suppress wages even further. Again, the Borjas estimate of wage suppression from the immigration that occurred between 1980 and 2000 is $1700/worker/year, or 4% per year.

Borjas' study can be found at http://ksghome.harvard.edu/~GBorjas/Papers/cis504.pdf

unlawflcombatnt

by unlawflcombatnt (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 6 comments) on Tuesday, August 8, 2006 at 7:32:59 PM