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Riley Burke
Professor Celestino
English 1010
23 March 2016
Argument paper
Illegal Immigration

This is intended for people who are concerned about illegal immigration. I will be
discussing main points such as economic and cultural effects that illegal immigration has in our
country as well as current immigration paths. This essay will be giving examples of how illegal
immigrants are getting into our country and the problem that is causing and what it means for
these people when they cross the border. In the United States, our country is made up of
immigrants from other countries since the founding of the country, however we struggle with
immigrants entering illegally today.
Given the current conditions of the influx of illegal immigration, its important for the
average American citizen to consider how illegal immigrations impacts our economy and our
culture it is our responsibility to understand why immigrants come to the United States illegally
in order to effectively address this complex issue.
Having illegal immigrants in our country leads to many things that change our country
such as our economy and culture, both positive and negative. Some believe illegal immigration
benefits our country because many of those who are undocumented are willing to work for less,
making a growing business wealthier because the company doesnt have to pay as much for
labor. Whether you are for or against the issue of illegal immigration it creates problems. On the

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other side of the debate, many U.S citizens believe it is negatively affecting our country because
many unemployed citizens cannot get a regular job because those who are undocumented have
taken those jobs for less than a U.S citizen would being willing to work for. What is happening
is, people are seeing companies get rich and claim that is not fair that they are this wealthy
because they are hiring undocumented people. There are laws that say companies cannot hire
undocumented people but there are still businesses that are doing it. This is such a complex issue
that no one knows truly how to solve being that you have to take into account how many people
there are in this country who are undocumented and still working or collecting from our social
programs not as a U.S citizen. It also negatively affect the accounting of this country. Ever
heard the term getting paid under the table? This country has created a tax to help pay for
roads, maintain parks, etc. When these people coming to the country illegally are being paid
under the table or untaxed it takes a toll on the way things are being paid for which is adnother
problem this country cannot afford to handle.
Many negative situations are happening with the problem of illegal immigration. The
United States are experiencing the most people crossing the southern border of all history. Our
deportation system cant keep up with the amount of people coming in. Our prison systems are
becoming jam packed and overpopulated with undocumented people who arent even a part of
this country which creates a problem with people paying taxes asking why am I paying for
someone to be in prison who is not a U.S. citizen or a criminal to this country. Negatively it also
creates safety issues for those who live close to the southern border. A story written by Pamela
Colhoff, of a man named Dobb Cunningham, a man who lives very close to the border in Texas,
describes growing problem with immigrants crossing illegally. His land runs across a river where
Mexican immigrants cross. He tells the story that he used to see them on occasion but is now in

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fear of his own life because of the drug trade and human trafficking that goes through his land.
These people are not all good coming across the border but are also not the worst. Those who are
coming into our country supporting a drug trade or human trafficking should be deported at once
but that is not happening because the deportations system is so bogged down trying to transport
those coming into the country illegally but who are not behaving illegally. Instead, they are being
put into our incarceration system that is paid for by U.S citizen tax dollars tax dollars. Those who
are coming in to seek a new life and work hard to support a family should have the capability of
coming to this country without having to cross the border illegally. Now you could disagree and
say many of the people that are being put in our prison systems deserve to be there or have done
something that proves they should be there but that still doesnt solve any problems with how
the undocumented criminals are being put in jail using U.S. citizens tax dollars.
A possible solution would be this, create a system to ask why these people want to come
into our country. For example are you coming to the United States to become an American or are
you coming to the United States to be a Mexican in America? This would help filter out good
and bad people. Of course people could lie but we need to adopt some sort of system that should
have a full back ground check and psychological examination before letting people into our
country. This would also simplify the problem we are having with accepting people into our
country legally because thats a mess too. Many of our presidential candidates right now are
discussing action they should take. The hot topic is to build a GREAT BIG WALL to solve the
crossing the border illegally part. But it would not solve the problem we have with all the people
in the country right now who are undocumented and living under the radar. What is the
solution? To build a wall and deport those who are here and have been here for quite some time.

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Do people know what would happen? The most commonly used answer for the question is no,
there is no solution, only ideas and trial and error.
Current problems the country faces when it comes to the legal system is how we handle
immigrants as a whole. Today in the world, countries have established borders commonly
formed by wars or treaties or even purchased from other countries. The United States established
the southern border over the course of time and as a result of the Mexican American war. Going
forward the United States has regulated how people can enter the country legally. The U.S has
created a border patrol to find out how people are crossing the border and prevent them from
doing so. There are over 20 thousand border patrol agents that cover 1900 miles from west
California to the far east of Florida. It seems that this country doesnt have enough border patrol
agents, being that there is an estimated 11.4 million illegal immigrants among the U.S and
gaining. United States only covers 6.6% of the southern border. No wonder this country has a
problem. This countrys current system cannot keep up.
Quite possibly the most talked about concern of illegal immigrants in the United States is
anchor babies. Laws have been passed stating All persons born or naturalized in the United
States, and subject to the Jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State
wherein they reside. But the term anchor babies refers to children born on U.S soil under
undocumented parents. This has created a loop hole. These people coming from Mexico are
having children with either U.S. citizens or other undocumented people and essentially abusing
the law to benefit them. When it comes to morality it is wrong to separate a mother from her
child but it is also wrong that this country wont do anything about this problem. According to a
survey by The Pew Hispanic Center, it is estimated that 7.5% of all births this country has a year,
or about 300,000 children, are born from unauthorized immigrants. The Pew Center also

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estimates 4.5 million children who were born to illegal immigrants obtained citizenship via birth
in the United States. Both estimates exclude anyone eighteen and older who might have
benefited. (2015) This gives an example of how many anchor babies we have here and the
population of them keeps growing. The reason for these kids to be called anchor babies is
because the children by law are U.S. citizens but it doesnt automatically make the parents of
these children citizens. Most mothers who migrated here illegally and had a child are still in this
country because their child has rights to be in this country. Many other countries throughout the
world do not have this problem. In those other countries children born to noncitizens will also be
noncitizen. Because our law is being taken advantage of people are calling for a change. The
biggest speed bump in the road is the moral issue of taking a mother away from her child, but
doing nothing cannot keep happening. We as a country elect laws to keep order. If we do not
have law we will not have order. For those people who do not obey the law, we as a country have
also elected punishment such as jail, community service and/or a fine you must pay. But these
laws are for our citizens not for others. This creates an extreme issue for our country when it
comes to enforcing laws on people being in our country illegally.
Why are these people coming into our country? What makes us so different from every
other country? Why are they coming north and not going to South America instead? How are
they getting in to our country? These are all complex questions being asked and unanswered. Do
we have something that most countries around dont? Is it our economy? Is it our ability to make
money easier than in other countries? Is it because of the drug trade? Is it because people in the
United States use drugs more and can afford them more than in their own country? Are these
people coming across the border to be American? Or are they coming to be Mexicans in
America? So many of these questions are so complex and have no real answer. Its hard because

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so many of these questions must be answered in order to full understand how the country can fix
the immigration problem. Have we been going the wrong way with this? Should we start
allowing people in and making it easier to obtain citizenship? Should we just open the border and
let them all in? So many questions and so many different answers. But we may find the answers
and take no action. This country is very reluctant to make big changes, throughout history this
country has wasted ginormous amounts of time trying to solve the problem of illegal
immigration and we still have not found the right answer to the equation.
The United States needs enforcement and unity throughout the country to help solve the
problem. We need to come to terms with our morality and sanity to even begin to solve the
problem. The laws are broken so often that it becomes pointless to have them. The country
should use these laws for what they were designed for, enforcing whats right and what is wrong.
This country needs complete unity. The people all need to be on the same page and work
together to make fair laws and obey them. This cannot be an ongoing thing any longer. This
country spends too much time and money to accomplish nothing.
The points in this essay address how illegal immigration impacts our economy our
culture and our responsibility to understand why immigrants come into this country illegally in
order to address this complex issue. The economic and cultural impacts, the current immigration
paths and the reasons why the borders are crosses assist in the understanding of this issue.
Readers should use this information to consider the complexity and get involved by supporting
your country in the pursuit of finding a solution.

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Work Cited
Colloff, Pamela. "The battle for the Border." Texas Monthly 29.4 (2001): 96. Academic
Search Premier. Web.
12 Mar. 2016

Orrenius, Pia M. "Illegal immigration and enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border: an
overview." Economic & Financial Review (2001): 2. Academic Search Premier.
Web. 15 Mar. 2016

Nadadur, Ramanujan. "Illegal immigration: a positive economic contribution to the

United States." Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies 35.6 (2009): 1037-1052. Academic Search
Premier. Web.
12 Mar. 2016