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Illegal Immigrants: Undocumented Immigrants Deserve the Right to Citizenship

Do you ever wonder what has happened to immigrants or how they were suffering in

their hometown? What made them to leave their hometown and suffer to cross the border just to

make a living for themselves and their family? Sometimes, when people move to a new place

and start by making a living, they end up feeling scared of being deported by the government.

No human being would want to leave a place where they were born, a place they know as home,

where they have a lot of friends and were raised all their lives, to go to a foreign country where

they do not know anything of the place or culture, to live there and work every day with the fear

of been deported. Unfortunately, sometimes people do not have a choice. In Rohingya, over

65,000 people escaped after soldiers shot at them, raped people and harmed their families. Their

only reason was that they didn't want the people to see their village again, so they burned it

down. ​The U.S. Government should allow immigrants who are here illegally to become U.S.

citizens because mass deportation would harm the economy, more citizens in a country will

help create more jobs, and illegal immigration along the southern U.S border does not

contribute to terrorism.

First of all, mass deportation would harm the economy.​ Deporting 11.1 million of

immigrants in a country would cost a lot of money. Just to for a police officer to apprehend an

individual cost like $4,800. It cost like an average of $180 a day to detain a person U.S.

Immigration and Custom Enforcement spend an average of $10,854 to deport just one illegal

immigrant (Carranza). All those expenses- apprehension, detention, and deportation- harm the

US economy. President Donald Trump recently pledged to deport millions of undocumented

immigrants and to focus on those with criminal records (Wang). If these immigrants have loans
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and the president pledges to deport them all, then this means that there will be no one to payback

the loans and the economy will be in debt. Jana Kasperkevic, in his article about how illegal

immigrants buy houses, stated that: “While some undocumented immigrants pay for their homes

in cash, others have been able to obtain little-known ITIN mortgages​” (​Staff​). ​The Jana interview

clearly shows that illegal immigrants are able to get loans even if it not all of them can. Many

illegals are in debt that they are slowly paying back. They will have to work hard to repay those

debts, and they also have to think about feeding themselves and their family. Many immigrants

give birth while living in the U.S, and their children becomes U.S citizens. If their parents get

deported, the government would have to pay for childcare costs and other indirect costs like

paying for the children to attend college. Caring for all those children would cost like. Banks

have given loans to people and that they are supposed to pay back and deporting them will just

ruin the bank and also the country’s economy. These economic costs stem from the impact of

deporting families.

Jacqueline Varas, a director of immigration and trade policy, stated in her article that an

increase in the number of citizens results in an increase in the economic development of a

country. “The number of jobs in the United States ​is not fixed​” ( ). Many immigrants are in the

U.S. illegally yet are financially successful and contribute to the economy. For example, Mauro

Kennedy and his wife Maria Bilbo, who are from Argentina, own a remodeling business in

Miami and own their house despite being undocumented immigrants. When they arrived here in

2000, they had their U.S. driver license; but in the year 2007 and 2008 when their drivers license

expired, they couldn't renew them because they were undocumented. Despite being
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undocumented, they pay their taxes and have a great remodeling business. Like an illegal

immigrant named Kennedy said, “My business has papers, but I don’t” ( ).

Illegal immigrants should have the right to stay in the US and not be deported

because their is a good reason for them to leave their hometown and come to a foreign

country​. There are many stories about immigrants who left their home to seek safety. Jason

Burke interviewed a young guy named Nuela Etaku aged 18 years old: “I’d like it that the war

ends and then we can go looking for my parents” (Rice-Oxley). If I have to stay here in Uganda

then I hope that we get enough to eat and we stay safe but most of all I would like to start

training as a nurse” (Rice-Oxley). The subject from Uganda describes a war in his home country

and his fears of not having to eat and not being safe. He also expresses his desire to locate his

missing parents, which reveals the chaos of his home country. He also wishes to pursue an

education career, which is not possible in a country torn by war.

Another interview was made by Mona Madmood in which an Iraqi refugee said: “We are

certainly tired having usually restless nights doubtful how to earn our living for tomorrow. I wish

Iraq will have some period of peace and security, we might be able to take the kids to their

grandparents in Baghdad and visit my dear late brother’s grave. I miss him dearly, he was my

best friend” ( Rice-Oxley). The subject is stating clearly how he misses his home town and is

dying to go visit his best friend’s grave but he can’t because of all the war in his country causing

him to have restless nights.

There are illegal immigrants here either because of famine, war, or many other reasons;

and they should be heard out before making any decision about them. For example, in Syria there

are 11.1 million refugees including an 11 year old boy who was forced to leave his hometown
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when he was just 6 and lost his parents when he turned 7 years old. The U.N. Refugee Agency

(UNHCR) had registered almost 4.9 million refugees who have fled to other countries as of

January 5, 2017. Worldvision.org reports that in Somalia, the total number of registered Somali

refugees since January 5th sits at about 1 million. The humanitarian situation in the drought-hit

country continues to worsen. Most refugees from Somalia have settled in Kenya, Ethiopia, or

Yemen. Some have lived in massive refugee camps for years. Within Somalia, about 1.1 million

people are displaced because of insecurity (Forced).

Tragically, the U.S. government deports many people who come to this country in order

to live safely. The graph shows the number of people deported from the U.S. from 2004 to 2015.

Many of the home countries represented in the graph are dangerous places from which people

originally fled.
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The graph shows the number of millions of people that were deported and the country

from which they originated. The y-axis shows the number of people been deported. Although the

graph clearly shows the numbers of people deported, it does not explain why they were actually

deported. The number and year is perhaps the most significant information in the graph because

it shows the amount of people been deported for each years. In the year 2007 to 2012 it shows

that many people were deported .The information in the graph demonstrates how government

spends significant time deporting illegal immigrants instead of taking care of what need to be

done for the development of their country.

Undocumented immigrants should have an opportunity to become citizens because

the vast majority of illegal immigrants along the southern U.S border do not contribute to

terrorism.​ The American Immigration Law Foundation (AILF), in an immigration law-reform

brochure expressed the following:

Illegal immigrants are not terrorists. They want to come legally to do the jobs

Americans don’t want… if there were legal channels for these migrants to use, the

government could concentrate on identifying the real terrorists. Instead, the

government is wasting money and manpower trying to keep out the immigrant

workers the U.S. economy needs (Immigrants).

The U.S. government thinks that most terrorists come from the southern border, but according to

FBI Terrorist screening center “ monthly domestic encounter reports” from year to year had the

number, type, and location of encounters with known or suspected terrorists across the United

States. A senior DHS official with the data said “ we are looking the wrong way” (Winter).

Senior DHS official familiar in his quote he is stating clearly that people, the government, and
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themselves are looking the wrong way by thinking that illegal immigrants are coming from the

southern border while they are coming from the Northern border. In August 2016, more than

twice as many watchlisted individuals were encountered at land border crossing in northern U.S

border states than in all states on the Mexican border combined. The number of terrorist at the

southern border is way smaller than the Northern. New York, Michigan, and Washington have

the most encounters with suspect terrorists at land borders crossing. In an interview with The

Daily Beast, Heite said “the numbers of watchlist encounters have been consistently higher in the

northern states” ( ). There are many more terrorists at the northern border than the southern

border, so the government should stop thinking that illegal immigrants along the southern border

are more likely to contribute to terrorism.

In conclusion​, Illegal immigrants that are here should be allowed to stay and become US

citizens. They need to be asked questions about why they came here and need to be heard and be

given a chance. Illegal immigrants that are here aren’t saying that they don’t want to work, they

aren’t saying that they want to sit and let everything come to them easily in a twinkle of an eye.

No! Illegal immigrants are very ready to work and make a living for themselves and pay

anything. They just want to be comfortable and stay in the country peacefully. If all these things

said about illegal immigrants being a part of terrorism are not true, then the Government should

allow immigrants who are here illegally to become U.S. citizens because mass deportation would

harm the economy, more citizens in a country will help create more jobs, and illegal immigration

along the southern U.S. border is not a contributor to terrorism.

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Works Cited

Carranza, Rafael. “How Much Does It Cost to Deport Someone?” ​USA Today,​ Gannett Satellite

Information Network, 28 Apr. 2017,

www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/04/28/deportation-costs-immigration/30

7548001/.

“Forced to Flee: How Many Refugees in the World?” ​World Vision​, 1 May 2018,

www.worldvision.org/refugees-news-stories/forced-flee-top-5-countries-refugees.

“How Immigration Helps U.S. Workers and the Economy.” ​AAF​,

www.americanactionforum.org/insight/immigration-helps-u-s-workers-economy/.

“News, Rankings and Analysis on Politics, Education, Healthcare and More.” ​U.S. News &

World Report,​ U.S. News & World Report, www.usnews.com/.

Rice-Oxley, Mark. “18 Refugees, 18 Countries – and Their Hopes for 2018.” ​The Guardian​,

Guardian News and Media, 1 Jan. 2018,

www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/01/18-refugees-18-countries-and-their-hopes-for-

2018.

Staff, Marketplace. “The American Dream: How Undocumented Immigrants Buy Homes in the

U.S.” ​Marketplace,​ Marketplace,

www.marketplace.org/2017/09/08/economy/american-dream-how-undocumented-immigr

ants-buy-homes-us.

Wang, Amy B. “Donald Trump Plans to Immediately Deport 2 Million to 3 Million

Undocumented Immigrants.” ​The Washington Post​, WP Company, 14 Nov. 2016,

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www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/13/donald-trump-plans-to-immediat

ely-deport-2-to-3-million-undocumented-immigrants/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.01791e

a63228.

Winter, Jana. “FBI Reports Show Terror Suspects Coming From Canada While Trump Stares at

Mexico.” ​The Daily Beast​, The Daily Beast Company, 7 Feb. 2017,

www.thedailybeast.com/fbi-reports-show-terror-suspects-coming-from-canada-while-tru

mp-stares-at-mexico​.