Overcrowding America By Immigration Essay Research Paper

Overcrowding America By Immigration Essay, Research Paper

All over America, some places more than others, immigration has become a major debate for everyone. More than one million people are coming into the United States legally and illegally. According to the US Immigration Guide, written by attorney, Ramon Carrion, legal immigration means people coming into the country with their temporary or permanent visas given out by the government.s consent. And illegal immigration means anyone who crosses over the border without proper documentation of the government.s consent, and staying for any period of time (xii). On one hand, the experts are saying those loose borders are very good because it helps out with the nation.s economy and ethnic diversity. But on the other hand, loose border can have a negative effect on the nation by overcrowding, keeping the wages of working down and drug importation.

America is a nation built on immigrants from all over the world. However, numerous actions have been taken to slow down the rate of immigration. For example, in 1924 congress passed the Johnson-Reed Act, which allowed fewer immigrants to come to the United States legally and strengthened the borders. And in 1996, congress passed the Illegal Immigration and Immigrant Responsibility Act to toughen the borders and deportation procedures (Masci 579). Currently the top three countries of origin for immigrants admitted into the United States are Mexico, China, India, in that order, Mexico being the highest with 131,575 people in 1998. China being the second highest with 36,884 and India with 36,482 people, both also in 1998. Plus, the United States admitted over 40,000 people from Africa in 1998 (Masci 576). And these numbers are increasing rapidly. In the 1980.s there were approximately 6.3 million immigrants legally admitted to the United States, compared to the 1990.s when 10 million were let in. And in 1998, approximately 1.51 million immigrants came into the United States illegally and 1.54 came in 1999, according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) (Masci573). Now the Center for Immigration Studies says 68 million people have been added to the population since 1970, and a lot of that has to do with immigration since the fertility rate of American families has decreased since then. An estimation by the National Research Council says, .that by 2050, current immigration policies will cause the population of the United States to be fully 80 million larger than without immigration, triple the population growth that would take place naturally without immigration (qtd. in CIS 3).

A major cause of immigration is that people want to reunite with some of their families who may already have citizenship in the United States. In some cases, maybe one of their children came to America for college, and the parent became widowed and would like to have a close family member to live with. Or maybe someone.s spouse came to the states to get a higher paying job, and later on the person decided, after saving money, to move with him or her. The government sees it as that people already living in the United States should have the ability to live with their close family, regardless of whether or not they are legal. And actually two-thirds of legal immigrants who enter the US are sponsored by families (Masci 581). Miguel Escobar, a member of the Mexican Consul in Douglas, reported that, .the reason that women come to the United States is because they are looking for work and they want to reunite with their families in this country. (qtd. in Zaragoza 1). However, this may lead to problems such as women being sexually assaulted while attempting to cross the Mexican-American border. Xavier Zaragoza of the Daily Dispatch mentioned two women who were recently assaulted sexually by robbers while crossing the border (1).

Other reasons for people wanting to immigrate may include gaining religious freedom; to escape drought, famine or depression; the want or need to bring their business or corporation to America; better colleges for a better chance of succeeding in their career field and one of the biggest causes, wanting a better opportunity for freedom and better standard of living (Carrion 8). Very commonly immigrants can easily come to the United States and get some type of job that will pay better than how they were getting paid in their home country. In the past many immigrants were likely to come here and start a business, but now they are more likely to come to the United States and take the undesirable jobs most Americans do not want. Dan Stein, the executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) says that most immigrants are not well educated and take low skilled jobs for a low wage (Masci 571). This is directly effecting wages by not only people willing to work for less, but also by increasing the supply of workers, said the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) (CIS 4). However, this is also helping our economy. Also, there is a great shortage of employees in the information-technology field, so the businesses are hiring from abroad to not cost them as much. Otherwise they would also have to pay to train the American workers and pay them at a higher wage. But opponents feel like for one, in the areas where there is low immigration, the undesirable jobs are being taken care of, so they will get done no matter what. And they feel corporations shou