Introduction
Illegal immigration persists to be a highly debatable topic concerning the future of the United States as a whole. In this respect, one side of the argument such as the one proposed by other scholars such as Nadadur whose argument explains the positive repercussions of illegal immigration in the US economy, saying that it has further benefitted the dissipation of cheap labor which in turn creates cheaper prices for the local commodities sold in the groceries and supermarkets. It is undeniable that what Nadadur had stated had truly made an impact with the US economy especially since these illegal immigrants have been doing some jobs that repel the native citizens of the country. For instance, some works such as in the chicken industry notorious for its disgusting workplace have been filled with laborers made up of immigrants although there are still a still a bit of the local population who are working for these industry. In the end, indeed because of their entrance to the US territories, the illegal immigration contributed to the subjugation of prices and lower labors within the country that highly benefited the consuming public but also the capitalists that hire them because they can save a lot of money and get the same service but on a lower price. Thus, for capitalist economy of the US, the introduction of immigration to the economy served as their advantage for lowering the pay and making their products widely affordable to the public as a result of the cheap price. As Nadadur writes:
“Illegal immigrants also have positive effects on all participants in the US economy by decreasing consumer costs. As low-wage undocumented workers immigrate to the US to fill the secondary labour market, products and services become cheaper because illegal immigrants work for lower wages, thus providing a kind of subsidy to American consumers.” (1045).
Aside from this, what Nadadur implicitly declared throughout the essay, the issue concerning illegal immigration might have been a double edged sword, however, looking in this aspect, it might have been a better set up for the consuming public to have these illegal immigration basically for one thing, their presence lowers the prices of what people consume and it is a set-up favorable for everyone especially with the on-going economic crisis that continues to plague the US economy. One particular the producer of illegal immigration to the US is Mexico and it is a widely known fact that even today efforts to oust the onslaught of foreigners from this place has been the subject of too much criticism and through this reason alone, the discourse towards illegal immigration as posited by Crowe and Vergona must be used as a compromise for both Mexico and the US especially since the latter's economy has been dependent on the influx of foreign immigration to IRS lands, and the scholars propose a meaningful treaty between US and Mexico to help each other in improving the economy. The research has proposed 6 alternatives of mitigating the problem through peaceful negotiations. The six core components of the research are as follows: 1.) Status quo, means no alterations will be made to the existing laws governing immigration including less security efforts. 2.) Deportation for all immigrants who will be caught violating the laws especially forgery of travel documents necessary for their survival. 3.) Grant US citizenship for those illegal immigrants who have exceeded their stay in the country. 4.) Guest worker programme enabling these illegal immigrants to work and stay in the US provided that they have the necessary qualifications for work and do not have any pending illnesses. 5.) Open Border Agreement to enable both citizens of Mexico and US to move freely on both countries providing them an ample solutions and choices for work of course both parties still subjected to the existing laws of the immigration of both countries. 6.) Mexican-US alliance in investment that will provide more jobs to Mexico with the aim of decreasing the foreign immigration to the US by bringing them jobs in their country which will also effective in supporting the Mexican economy as well. (Crowe and Vergona 1116). The similarity between the proposed research of Crowe and Vergara to the study conducted by Nadadur is that they agree on the terms that illegal immigration presents a positive effect on the growth of the US economy as a whole, yet, the discourse pertaining the issue remains awkward as the both Cass studies juxtaposes the situation and the lives of the local residents in the US especially the immigrants who took a long time to acquire their citizenship or work permit.
As a carte blanche, this paper argues that despite the positive effects brought by illegal immigration in slamming the possibility of high price commodities, the result of illegal immigration will eventually kill the American skill in work since the opportunities meant to be theirs in the first place becomes the property of other nationalities. The numbers of undocumented immigrants vary according to sources but the common denominator these sources shared is that the number of foreigners who enter the United States without proper authorization ballooned from 10.3 million as stated in Passel’s study in 2004 (cited from Nadadur 1039). Approximately out of the millions of immigrants, 57% of these people come from neighboring Mexico due to its nearest proximity in the US mainland (Crowe and Vergona 1115). Scholars have noted that the main cause of this ballooning rise were the decades of immigration history of the United States way back in the early phase of the 20th century, particularly in the World War I and so on. The US government did nothing to abolish the flow of the people particularly from Mexico and even tolerated their rising demography by hiring them as workers for companies. Due to their cheap labor compared to local American workers, the presence of the status quo policy, tolerant immigration enforcement, and lack of strict supervision on immigrants who enter the United States, the American population suffered great consequences in terms of job opportunities. Blondell’s essay targets these issues and explains why illegal immigration should not be tolerated at all. He argues that the presence of illegal immigrants causes havoc to the society, disrupting the balance and deprives the locality the right to live peacefully and equally. The foreign immigrants, as he writes, causes issues on some aspects: criminality wherein these people upon their entry to the border already commits crime such as forgery, overstaying, and even working using altered social security and tax numbers. Second, the health of the local population will become at risk, since most of these immigrants arrive in the US without medical screening. Among the common illnesses brought by the illegal immigrants from other countries includes the deadly drug resistant TB. By 2005 alone, there were 82% MDTB cases were tracked on foreign immigrants; in this respect, the illegal immigrants who arrive in the US without proper documentation and medical screening once they arrived causes the country to spend almost $250,000 for a treatment that covers two years or more depending on the severity of the illness. In addition, the presence of foreign immigrants particularly women, in fact, causes the introduction of another immigrant into the alien community. Blondell’s tirade towards the pregnant foreign women explains that due to the existence of the 14th amendment synonymous to the ‘birthright’ citizenship indicates the right of the foreign born child to acquire American citizenship and later on, legalize the stay of their family in the US despite the initial grounds concerning illegal immigration. (Blondell 330-332). Several aspects of the American lifestyle were also affected by the tolerance on illegal immigration such as the increase of poverty since most of them arrive undocumented and some stay out of work for long periods of time which leads to the high crime incidents in order to survive. Education and the language knowledge also play an important role for communication and to get a job, a foreigner needs to know the English language since it is the major language of the US. As Hakimzadeh and Cohn notes,
“Only about half (52 percent) of Hispanic immigrants who have earned U.S. citizenship can speak English well or even somewhat well, a new study has found, even though the citizenship test requires immigrants to demonstrate English proficiency.” (Cited from Blondell 332).
Furthermore, in response to the tension caused by the illegal immigrants, scholars proposed the notion of ‘adverse possession’ according to Gomez which indicates that any illegal immigrant must comply with the prescribed rules in order to qualify for the permanent residential status. Meaning, in this way, the government will have a higher chance to monitor the illegal immigrant in terms of their activities whether they are engaged in criminal activity. Gomez strongly opposes granting citizenship pardon for illegal immigrants since this will cause more illegal immigration issues across the border; and that the whole process would jeopardize those immigrants who came to the US through legal ways and this could further deteriorate the US immigration system and make it as a joke. (122). In relation to the topic, the tolerance of illegal immigration according to Edwards creates the unequal balance of work distribution especially for the actual residents of the hosting country because not only they were deprived of the opportunity to gain work, but also some of the benefits would end up distributed to the illegal immigrants who do not have the right to stay in the country due to their fraudulent papers. (2).
As a conclusion, it should be noted that although these people create the cheaper labor essential to produce the commodities needed by the American consumer, it is important to re-consider doing more research about the extreme repercussions of hosting illegal immigrants in the United States particularly in the aspect of ‘killing’ the local population and replacing it with foreigners who in turn marry local citizens which in-turn creates the diversified race called ‘mixed race.’ The discourse regarding illegal immigration remains a touchy subject to anyone since it might cover some aspects pertaining to racism, prejudice, and isolation from the community. This work further considers other arguments about illegal immigration; hence, the subject presented herein will remain open for further discussions.
WORKS CITED
Blondell, Jerome. Adverse Impacts of Massive and Illegal Immigration in the United States.” The Journal of Social, Political, and Economic Studies 33.3 (2008): 328-350. Web. ProQuest Central. 24 Apr. 2016.
-This journal provides information and relavant data concerning the adverse effects of illegal immigration in the past and how these might affect the current economy of the US.
Crowe, Susan and Jamie Lucas Vergona. “What should be done about the illegal immigration from Mexico to the United States?” Mathematical and Computer Modelling 46 (2007): 1115-1129. Web. Science Direct. 24 Apr. 2016.
-This journal argues that illegal immigration have positive effects on the US economy and therefore should undergo peaceful treaties in order to use illegal immigration to the country’s advantage.
Edwards Jr., James R. “Faithful Responses to Illegal Immigration in the United States.” Vital Speeches of the Day 74.2 (2008): 92. Web. ProQuest. 24 Apr. 2016.
-A speech presented by James Edwards that contains relevant information regarding illegal immigration as a tool for killing the American talent and unequal distribution of work opportunities on local citizens.
Gomez, Monica. “Immigration by Adverse Possession: Common Law Amnesty for Long-Residing Illegal Immigrants in the United States.” Georgetown Immigration Law Journal (2007): 105-125. Web. ProQuest. 24 Apr. 2016.
-This essay explores how devastating the notion of granting amnesty towards illegal immigrants and how it might jeopardize the immigration laws.
-This journal article provides relevant counter-argument regarding Blondell’s essay of non-tolerance of illegal immigration. Synonymous with Crowe and Vergona’s article, Nadadur aims to defend the ‘compromise’ pact between the US and illegal immigrants.
