Illegal immigration into the U.S has become a matter of national concern for quite some time now. The Recently developed institutional frameworks by policymakers from all angles of the political divide agree that the currently experienced enormous figures of illegal immigrants into the U.S are a result of the faulty immigration policy currently in use. The most recent census reports estimate that 12, 000, 000 Illegal immigrants have made the United States their new homes. The same reports indicate that the United States have harbored nearly 500, 000 unauthorized entrants every year for the past one decade. An in-depth analysis into this subject of controversy indicates that it was only until the recent past that the issue of illegal entrants became officially forbidden (Herrick, 2014).
Since the year 2001, policymakers from the various relevant authorities have channeled immense resources, financial, technological and human into securing the southern U.S borders together with every port of entry. Since then, there has been an increase in the number and range of policy frameworks targeting illegal immigrants and their employers within the United States (Martin, 2013).
Despite the immense efforts made by the American government and various other relevant institutions, no policy on how to replace the current system has materialized. The direst of this situation is, for example, a policy framework on how to convert illegal immigrants into fully-fledged citizens. Not only partisan division in Washington contributes to policy inaction. In addition to this, the existing economic reality dictates that despite the shortcomings of illegal immigration into the U.S, it has been of tremendous benefits for many employers. The porous immigration structure that has been in existence often provides benefits to many U.S employers that the existing authorized immigration structure does not provide (Briggs, 2014).
The existing political divide in Washington agrees that unauthorized immigrants offer a steady source of human labor in most of the low-end jobs. This comes in handy especially at a time when the number of low-skilled permanent residence in the U.S labor market has been on a steady fall (Martin, 2013).
Not only do illegal immigrants provide a steady supply of low-skilled and semi-skilled labor, but also react to the market environment in ways that the existing authorized immigration currently cannot. This has made illegal immigrants specifically appealing and more lucrative to many U.S employers. Authorized immigrant inflows largely initiate economic performance. In contrast, authorized immigrant inflows for low skilled and semi skilled workforce are both negligible and comparatively impassive to existing economic conditions (Cornelius, 2015).
Regardless of all this, the unauthorized inflows general effect on the U.S economy is significantly low. Nevertheless, low skilled and semi skilled indigenous American workforce who contend with illegal entrants are the apparent losers (Herrick, 2014).
Any new development concerning reform efforts will have to pick a side on facilitating versus preventing immigration of both low skilled and semi-skilled foreign workforce into the country. The current policy framework is expected to strike a balance between accommodation and enforcement strategies. Accommodation strategies are intended to channel illegal entrants into legal citizens by using extended legal options that will also accommodate prospective migrants. On the other hand, enforcement strategies intend to cut down on unauthorized immigration (Briggs, 2014).
In conclusion, a more meaningful immigration policy framework would intend to achieve utmost output gains to the American economy while at the same time reducing the financial cost. This can be done by maintaining enforcement expenditure at the minimum level possible. It should, however, be noted that this does not mean raising the number of semi and low-skilled foreign laborers into the American workforce.
Works Cited
"Illegal Immigration and Response: 1964-2000." A History of Mexican Migration to the United States Beyond Borders (2011): 90-117. Web.
Briggs, Vernon. "Methods of Analysis of Illegal Immigration into the United States." International Migration Review 18.3 (2014): 623. Web.
Cornelius, Wayne A. "Appearances and Realities: Controlling Illegal Immigration in the United States." Temporary Workers or Future Citizens? (2015): 384-427. Web.
Crowe, Susan, and Jamie Lucas-Vergona. "What Should Be Done about the Illegal Immigration from Mexico to the United States?" Mathematical and Computer Modelling 46.7-8 (2011): 1115-129. Web.
Herrick, John M. "Immigration and Social Welfare Policy (United States)." Encyclopedia of Social Welfare History in North America (2014): 7-15. Web.
Martin, Philip. "Immigration to the United States." Importing Poverty? Immigration and the Changing Face of Rural America (2013): 3-18. Web.
