Monday, May 7, 2007

Illegal Immigration

Illegal Immigrants
Are illegal immigrants from Mexico doing more damage than good to the United States; or are they helping us in the long run? What can we do to better both situations? Should they continue to be able to just walk (drive, etc) across our border illegally? Or is there something we can do about that problem? Should we make a barrier and make just a couple ways in and out of our state along the Mexican border; making it harder for illegal immigrates to get into our country?
Illegal immigrants have been a problem for the United States for decades. “According to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), 54 million persons chose to immigrate to the United States between 1820 and 1987” (Borjas 3). In 1988 author Barry Chriswick said, “For the past decade, the Executive Branch and Congress have been concerned with controlling illegal immigration. Starting with the Domestic Council Committee on Illegal Aliens under President Ford, which issued its report in 1976” (Chriswick 2). “Immigrants have a significant adverse impact on the earnings and employment opportunities of the native-born. By crowding out natives from the labor market, immigrants take jobs away from natives” (Borjas 5).
Arizona Congressmen J.D. Hayworth said in 2006 “in each of the past two years the bodies of more than 200 people were found in the deserts” (Hayworth 27). “The Reverend Robin Hoover, founder of Humane Borders, a group that puts water in the desert for illegal border crossers says, ‘these deaths are as tragic as they are unnecessary. They do not…demonstrate why we have to reform our immigration laws; they demonstrate why we have to enforce our immigration laws. If our border with Mexico were sealed, as it should be, no illegal border crossers would be dying in the desert” (Hayworth 27-28).
Illegal Immigrates are risking their lives and they are risking American citizen’s lives. Some time illegals are even killing them. Here is a picture showing just 6 of the innocent victims that died at the hands of an illegal immigrate. The first picture is of a “19 college student from Mesa, who was hit and killed in his car by an illegal alien driving a load of illegals to Pennsylvania. The killer received a sentence of only 6 ½ years in prison.” This just shows you that illegal immigrants don’t get the punishment they deserve for the crime that they committed on some innocent person. Our system is messed up.
On April 9, 2007 President Bush was in Yuma, AZ and he “credited tighter security over the past year with deterring people from crossing illegally, here and all along the U.S. border with Mexico” (Holstege 1). The border patrol has put up “3 1/2 miles of primary corrugated-steel fencing and an additional 3 1/4 miles of secondary wire- mesh fencing near the San Luis crossing” (Holstege 1). The Yuma Sector saw a 64 percent drop in apprehensions since his visit last year.
If we were able to build primary and secondary fencing along we would be able to decrease the amount of illegal immigrates entering Arizona. According to Ted Robbins, President Bush signed the Border Fence Act, which says that a fence stretching 700-miles along the southern part of the United States will be built (1). It also says that it will cost about $3 million per mile to build (Robbins 1). The Arizona/Mexico border is around 400 miles long, so that would mean that it would cost about $1,200,000,000 but with Arizona having about 5.5 million people living in our state it would only cost about $218 per person to build the double fencing. In the picture on the previous page it shows some National Guards men building the fence and it shows just how deep into the ground it really goes, so the Mexicans will have a harder time trying to dig a tunnel under it.
71 percent of the people that took the survey in the picture at the right agree that we need more border security. I propose that all lawmakers pass a law saying that the state taxes are raised by .5 %. That would mean if you go to the grocery store and buy $50 in groceries, you would end up paying $54.05 with the current state taxes, but if they raised it by .5 %, that same $50 in groceries now would only cost you $54.30. After about 8 months, the taxes would have to go back down to what they are now. This would give the government the money needed to build the same double fencing used in Yuma currently.
I also think we need to not allow the illegals to get “free” medical care anymore. The illegals know that they won’t be turned away for medical care, so they use emergency rooms like a regular doctor’s office. Taxpayers have to pay for all the bills that illegals leave behind. I don’t agree with that. I know people may not agree with me, but just think, if you were to the emergency room and get some medical care, you wouldn’t be able to just not pay your bill. Eventually the hospital will send a collection agency after you, well why can’t they send one after the illegals? Everyone has the same rights, so we need to make everything fair. Randy Reaves agrees, he said “no, not at all” when asked the question of whether illegals immigrants should be allowed to get “free” medical care.
I know that illegal immigration will never go away in its entirety, but I want to fix as much of the problem as I, as an American citizen, can. “While they(border patrol) concede that it is unlikely that illegal immigration will be eliminated completely, due to the sheer length of the nation's southern border, they say they are confident that the flow of illegal immigrants can be eventually reduced to a trickle” (Update).

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