Community Problem Report

Immigration in the United States Today

Jaime Estrada Sagarnaga

UTEP

Abstract
In the past few years, immigration has become a one of the most well-known
phenomena, not only because many politicians have talked about it, but also because of the
controversial laws that have been passed in some states of the United States (i.e. Support
Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act in Arizona). There are groups that
support these laws, creating anger and an idea of discrimination against illegal or legal
immigrants that come to the United States in search of the American dream or their
freedom. Of course there are groups that support this phenomenon, but those who do not,
are either because they have been misinformed or have not been informed enough.
The purpose of this article is not only to create conscience among the American citizens
that are unaware or not fully related with this phenomenon, but also to offer few facts and
break many inaccurate beliefs against immigration that people have or think. This article
can be used as an effective tool for immigrants that have suffered from these discriminatory
ideas, since there have been many cases in which legal immigrants are target of racist
comments, either at schools or jobs because of their homeland or non-fluent English.

Key words: Immigration, American citizens, discrimination, illegal, unaware, beliefs.

Introduction
According to a report made by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) in 2013, the United
States government spends nearly $18 billion dollars a year in immigration police and law
enforcement, as prosecuting cases and arresting illegal immigrants (Foley, E, 2013). This
yearly budget is more money than what is spent on the Drug Enforcement Administration,
ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives), U.S. Marshals, Secret
Service and FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) of the United States combined.
Illegal immigration, although being a huge spend for the U.S. government in an attempt
to repel it, is not as bad as some politicians say. Actually, illegal immigration could have
positive effects on the U.S. economy if the government creates a real reform built from the
defended support of economic and constitutional truth, besides being from political points
that are only discussed and talked.

What is human migration?

Before starting to discuss and analyze immigration, we have to answer What is human
migration?. According to National Geographic, the human migration Is the movement of
people from one place in the world to another for the purpose of taking up permanent or
semi-permanent residence, usually across a political boundary (2005); It also divides the
types of migration in many fields (i.e., immigration, emigration, population transfer, etc.)
but we are going to focus more to the one that has been causing misconceptions and
misjudgment among the American citizens, immigration.

How immigration has impacted in the United States through time

Since the early beginnings, immigration has been taking place in the entire world. The
humankind has always been traveling from one place to another, making the human
immigration a part of the human nature. In fact, immigration has helped the evolution of
human beings by making them more diverse and different one among the others. If the
groups that were formed in the past were stay like that, the possibilities of their evolution
and survival would be a lot less than with immigration.
The United States has blamed the immigrants for insecurity, crimes, economic
instability, and loss of American patriotism. But actually, immigration not only has been a
major source of population growth and cultural change throughout the history of the
country, but also without it, the U.S. would not be the land that it is today. The U.S. was
founded by immigrants, making it a country of immigrants, and by denying them; it will be
like contradict their own creation. Indeed, the transition of America from being a British
settlement to a global power was caused by immigration.
Through the time, the U.S. has needed the workforce of the immigrants, most of whom
were Mexicans. For example, in World War II, the Bracero Program was implemented by
the United States from 1942 to 1964, bringing Mexican workers to U.S. in order to increase
the agricultural production and railroad importations.

Arizonas New Immigration Law

One of the toughest movements against illegal immigration was the Support Our Law
Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act in April 2010. In fact, the U.S. Department of
Justice argued that this law was unconstitutional and a bad policy.
This law grants police officers to check the immigration status of a person whenever a
reasonable suspicion exists that he or she is illegally in the country, by arresting them no
matter if they are legal residents or U.S. citizens. The law not only is unconstitutional, but
also creates and promotes the racial profiling of one third of the total population in Arizona,
labeling them as second-class citizens only because of their skin color.

Facts about immigration

Immigrants as a drain in social services
Some Americans wrongly believe that immigrants are big a drain in the social services
of the United States by consuming these programs without paying for them, such as
Medicare, education and social security. I label this believe as wrongly because as Shikha
Dalmia, Reason foundation Senior Analyst, has reported up to two-thirds of illegal
immigrants are paying both Medicare and income taxes and social security taxes(2013).
And yet, a part of this group of immigrants does not have full-access to them because
illegal immigrants do not have a lawful social security number.

Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists. Donald Trump,
(2015).
Other myth that some Americans have is that immigrants bring crime and insecurity to
the U.S., but what most of them do not know is that native-born Americans are more
predisposed to higher rates of crimes than first-generation immigrants. This study was
made by The Center for Immigration Studies. The crime and immigration levels in the U.S.
have had an inverse conduct since the 1990s: the crime has decreased while immigration
has increased. Many experts claim that these two phenomena are quite related.

The percentage of illegal immigrants related to crimes could be seen as a misleading fact
because of 78,022 primary
offense cases in fiscal year 2013,
38.6 percent (30,116 cases) were
illegal immigrant offenders
(July 2015) as Michelle Ye Hee
Lee, reporter of The Washington
Post: Fact Checker, points out.
Figure 1.Info graph showing the small amount of illegal
immigrants that commit crimes not related with immigration.

But if we make a deeper

investigation about this

information, the 76 percent (22, 889 cases) of these cases, as we can see on the Fig. 1, were
related with immigration, this means that more than 2/3 of the immigrants that commit a
primary offense were only in custody because the fact of not being fully legal American,
and not because of drugs or violence. And from these 30,116 cases, we can see from Fig. 1
that only 17.2 percent were drug cases, making it 6.6 percent of the whole primary offense
cases presented on 2013.
It is worth to say that The Congressional Research Service found that the vast majority
of unauthorized immigrants do not fit in the category that fits some Americans description:
Aggravated felons, whose crimes include murder, drug trafficking or illegal trafficking of
firearms. (July 2015) as Michelle Ye Hee Lee mentions on her article Donald Trumps
false comments connecting Mexican immigrants and crime on The Washington Post: Fact
Checker.

Rate of crime in border cities

The senate Juan Chuy Hinojosa said We have less crime in the (Rio Grande) valley
than
Fig.we
2 do in other major Texas cities (July 2014).
In some investigations made by the FBI,
presented not only that what senate
Hinojosa said is true, but also that
border cities in the United States have
frequently less crime rate than anywhere
else in the country.
Figure 2. Info graph portraying how small
In the
Fig.
is the crime rate in border cities
than
in 2, we can see how the crime rate in border
other cities.

cites in the state of Texas like El paso, McAllen PD, Brownsville PD and Laredo is less
than in other cities that are deeper in the state.

What achievements from immigration improve social and economic

stability for the United States
A group of American citizens think that the immigrants hurt the economy, burden social
services, create huge economic costs for taxpayers, etc but what they do not know is not
only that these beliefs are only myths, but also that immigration actually benefits the
economy of the United States and helps to create a better, more open and more cultural
nation for the future generations.
Immigrant workers are often doing jobs that most of us would prefer not to do, and
according to the economist Giovanni Peri, this is fundamental for economic growth.

Granting amnesty to immigrants

There are some reasons to grant a path to citizenship, or in other words, amnesty to
illegal immigrants. One of them is that immigration, instead of being a drain for economy,
contributes a benefit to the U.S. economy, whether these immigrants come legally or not.
Why? Because of the division of work, or what economists call specialization of labor.
As the proprietor of the capitalist Pig Blog, Jonathan Hoenig, says The fact that
foreigners are eager to pick crops, clean houses, bus tables and produce allows more of us
to afford cheaper food and better services, affording us even more wealth to enjoy and
invest.(2013).

Conclusion and Recommendation

In conclusion, most of the beliefs that some Americans think that are truth about
immigration, such as them being a drain in social services, bringing crime, bringing drugs
and bringing poverty, are only myths caused by misleading information from people that
promote them.
And based on the presented evidence and cited sources, we can infer that not only the
beliefs among American citizens are not truth, but also that immigration is essential for the
human race and growth of the U.S. economy.

References
Akers, B. & Boudreaux D. J. (2009). Immigration Benefits the Economy. In Opposing
Viewpoints: Immigration (pp 22-29). Detroit: Gale and Greenhaven Press.
Binswanger, H. (2013, March 4). Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants Is Not Enough, They
Deserve An Apology. In Forbes. Retrieved from
http://www.forbes.com/sites/harrybinswanger/2013/03/04/amnesty-for-illegalimmigrants-is-not-enough-they-deserve-an-apology/
Dalmia, S. (2009). Immigrants Do Not Burden Social Services. In Opposing Viewpoints:
Immigration (pp 55-59). Detroit: Gale and Greenhaven Press.
Elmendorf, D. (2013, June 18). CBO Releases Two Analysis of the Senates Immigration
Legislation. In Congressional Budget Office. Retrieved from
https://www.cbo.gov/publication/44345
Johnson, K. R. (2007). Opening the Floodgates: Why America Needs to Rethink its Border
and Immigration Laws. New York: New York University Press.

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Krayewski, E. (2013, Feb 17). 5 Reasons to Grant Amnesty to Illegal Immigrants. In

Reason. Retrieved from https://reason.com/archives/2013/02/07/5-reasons-for-amnestyfor-illegal-immigr
Lynch, R. & Oakford, P. (2013, May 17) National and State-by-State Economic Benefits of
Immigration Reform. In Center for American Progress. Retrieved from
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/report/2013/05/17/63295/national
-and-state-by-state-economic-benefits-of-immigration-reform/
Rector, R & Richwine, J. (2013, May 3). The Fiscal Cost of Unlawful Immigrants and
Amnesty to the U.S. Taxpayer. In The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved from
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/05/the-fiscal-cost-of-unlawfulimmigrants-and-amnesty-to-the-us-taxpayer