Earning a Right
There are currently 11 to 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States according to Fox News online article, We cannot afford amnesty for illegal immigrants by Ed Butowsky. Unfortunately, many of these undocumented immigrants have no realistic pathway to obtain any type of legal status under our current immigration system. These immigrants face harsh working conditions where businessmen typically exploit them, harming the American public because of the low wages they commit to. Undocumented immigrants are also unable to see their families for many years; they accept this faith so that one day they could become citizens like every other immigrant in America. Right wing Americans may argue that undocumented immigrants do not carry their own weight, nevertheless this statement is false.Therefore, it is extremely important to set an earned pathway to legal status to all undocumented immigrants. Ultimately, the benefits of this action will be greater than the negatives in the end.
Making an earned pathway to citizenship rather than an amnesty all at once is highly important because of the lessons that were learned in Ronald Reagan’s 1986 immigration reform. Many undocumented immigrants cheated the system and obtained citizenship through the new system. The plan also never addressed future immigrants and businessmen needs of cheap labor. Our government has to set up new programs that tackles these obstacles in different ways. Such programs are answered in article, Focusing on the Solutions: Key principles of Comprehension Immigration Reform, by Immigration Policy Center.The article states, “Upon registration, applicants should be a on a path that leads to a green card, provided they meet specified criteria. The criteria that most seem to measure commitment—paying taxes, learning English, working hard or going to school, staying out of trouble—can be built into the requirements for successful completion of the program” with these steps taken into consideration, we will have a new legal workers that will be willing to work hard for himself and America (Immigration Policy Center 8).
Nevertheless, some may argue that giving any type of legal status to undocumented immigrants will be too costly. In the article We cannot afford amnesty for illegal immigrants by Ed Butowsky, Butowsky strongly asserts that giving amnesty to undocumented immigrants is a big burden to America. Butowsky states “ each illegal immigrant costs our country $24,000 a year. But, on average each pays $10,000 in taxes, so it’s reasonable to say that each illegal really adds $14,000 a year to our country's debt burden” ultimately our economy has too much debt to be worrying about “illegals”(Buttowsky 1). Many undocumented immigrants don't pay taxes and have no desire to live here in the future. Therefore it would make sense to reject any type of help for them.
Unfortunately for Butowsky, his information can be argued as biased due to his publisher FoxNews.com. Fox news is known to be right winger’s with anti-immigrant opinions. Butowsky failed to research the long term effects of undocumented immigrants. In Nicholas Kristof article Immigration Enriches You and Me, Kristof alleges that immigrants are assets rather than parasites. Kristof “they have contributed $100 billion to social security over a decade without any intention of collecting benefits” they have paid $11 billion in taxes in 2010 alone and will contribute $45 billion in the next 5 years; clearly undocumented immigrants are worth the investment over the long run(Kristof 1). Buttoeski argument should be therefore overturned.
Giving undocumented immigrants the ability to earn legal status in the U.S will be the way to solve our immigration problem. Undocumented immigrants can complete tasks and earn the right to become citizens. It’s important to have a process to a legal status rather than a work permit. These actions do little to help undocumented immigrants especially when any president can overrule the bill. And because of this nothing will be accomplished and we’re back at the bottom again. When we decide to give undocumented immigrants legal status, we will be able to reallocate the federal, state, and local government’s money used to maintain our immigration problem to other issues. It will also level the playing field for all U.S workers and employers due to their legal status. Finally it would enable our local police departments to focus on the real criminals of America.
The benefits of a pathway to citizenship are numerous as compared to its negatives.We have can overcome the ignorance of our media sites and certain citizens. They act out of racism calling people names, depriving their way of lives. Moving forward with this issue, we have to take into consideration at president Obama’s new executive actions and keep on influencing our government so that the 11 to 12 million undocumented immigrants can one day have some type of legal status.
