Illegal immigrants essay

Illegal ImmigrantsWith the rise of illegal immigrants, the United States has had difficulties solving the issue for a long time.

Hence, there’re many factors for the causes and solutions from different branches and the government. “ Amnesty?” and “ Why blame Mexico?” are two articles that discuss the reasons for millions of Mexicans risking their lives to come illegally to the U. S. and indeed illustrate the writer’s perspectives and ideas for those people.

In “ Amnesty?”, John F. Kavanaugh, a Jesuit professor of philosophy, presents the illegal immigrants problem based upon the morality of a Judeo-Christian country. The writer begins by a sensational example of an illegal Mexican named María.

She is a productive woman, a mother of three children, and a long-term illegal immigrant in the U. S. However, she has been separated from her family, deported to a dangerous place, and threatened with felony charges of years in prison if she ever tries to come back illegally.

This example, according to Kavanaugh, is a persuasive evidence proving that America illegal immigrants treatment system is very cruel even to the priority social groups such as women and children. Additionally, Kavanaugh mentions the protestation fights against deportations by the U. S.

bishops, in which they call for “ a more compassionate, fair, and realistic reform of our immigration system” (38). Nonetheless, there’re anti-immigration groups, households on the border, businesspersons, and several popular books or radio talk show hosts who have resisted the bishops’ proposals and assumed all illegal immigration are criminals. These examples have contributed to the problem of our current treatment of undocumented immigrants in the United States. Moreover, Kavanaugh agrees that the North American Free Trade Agreement heavily affects the recent increases in immigration. This open trade has benefited the powerful and technologically advanced producers in the U.

S. and Canada but caused poverty among poor rural communities in Mexico and Central America. Because they can’t compete, they have to leave their homeland to make a living and help their families back home. As a result, Kavanaugh believes that we should follow what the bible says – “ The strangers who sojourns with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself” – and pursue the “ higher law”, in which example is one of our leaders: Martin Luther King Jr. (39). Nevertheless, unrestrained immigration would not solve the problem.

Thus, the writer claims that the U. S. should offer a “ legal status to anyone who contributes to our common good” (39).

To support his claim, Kavanaugh suggests creating a citizen panel to review the immigrant’s legal status regarding a variety of aspects like contribution to the community, good employment report, faithful tax payments, no criminal record and so on (39). Finally, the warrant beneath this article is that we value treating people well even if we don’t know them, as a Christian and as much as we follow what God teaches us. Kavanaugh concludes that if we, instead, choose to ignore the illegal immigrants, we’re admitting that the United States is not so much of a Judeo-Christian country, and perhaps containing a society of self-interested individuals. In “ Why blame Mexico?”, Fred Reed provides a very logical analysis of the problem of illegal immigration through the U. S. economy and finance.

Reed claims that the issue of immigration can be seen as completely self-inflicted. To support his claim, Reed says that the illegals come because they recognize our necessity in using their labor and by providing that, they are likely to ensure a better life: earn money, have a family and give their kids a good future under America citizenship. Who wouldn’t want that? Furthermore, one of the most realizable reason is “ if American hadn’t hired them, they would have gone back.” (45).

Following Reed’s claim, he states that our liberals favor immigration because it’s a genuine streak of decency, while conservative republicans need people who would do the jobs well but accept being paid a lot less than the average rates. So overall, we reject having illegal immigrants in theory but in reality want them to stay to do our work. This is a conflict situation but also the comprehensive warrant that Reed wants the readers to recognize and understand. He also proves how poorly our law is obeyed. For instance, if a restaurant is caught hiring illegals, there’ll be $1, 000 a day fine. This amount is very small compared to the benefits a restaurant would get from hiring illegals. On the other hand, the business smuggling illegals into the U. S.

, happen everyday by the border guards. The controlled immigration system is corrupt because of the flow of money. While the border guards could gain up to approximately $300, 000 per day, tax-free, from this activity, it’s nearly impossible to ask someone to refuse such a paycheck. In additional, there are legal Latino and Mexican-American communities that are starting to grow and vote. Hence, they shall try to protect these illegal immigrants, who are also their countryman, as much as possible. From Reed’s point of view, he doesn’t think that the issues caused by Mexico but rather by America.

He gives us the example of Mexico’s policies to convince us that they are reasonable and that we should at least give ourselves a second thought about our policies. Mexico’s policies for foreigners are generally friendly and open for citizenship, but still under control and require immigrants to reach certain expectations. The writer believes that we “ thoughtlessly adopted an unwise policy” and we shouldn’t continue keeping it because the longer it goes on, the harder it’s to reverse. And indeed at one point is becomes impossible (46). From my perspective, I personally agree with Kavanaugh that almost anyone whose background is not a criminal should be allowed to be a citizen of the U. S.

However, the country as it exists today simply cannot either afford or support an uncontrolled amount of immigrants due to many difficulties. Therefore, we must solve this illegal issue, but in a humane way by giving restricted qualifications while at the same time improving the immigration system. For instance, base on the problem of restaurants hiring illegals that Reed explains, we should increase the fines to make it financially uneconomical based on the risk. I believe that stricter punishment would do the job avoiding a relapse in the future. For our immigration system, we should consult Reed’s example of Mexico’s policies and give immigrants the better opportunities to become a legal U.

S. citizen. No one can deny that there is a great chance that the immigrants would contribute wellness and benefits to our society if we treat them appropriately. Illegal immigrants are harming the U. S.

economy and put us in the risk of facing a financial crisis in the short run that may end up collapsing. Thus, the bottom line are finding a humane way to fix this problem and yet still being able to show the world why immigrants for decades have always wanted to come to the United States for an “ American Dream”.