Curbing illegal immigration in the United States Essay examples -- Imm

Immigration, both legal and illegal, has been an issue since the first European set foot on the shores of this country. Approximately 400,000 new illegals enter the United States each year. With an estimated 11,000,000 people currently living in the U.S. illegally, the problem has reached critical mass (Haerens 18). Dealing with this, costs the country an estimated $113 billion annually: $16.4 billion in Texas alone (Barnes C1). According to the Center For Immigration Studies, tax credits paid to illegal immigrants exceeded payments by illegals by $7.3 billion during the period from 2005 to 2010 (Schulkin 2). Education, health, food assistance, police, and municipal support, also contribute to the overall cost. Many experts and politicians, on both sides of the debate, claim to have solutions to the problem. Sadly, most of them address the symptoms and not the cause. For all the rhetoric, current immigration laws and policies have done little to curtail the influx of illegals into the US, over the past ten years (Passal C2). Consequently, immigration control remains a poorly managed problem. By evaluating the reasons individuals enter this country, and how other countries manage their immigration problem, a different perspective and perhaps novel way to deal with the issue may be considered. A significant motivating factor for illegal entry to the USA is the disparity in lifestyles of their homeland compared to America. Life, for people outside the US, can be very hard. For example: indigenous Mayans in Mexico and Central America suffer severely from racial prejudice. Many peasants in Thailand, Vietnam and China, with hopes of a better life for their offspring, unknowingly ‘sell’ their sons and daughters into prostitution. Life... ...migrant-population- brnational-and-state-trends-2010/. Pomfret, James. Out of Africa and Into China, Immigrants Struggle .Reuters UK. 29 August 2009. Print. Schulkin, Peter. Illegal Immigrants Receive Billions of Dollars More From The IRS Than They Pay In. Center For Immigration Studies, 2011. Print. Slevin, Peter. Deportation of Illegal Immigrants Increases Under Obama Administration. Washington Post. Washington Post Company, 26 Jul. 2010. Web. 14 Oct 2010. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/content/article/2010/07/25/AR2010072501790.html. Steiner, Niklaus. International Migration and Citizenship Today. Routledge, 2009. Print. Tamny, John. Markets Solve the Immigration Problem. Forbes Magazine. 26 Jan. 2009. Web. 27 Feb. 2012. http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/25/immigration-economy- mexico-oped-cx_jt_0126tamny.html