Argumentative Essay on Illegal Immigration

Did you know that the number of immigrants in the United States exceeded forty-three million in 2016? This is 13.5 percent of the population in America (Amadeo). Of the forty-three million, around eleven million immigrants are undocumented, which means they are immigrants who entered the country while violating government immigration laws. Does it seem plausible that millions of people are somehow entering into the United States under unfair and immoral circumstances? Illegal immigration into America can be prevented because the United States government can improve their methods of security, immigrants can cooperate with government methods, and the public can be better educated on the topic of immigration.

Illegal immigration into America can be suppressed by the United States because the United States government can better guarantee methods of safety and security. It was originally introduced to America by Donald Trump at the beginning of his presidential campaign in 2016 that a wall should be built on the southern United States border to keep illegal immigrants from easily crossing the border without being seen or documented by government officials. Because of the mass amount of undocumented immigrants into the United States, Donald Trump has called for a national emergency. However, according to Fox News Channel, there is a lack of federal funding for the wall because of many challenging lawsuits against President Trump’s claims. The wall that Donald Trump was planning to build at the beginning of his presidency, and still is pushing for, is estimated to cost eight billion dollars of federal funds. A physical wall would be a great way of keeping illegal immigrants from entering the United States, however other precautions need to be taken to prevent undocumented immigrants from getting access into America. According to Ryan James Girdusky, “No wall or fence alone will stop immigrants from crossing our southern border in large numbers”. The reason for this is the many loopholes that are contained within the United States asylum laws. Asylum laws are defined as the protection granted by a nation to someone who has left their native country as a political refugee. The United States law requires the government to allow anyone who shows up at the border to apply for asylum. However, these laws have allowed many immigrants into the country to fraudulently claim asylum to avoid immediately being deported by government officials. Although Donald Trump has pushed for asylum laws to be enforced, the Supreme Court continues to reject the claims of a national emergency. It is estimated that each asylum claim that is put before the federal immigration court takes an average of 578 days for a decision to be reached on a request for asylum. Because of this huge court backlog, more than 809,000 immigrants are waiting for their asylum claims to be heard in immigration court (Girdusky). For an immigrant’s claim for asylum to be granted, the asylee has to show true fear for their life. In retrospect, it is very hard to quickly define what true fear is. Overall, the requirements to be granted asylum are very vague and unhelpful to quickly decide whether an individual should be granted asylum or not. These asylum laws need to enforced and simplified to allow for a simpler, but more efficient way of getting into the United States legally. The government should be focused on making America a safer and more functional place for people of all races and ethnicities to live in. Enforcing asylum laws and government fundings for a wall are some of the best ways for this to happen.

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Another reason why illegal immigration into America can be stopped is because immigrants coming into our country can be more cooperate with the government and their methods. To process an immigrant for asylum, government officials have to perform a credible fear interview and decide whether the person should be claimed asylum. After asylum is claimed, the immigrants are moved to detention centers for twenty days before given a court date and released from the centers. Unlike the name suggested, the detention centers are similar to a college dorm room or a small home for multiple families or individuals to inhabit for the short 20-day period. Once the immigrant is given a court date to furthermore process their wish to become an American citizen, the immigrant is supposed to return to said court, but few return. According to the Fox News Channel, approximately 600,000 people disappeared before their asylum hearings between 2003 and 2015. The processing of an immigrant is a tedious task, and since there are so many of them waiting to get processed, they tend to take things into their own hands. Many news stories tell of families attempting to cross the Rio Grande River to get across the border into America. Some of these people are women who are pregnant, and according to United States law, any person that is born on American soil is considered a United States citizen. Another problem is the government's tendency to provide governmental help like food stamps, free health care, and WIC. WIC provides free food for all these people. All of these government programs are very helpful, but also cause people to become completely dependent on the government instead of getting a job to help provide for their own families or themselves. How some immigrants are taking advantage of the situation to find easier but unfair ways of entering the United States could be a better topic of discussion than everything wrong with how the government officials are handling immigration into the United States.

In addition to reasons why illegal immigration can be prevented in the United States, the public can better be educated on the topic of immigration to help prevent illegal immigration. It is very hard to get the full story on problems that happen in the United States government because of the many uneducated news reporters and corrupt information sources. The media tends to demonetize or over exaggerate situations in a way that leaves the public oblivious to the real problem at hand. This problem carries on into everyday American citizens who are oblivious to the true story happening because they have not experienced it first hand or been correctly educated on the topic of immigration. Nowadays, the topic of immigration has become taboo to speak about among Americans. The problem of this ignorance results in most people ‘picking sides’ before having knowledge of the whole story. Choosing a certain side to be on is dangerous because this causes others to not listen to each other who have a differing opinion. This results in internal conflict, which is seen within the United States government today. Abraham Lincoln once said: “A house divided against itself cannot stand”. Lincoln's words were a statement to describe to state of the country when falling into the Civil War. However, the words still reign true in America’s situation in the present day. America cannot be divided under two sides because the United States can easily fall into another civil war. All Americans need to work together to address the situation, and come together to end it. Although illegal immigration is a touchy subject for American citizens to talk about, this should not stop people from being fully educated on the topic of illegal immigration and working together to address the problems at hand.

Those who disagree may say that illegal immigration should not be prevented because illegal immigrants are helping the US economy by paying American taxes and taking jobs American citizens don't want to take. However, this can be proven false with United States laws and records of what is happening on the southern United States border. If an illegal immigrant comes into America and are undocumented, they do not have a social security number, but if they are documented and fully go through to processing system, they are given a social security number along with citizenship. However, to get a job in America, a social security number is needed. This results in a vast number of undocumented immigrants to create a fake social security number. This is why there are so many stolen social security numbers. As every working American knows, when the check is given to the working American, a percentage is taken out of the check due to federal taxes. According to Hunter Hallman, some illegal immigrants find a way to pay federal taxes even without a social security number, but refugee asylum seekers and green card holders can get a social security, but if you’re undocumented you cannot get a social security number.

Illegal immigration can be prevented because illegal immigrants are damaging the economy of the countries that they are leaving and leaving their own detrimental footprint in the United States also. The United States cannot have one disproportional group coming in to the United States to the detriment of the society of as whole. The group cannot come into the country and take more than they give. Imagine you are sitting in your own home, watching your favorite movie and drinking your favorite drink. Suddenly, you hear pounding on the door and are worried about what the banging may be. The door slams open and a large group of people come running into your home. The group of people start to take things from your refrigerator, lying down on your coach, and falling asleep on your bed, and take the television remote from your hands and change the channel to something else that you had no intention of watching. You don't know who these people are, but they are completely taking advantage of your home and what it has to offer. The group of people decide to stay at your house for a couple weeks. However, they do not pay rent, and overall don't think of the consequences that their actions cause. Now think of the person in their home as the citizens of any country, whether it is in America or any other country, and the people who barge into the home are undocumented immigrants. In reality, citizens of any country shouldn't have to worry about people not following simple rules, or given double standards that they must follow by others do not. Rules are set in place by people to make life less chaotic and equal. A good fix to the problem of illegal immigration is to be fair and honest in a way that results in a simple process to become a legal citizen of the United States. The United States should be focused on making life better, not harder, for all people.

Works Cited

1. Amadeo, K. “Immigration Pros and Cons”. The Balance. 2019, https://www.thebalance.com/how-immigration-impacts-the-economy-4125413, Accessed 25 Feb. 2019.
2. Pandolfo, C. “Mark Levin Makes the Immigration Argument Every Elected Republican Should Repeat”. Conservative Review. 2019, https://www.conservativereview.com/news/mark-levin-makes-immigration-argument-ever-elected-republican-repeat/ Accessed 24 Feb. 2019.
3. Ryan, G. “A border Wall Isn’t Enough – Asylum Laws Must Be Stricter to Cut Illegal Immigration” . Fox News. 2019, https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/a-border-wall-isnt-enough-asylum-laws-must-be-stricte-to-cut-illegal-immigration Accessed 23 Feb. 2019.
4. Federallawenforcement.org. “What Is ICE| What Is Immigration and Customs Enforcement| Requirements for Federal Law Enforcement Jobs”. Federal Law Enforcement. 2019, https://www.federallawenforcement.org/ice/what-is-ice/ Accessed 24 Feb. 2019.
5. Oxfamamerica.org. (2019). “What’s Really Going on at the US Southern Border?”. Oxfam. 2019, https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/stories/whats-really-going-on-at-the-us-mexico-souhern-border/ Accessed 22 Feb. 2019.