Illegal immigration, a paramount issue within the United States today, has been aptly described by the political intelligentsia as a “multi-headed hydra,” its sphere of influence extending into various socioeconomic sectors, affecting the country’s health care, its education systems, its national security, and both big and small businesses effectively impacting the society from top to bottom. With much speculation, this topic has become a very intriguing argument. What people must understand is that various factors applicable to the United States socioeconomic landscape are impacted by the proliferation of illegal immigrants such as limited residency allocations, limited employment availability, and a diversion of limited funding to such projects as immigrant camps (resources which could be utilized to mitigate stressing factors on America’s degrading environmental conditions, to empower unemployed citizens or those citizens without any way to provide for themselves without employment and to combat homelessness and impoverishment) give credence to the opinion of this paper that the problem of illegal immigration diverts limited resources which should otherwise be conserved or utilized for the betterment of America’s native and naturalized citizens.
Immigration levels have reached a historic high and are currently the main driver of U.S. population growth. This population growth in turn significantly contributes to a host of environmental problems within a country of more than 327 million inhabitants that are expected to grow to two or three times that number; a country with continually rising carbon emissions; a country engaging in sprawl development that destroys an estimated 2 million acres of wild and agricultural lands each year; a country that also uses water shortages in its western and southeastern parts to justify new-river-killing dams and reservoirs. Its people must curb or hinder this population growth to ensure the survival of their society and environment for themselves and posterity. So reducing illegal immigration by strictly enforcing sanctions against employers who hire illegal workers and cutting legal immigration limits would necessarily lighten the detrimental environmental effects caused by the undeniable presence of immigration-fueled population growth.
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The proliferation of illegal immigrants seeking employment from the same businesses as legitimate citizens has led some employers to forego instituted sanctions and hire such individuals and do so in areas with high levels of poverty and extremely low incomes amongst native and naturalized populations. In these scenarios, there was an available group of individuals who would have likely worked in these employers’ businesses despite the perceived substandard working conditions of these businesses. In August of this year, as has been reported by several news outlets, five companies operating poultry plants in Mississippi were raided by federal authorities for violating current immigration law by knowingly hiring undocumented immigrants, according to the ensuing investigation some of these workers gave Social Security numbers belonging to the deceased, were hired twice by the same manager though the worker used different names on each occasion, and even wore ankle monitors as they awaited deportation hearings. These actions allowed by the employers not only cross the line between profitability and illegality but also forsake the welfare of not only the unestablished and varying impoverished populations recorded to live in the areas surrounding those plants but also that of the immigrant individuals who took the fall and have been further displaced, though illegal immigration seems to draw away opportunities from legal citizens native and naturalized it also leads to various problems for those who come into the country undocumented.
Immigration in the U.S.A. today is unlike it ever has been and what is most disconcerting is the seeming inability on the part of the U.S. government, even in this technologically advanced age bent on increasingly scrutinizing methods of security and surveillance, to control the current immigration flow, or even to accurately gauge its size, with some estimates postulating between 2 and 20 million undocumented individuals entering into this country yearly. Now these individuals arrive from all corners of the world and it is fruitless to target any specific group and deride them for entering the country undocumented and illegally. An infuriated approach to the situations that arise with the influx of immigrants won’t improve those situations. These individuals often live hampered existences, evident through observation over the years by governing authorities and committees devoted to the issue, avoiding situations where they might be discovered and identified such as medical facilities, and with that inability to access related medical resources they invite a higher risk of contracting costly and chronic medical conditions. To this end, an aging population of undocumented aliens threatens to become a population of unhealthy, undocumented elderly residents that burden the country and its taxpayers. These individuals have revoked the promise of private pension plans, social security, and even supplemental income, they usually live very frugally and might send funds back to their home to assist friends and family, however, it is doubtful that these individuals would be able to save enough money under these conditions to meet their own social and health needs after retiring and are in turn further burdened by their minority status resulting in their facing both employment and housing discrimination. Overcrowding and substandard living conditions among undocumented aliens may exacerbate an already problematic housing situation in many areas of the country. Under these circumstances, it seems that illegal immigration is an issue that causes problems for not only the nation in which these immigrants reside, by becoming a burdensome generation, but also by disenfranchising themselves, skipping out on those rights and perks that native and naturalized individuals have access to.
Even though immigrating to this country and illegally skipping the transitional process (which in many cases takes an individual several years to become naturalized) to avoid less desirable conditions in their home countries may provide short-term respite for many such individuals it seems that as the years go by they endure the compounding effects of living in a society but without the ability to reap its government's benefits to their own better ends but also overburdening themselves financially with hoops they try to but cannot reach because of how high they cannot jump with the weights holding them down. This influx of individuals also contributes to already extant issues such as homelessness, overcrowded populations, a suffering environment, and the struggles of a willing workforce that is turned away in favor of groups that are in turn taken advantage of monetarily. More restrictive policies could theoretically be implemented, cracking down on falsified documentation utilized by illegal immigrants and an objective education on the issue could be administered to academia and through public service
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