Massive Influx of Illegal Immigrants in USA

There have been a large number of illegal immigrants entering the United States for many years. For the last few years in particular, there has been a massive influx of illegal immigrants crossing the Mexican border. Illegal immigration needs to be stopped because it places a huge burden on the economy od the United States. One reason is the illegal immigrants receive many free benefits. Another reason is the illegal immigrants work practices are causing wages in certain areas to remain low due to working for a cheaper wage.

The final reason is a burden is being placed on the state and federal funding of the judicial system due to a high rate of criminal activity among illegal immigrants. Therefore, the United States must find a way to cease illegal immigration and deny any benefits being sought by these individuals immediately.

Free housing, food, and education costs soar over $120 billion annually in the United States for illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants cannot legally receive welfare benefits but when given the fact their children are born United States citizens, this makes the children eligible for assistance. The illegal household then thrives off of this money for its livelihood. Illegal immigrants have larger families than the traditional American household. For housing alone, the deficit cost to taxpayers is in excess of $50 billion a year. The children are eligible for programs such as WIC, Snap benefits, and disability. These government funded programs are necessary for the well-being of poverty level families who are citizens but when the illegal immigrant numbers are included, the costs to taxpayers more than double to over $25 billion a year. These children are also eligible for free school lunches which costs the state and federal government another $8 billion a year. Education expenses can put school systems into a financial bind and diminish the availability of limited resources. Two such expenses are having to address the language barrier and after school child care which can add an additional $ 2 million to be funded by federal and state governments. In all, education expenses are amounting to over $50 billion a year for K-12 education. In recent years, some states g=have allowed illegal immigrants to receive a free college education with the federal and state governments picking up the $40 billion tab. There is an active policy that prohibits illegal immigrants from receiving health care funded by federal taxes. However, there are approximately 4,000,000 illegal immigrants who are receiving health related services paid for with federal tax dollars. Hospitals and clinics practice cost shifting in order to be paid for their services. Cost shifting involves charging higher prices to the insured individual the shifting the excess money to cover the unpaid bills of the uninsured illegal immigrant. Contrary to many beliefs, hospitals do practice cost shifting. Non-profit hospitals and clinics are tax exempt therefore; they receive federal subsidies along with $6 billion in tax expenditures to which a large portion benefits the illegal immigrant. The illegal immigrants have free healthcare that is ultimately funded with federal tax dollars by an indirect means.

With an excess of 20 million illegal immigrant workers in the United States, there is a shortage of low-skilled jobs. Over half of the illegal immigrants do not have a high school education. Twenty (McDonald)percent are known to not have an education beyond a grammar school level, if any at all. Twenty-five percent do have a high school diploma, but considering the economy of their home country, the education level would be of poor quality. The illegal immigrant does not have any documentation so this usually forces them into the low-skilled labor employment pool. This creates competition among the illegal immigrants themselves and the millions of legal working citizens thus, creating a surplus of workers. Illegal immigrants will tend to live and work in areas that have a higher population of those with the same or similar ethnicity in order to avoid detection by authorities. When there are a high number of workers in a given area, competition will be at its highest. This allows the employers to gain leverage within the hiring process. The companies will hire for a substantially lower wage so this forces the low-skilled legal worker out. Many times, this means the legal worker will have to move from an area to find employment. Very seldom do companies get penalized for hiring illegal immigrant workers so this magnifies the problem. Wages are being held lower due to the high number of illegal workers, especially in rural areas. Thus, the legal citizen who cannot find employment fails to stimulate the economy and some are forced to live off of government assistance. A majority of the illegal immigrants’ wages are sent back to their home country which means the money is not stimulating the local nor the United States economy.

Illegal immigration has essentially saturated our society with an infection of individuals who have come to the United States in search of a better life. Most of the illegal immigrants live with a level of secrecy that keeps the government from obtaining any type of documentation on identity or location. This has affected our judicial system due to the various crimes committed by these individuals. When an illegal immigrant cannot provide for themselves, or chooses not to, they tend to resort to illegal activities. Crimes committed by the illegal immigrant consist of drugs, theft, murder, and habitual driving offenses. This criminal activity has become a negative stronghold on out judicial system. The offenders lack funds to retain counsel for legal representation, so the job falls in the hands of the Public Defender’s Office which is ultimately funded by the United States government. Amounts in excess of $1 million are spent each year on representation for these various crimes. The numbers of crimes are at an all-time high. In the past seven years in Texas alone, more than 650,000 illegal immigrants were charged with crimes. The rate of expense to provide food, medical, and housing for an incarcerated inmate can be in excess of $50 a day depending on the region. Ultimately, all costs associated with the legal process are a burden to the local government as well as the federal government. The habitual driving offense charges are becoming a nuisance in all states including the states that allow illegal immigrants to obtain drivers licenses. The illegal immigrant will not purchase insurance on their vehicle so the insurance companies charge the insured driver a higher rate to cover the amount of money lost in having to pay uninsured claims.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there are a large number of illegal immigrants living in the United States. There is evidence to support many illegal immigrants work in jobs that collect taxes but never file a tax return due to a stolen or inaccurate social security number. In the end the government keeps those tax dollars. The illegal immigrant does spend money into the local economy but most monies are transferred back across the border to their home country which inevitably stimulates the economy in that country. These individuals are placing a massive drain on the economy of the United States and on individual state governments by which the taxpayer pays the bill. Wage rates are being compromised due to the industrial sector having a cheap labor pool to select from thus, causing a shortage of low-skilled jobs among legal citizens. The negative aspects, by far, outweigh the positive benefits. My original opinion still stands that the United States should find a way to cease illegal immigration and deny any benefits sought by these individuals.

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