Illegal Immigrants and the U.S Border

Posted: November 28th, 2013

Illegal Immigrants and the U.S Border

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Illegal Immigrants and the U.S Border

Reasons

The rate of immigration has tripled since the 1970s. It is approximated that the United States receives about 1.2 million immigrants every year (Homeland, 2012). Most of these immigrants are undocumented. Immigration takes place due to many reasons. The most common cause of immigration, both legal and illegal, is the search for financial stability. Most people, especially those in developing countries, see America as country full of wealth and great prosperity opportunities. They consider themselves as part of the population to experience the American Dream. They therefore come to the United States to fulfill this dream although there are those who get disappointed. Another reason is the search for better education since America had good education facilities. There is a group, which comes to the United States due to the political instability in their countries. People from Haiti, Cuba and some of the African countries are known to do so. Others immigrate through human traffic (Anderson, 2010). They are brought to America illegally in order to work as sex workers or other illegal activities. Another group comes to terrorize the Americans. This is the most dangerous group.

Threats Posed by the Immigrants

            Since the 9/11 attack, immigrants have been said to pose a high security and safety threat to the Americans. This threat has made the government and the department in charge of security be alert and impose strategies that have made it harder for illegal immigrants to enter the country while thoroughly scrutinizing the legal ones. As far as health threats are concerned, this issue has not raised such a high concern to most of the departments. However, the economical threat posed by the immigrants has raised concern. This has been the centre of the immigration debates held by the politicians and the policy makers.

Contributing Factors to the Immigration Threat

            As earlier mentioned, the security threat has been a major threat especially after the 9/11 attacks. In the 2003 fiscal year, the immigration budget added u to $711.7 million. The security department was added 1,790 new positions so that the borders’ security could be upgrades. In addition, the border patrol agents were increased by 570 (Anderson, 2010). Most of the drug barons come from other countries. These include Mexico, Italy, just to mention but a few. They come to America using illegal routes. The economical problem has been based on the common American citizen. The government has not yet provided employment for all the American citizens. It has been found that the immigrants come and take the few jobs left, as they are ready to offer cheaper labor. This has made it difficult for the Americans to get well paying jobs in their own country thus suffering the economic recession going on.

The 9/11 attack was the main trigger for the security threat and the cheap labor being offered by the illegal migrants as they cannot access the needed documents to get well paying jobs is the main threat on the economic platform. Although the strict measures and security force at the borders has helped reduce the illegal immigration rate by two-thirds, the consequences of immigration are still being experienced (Lee & Ottati, 2002). It is worse when a particular group of people such at those from the Middle East (associated with terrorism) or those from developing countries (associated with poverty) continue to constitute a big percentage of the immigrants (Dvorak, 2009). However, the government is not ready to take a chance that will lead to an occurrence such as the 9/11 attack or the inability of taking care of its own citizens at the expense of the immigrants.

References

Anderson, S. (2010). Immigration. Santa Barbara, Calif: Greenwood.

Dvorak, W. (2009). Immigration in the United States. New York: H.W. Wilson Co.

Homeland Security (2012). Immigration Statistics. Department of homeland Security, Retrieved From http://www.dhs.gov/files/statistics/immigration.shtm

Lee, Y. T., & Ottati, V. (January 01, 2002). Attitudes toward U.S. immigration policy: the roles of in-group-out-group bias, economic concern, and obedience to law. The Journal of Social Psychology, 142, 5, 617-34.