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Immigration: Why It Should Be Legal

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There is an issue throughout the country about whether or not we should have open borders. I believe that immigrants should be able to come through if they can pass a background check and a knowledge test because immigrants are helping our country. Many disagree because immigrants have come to our schools and then leave with the knowledge they’ve learned.

The other side of the argument says that there should be closed borders. I’ve even heard that some think there should be electric fences around our borders so that if they do try to cross the border, they will either be hurt or possibly killed. There are some people that come from other countries to get an education, but once they have the knowledge, they just leave. They don’t work for the United States, they work for their own countries, I understand that it can be frustrating, but there are countries that don’t have education privileges like we do. There are also people who are frustrated because immigrants take jobs that Americans could have. According to the AP Report, more than half of the country’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants are uninsured and are more than likely to use hospital emergency rooms for simple checkups, (Illegal immigrants: benefits and negatives). The fact that they are willing to accept low wages makes the company owners decrease wages and other people can’t work for those wages, so they either lose their jobs or leave them (Illegal immigrants: benefits and negatives). According to Global Issues, “Immigration can also attract criminal elements, from trafficking in drugs and people to other forms of crime and corruption,” (Immigration—Global Issues).

I believe that people from other countries should be able to come here as long as they have a good reason and can pass a background check and knowledge test because there are countries that are worse off than we are. People have the right to education, but not every country believes that. Immigrants come from all over to get jobs. Global Issues says this about immigrants and the workforce, “Immigrants will often do jobs that people in the host country will not, or cannot do,” (Immigration—Global Issues). They need a way to survive too. Some say that they are not documented, but most of them pay taxes and bills. They pay rent, buy insurance and other different things. According to the AP Report, “In 2003 alone, the government received Social Security taxes on $57.8 billion from wage reports that couldn’t be matched to the person filing,” (Illegal immigrants: benefits and negatives). They are some of our best customers from grocery stores to corporate businesses. On top of everything else, their children go to our schools. Some parents from other countries have kids that need supported and they support their kids’ schools. We would also benefit from their own talents that they could share with our country.

If it wasn’t for immigrants, then our country wouldn’t be here. In 1492, the Spanish found the Americas because of Christopher Columbus was looking for more places for humanity to thrive. The whole point of him sailing west was to find an easier sailing route from Spain to China (Christopher Columbus). After Columbus, the Europeans came to America and found Native Americans already living here. When they arrived after 1500, Native Americans were attacked by unknown diseases brought by the Europeans (European Invasion of Indian North America). In the 1600s, the English and French came to America to escape religion intolerance amongst other reasons. No matter what reason they came here for, if they had not left their previous country, then our country would not have been formed and we would not be here unless we were all Native American. Most of us are not even partially Native American, so live would be completely different for everyone if the pioneers had not immigrated to the United States. Many are related to the Irish, Chinese, Japanese, and Polish immigrants at the beginning of the United States of America.

In conclusion, I believe that with our borders open, we can have a better future because many of the greatest minds are from other countries. Many believe that we should have closed borders for economic reasons, but they are helping, not making things worse. Like I’ve said before, immigrants created our country; so why should we close our borders to those who could be of great help to us?

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dvingelli said...
May 9, 2013 at 8:08 am
Interesting article. I was able to see immigration from a different perspective because of it.
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