We often hear the mantra that America has always been a nation of immigrants, so it is unfair to restrict immigration (legal or illegal) to America today. It is true that immigrants have always come to America, but not in the numbers that they are coming today; and immigrants have not always made up such a large percentage of our population.
In 2000 the U.S. population was 281 million. The current population is 305 million an increase of 24 million. This rate of growth is unprecedented and impacts all facts of life in America. No matter your opinion on immigration, there is no denying the effects that such rapid population growth is having on our society. For some reason, those who complain about pollution, overdevelopment, energy consumption, and America’s ever-increasing “carbon footprint” rarely attribute these things to immigration. The problems connected to mass immigration are not going away unless we reduce our rate of population growth.
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (INA) was intended to abolish immigration quotas and ensure equality in our immigration policies. Preferences were given to family members and immigrants with certain occupational skills. So, the INA took the bias out of our immigration policy. Did this give everyone who wants to come here an equal chance? Not, in the least. The majority of immigrants come here from Mexico and many of them are here illegally.
A recurring argument in favor of illegal immigration is that it benefits the American economy. We hear that a lot from business owners who profit from paying illegal aliens low wages. Aside from those who gain from exploiting the disadvantaged, are there economic benefits of illegal immigration for the American people?
One of the most contentious discussions on border security is whether the U.S. should build a fence on the border with Mexico. The U.S.-Mexican border is 2,000 miles long.
How are often have you heard that phrase? Of course that is a broad statement that can’t be true in every case. But what is true about illegal aliens and crime?
In 1986 President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) passed by a Democratic Congress a true bi-partisan comprehensive immigration reform. The IRCA was supposed to secure American borders and punish employers who hired illegal aliens. In return, 2.8 million illegal aliens were given amnesty and became legalized residents, giving them a pathway to citizenship.
Almost anyone born in the U.S. is automatically granted U.S. citizenship, even if the parents came here illegally, or came to the U.S. for the express purpose of having a child on U.S. soil (there is a booming “birth tourism”).1 There is disagreement about whether children born in the U.S. should automatically become citizens. 1The exception is children born to foreign officials stationed here.
Most attention has been focused on illegal immigration, which tends to dominate the immigration debate. This often takes away from the need for true “comprehensive reform,” which would include ending illegal immigration and scaling back legal immigration. There are an estimated 13 million illegal aliens in the U.S., and that number has been growing by around 500,000 more each year.
The issue of affordable healthcare is one of the most important issues of our time. When politicians talk about his problem they too often fail to mention that immigrants, both legal and illegal, account for much of the cost of healthcare. If healthcare were nationalized without doing anything about our immigration mess, American taxpayers could end up paying a much higher cost of insuring those who currently lack health insurance.
This is a common argument coming from the business lobby and from pro-immigration and amnesty groups. Is this really true? Would our economy collapse if we didn’t have mass immigration?
American labor unions are supposed to protect American workers. So why are America’s largest unions in favor of bringing in millions of foreign workers? The result will be fewer jobs for American workers, lower wages for everyone, and workplace conditions that hark back to the 19th century. Unfortunately union leaders have abandoned union members.
This question is an easy one. You have a good 50-50 chance of getting it right.
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