What's Wrong With Illegal Immigration?

Illegal Immigration Threatens Our National Sovereignty

Sovereignty is the concept that a state has authority to govern itself. The United States has the right to determine its own boundaries and who is allowed to enter and remain in the country and under what circumstances. Those who enter illegally undermine that sovereignty by disregarding our laws. The U.S. immigration system should be built and maintained to further our national interest, and Americans must protect our sovereignty by enforcing the rules we set and protecting our boundaries.

Illegal Immigration Undermines the Rule of Law

Our country has a system of laws – from the federal down to the state and local levels. We expect those in the United States to abide by those laws, whether the law relates to a person’s civil liberties, respecting one’s property, or obeying red lights. When a law is broken, there should be consequences. Those who enter illegally or overstay their time in the United States are violating our immigration laws and disrespecting our system of government a clear indication that they may not abide by other laws. When the Rule of Law is degraded, cynicism, corruption, social discontent, and chaos can ensue.

Illegal Immigration Undercuts Legal Immigration

Millions of people around the world seek to immigrate to the United States; some have spent years waiting for one of the numerically limited visas to become available. Those who choose the legal avenue often pay application fees, undergo medical screenings, submit biometrics and attend an in-person interview, spending hours ensuring that they have the proper evidence for their application to be adjudicated. Illegal immigration makes a mockery of their adherence to the rules, unfairly “cutting the line” and requiring the government to expend its resources on illegal aliens rather than on those lawfully seeking admission.

Illegal Immigration Contributes to Unsustainable Population Growth, Affecting the Environment

Illegal immigration contributes to population growth, overwhelming communities by consuming already limited affordable housing, crowding classrooms, and increasing the strain on public services like food banks, transit, and social services. Unrestricted population growth also has a negative effect on the environment, increasing the strain on our vital natural resources and harming plants and animals, including endangered species. Mass illegal migration is not environmentally friendly and has had severe consequences for various areas, from trash inundating border communities to devastation of the pristine rainforest of the Darien Gap.

Illegal Immigration Harms American Workers

Illegal immigration also hurts our workforce by taking opportunities from American workers and students. U.S. workers are harmed or disadvantaged by illegal aliens who will work for renumeration that is lower than the minimum or prevailing wage, often driving down wages for Americans. Additionally, illegal aliens accept unsafe working conditions that violate safety regulations. Illegal immigration’s impact on U.S. workers, in turn, places a toll on the overall U.S. economy.

Illegal Immigration Threatens Americans’ Safety and Well-Being

Illegal immigration impacts Americans individually; it is not a victimless crime. As illegal immigration has increased, so has the trafficking of drugs such as fentanyl, with drug overdoses killing 100,000 Americans a year. When illegal aliens are released into American communities without proper vetting, Americans are increasingly becoming the victims of illegal alien crime including hit and runs, assault, and even murder.^[1] Illegal alien crimes are entirely preventable since the illegal aliens shouldn’t even be in the country in the first place. In addition, illegal aliens often steal Americans’ identities to live, work, and remain in the country.

Illegal Immigration is a Burden on the Taxpayer

The costs of illegal immigration to the taxpayer are numerous, but the largest costs are the education of their children, emergency medical care, and incarceration for those arrested for crimes. U.S. taxpayer dollars also support shelter, educational benefits, welfare and tax credits for those in the country illegally. Despite being ineligible, some illegal aliens also get welfare the same way they get jobs: with identity documents falsely identifying them as U.S. citizens, often obtained through identity theft or forgery. In addition, if they have U.S.-born children, they may collect welfare assistance in the name of those children. At the start of 2023, the net cost of illegal immigration for United States taxpayers – at the federal, state, and local levels – was at least $150.7 billion.^[2] This number undoubtedly has continued to grow as mass illegal migration continues.

The Illegal Alien Population is Massive… and Growing

FAIR estimates that at least 16.8 million illegal aliens resided in the United States as of June 2023.^[3] Since 2021, the number of illegal aliens crossing the nation’s borders has grown significantly. In Fiscal Year 2023, a record 3.2 million encounters with illegal aliens were recorded at America’s borders. In addition to those arrested, many illegal aliens have succeeded in evading law enforcement or Border Patrol, often entering between ports of entry. There were 1,174,385 known gotaways during the first two years of President Biden’s tenure, not to mention hundreds of thousands of unknown gotaways who avoided law enforcement notice entirely.

In addition to illegal border crossers, a sizeable portion of illegal aliens in the U.S. consists of aliens who have overstayed their visas. While estimates have varied over the years, recent numbers suggest that visa overstays account for as much as 40 percent of the illegal alien population.^[4] According to the most recent data provided by the Department of Homeland Security, in Fiscal Year 2022, nearly 854,000 nonimmigrant visitors violated the terms of their visas and overstayed in the United States.^[5] Over the past four years, the total rate of visa overstays (as a proportion of those expected to depart) has increased, up from 1.21 percent in Fiscal Year 2019 to 3.67 percent in Fiscal Year 2022.^[6]

Amnesty is Not the Answer

As millions of illegal aliens are allowed to remain here year after year, pressure rises from immigrant advocates to grant them amnesty. However, this is the equivalent of pardoning criminals en masse because it is easier than locating, arresting and detaining them. Amnesty, whether by policy or practice, encourages further illegal immigration and, by creating new “legal” immigrants out of illegal ones, adds dramatically to the future backlog of relatives abroad who apply for legal admission through chain migration. Amnesty would also be very costly.^[7]

The Answer Is…

• Deterring illegal immigration by securing the border and detaining those who enter illegally;
• Enforcing existing immigration laws, including detaining those awaiting their asylum decision and using the expedited removal process;
• Encouraging self-deportation, especially by denying public benefits and the ability to work in the U.S.;
• Collaborating with state and local governments to arrest and detain illegal aliens, leveraging law enforcement capabilities at all levels;
• Making the electronic employment verification system, known as E-Verify, mandatory for all employers so that illegal aliens are denied the ability to work;
• Tracking foreigners on temporary visas to assure they leave when required; and
• Immediately removing illegal aliens who have a final order of removal by an immigration judge.

Critical to the success of deterring further illegal immigration and reducing the current illegal alien population is single-minded support by our elected leaders for our immigration authorities in their law enforcement efforts.

Other Resources:

FAIR’s Issue Page on Illegal Immigration

The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Taxpayers

How Many Illegal Aliens Are in the United States?

Examples of Serious Crimes By Illegal Aliens