Illegal Immigration

Illegal Immigration: The Flood

"Immigrants are to hordes what sheep are to flocks, or lions to prides. They swarm rather than arrive, their faceless uniformity evoking the insect world and its ceaseless, relentless capacity to reproduce." Over the years many things have been done to try to stop the incoming flow of illegal immigration coming over the western border, but most everything has failed which leads to the millions of Mexican immigrants living illegally in the United States. Millions of Mexicans are living illegitimately in California and that number is growing by an estimated half million per year (Long 87;Center for Immigration Studies).

Controlled immigration is now a thing of the past. Years ago the flow of immigration was easily monitored and most Mexicans entering the United States were legal. Gradually things became worse and people began to hear stories of vans and cars full of Mexicans trying to cross the border being pulled over and taken to the border police, however no one really knew how bad the problem was or how much worse it would become.

The two key factors that attract illegal aliens to the United States are jobs and family values. IN Mexico, the average worker only makes about one tenth of what someone working in the same job in America would make (Scholsser 25). Many American companies are willing to hire immigrants because they can pay them a lot less than what they would have to pay a typical American worker. Even this low wage is higher than most Mexicans would be making in Mexico. This is what makes the U.S. seem so great to the many Mexicans trying to cross the border.

Another large contributing factor to the illegal immigration from Mexico are the communities of legal immigrants who form networks to bring others across the border. These groups of people are what make it easier for many more Mexicans to cross the border unauthorized. They are "incubators" who worsen the problem rather than help by providing jobs, housing and entry into the U.S. for relatives and other Mexicans (Hanson 2). Once the illegal immigrants have been helped across the border it is overly easy for them to find jobs and even become "legal"