The Immigration Crisis

Illegal Immigrants

Why Not?

Immigrants, or as many call, aliens, are everywhere in this country. We hear jokes about them from those with humor, and we read about how they should all be shipped back to their countries from those who claim illegal immigrants steal the American people's job. However, whatever one's position on the issue may be, the truth of the matter is there are over 20 million illegal immigrants in this country, and about 700 thousand more enter the country each year (center for immigration study). So even if you're an all American immigrant hater, getting rid of illegal immigrants would be impossible. But why would we want to get rid of them anyway? Why not welcome these struggling people who risk their lives in order to escape the hell hole they lived in on their country?

America is a beautiful country who was blessed economically and is now one of the riches and most powerful country in the world. What people seem to have forgotten though is that this successful piece of land was created by immigrants and for immigrants, and today most of it's economy still depends on them. However, there are those who disagree. Those who believe if immigrants were to go back to their own countries America would truly become heaven on earth. In an article written by Frosty Wooldrige, he states that without illegal immigrants in this country not only would the crime rates go down, but the American people's health would improve as well. He says immigrants that cross the border infect the people with tuberculosis, leprosy, hepatitis, and many other diseases. We also wouldn't have car thefts, and the illegal drug and gangs that roam our streets would end. We wouldn't have to "suffer" with the fact that schools now have to teach Spanish to their students who only speak English in order to be able to educate those who don't. So basically, all we have to do is get rid of all illegal immigrants and we will have ourselves a nice little utopia. Only thing that Frosty, the author of "A Day Without Illegal Immigrants" article, forgot is that he is basing his opinion on stereotypes and untrue information he has probably heard from others.

First of all, Frosty makes aliens seem like some type of dirty plague. I don't know how the system works in other countries, but before I ever even thought about coming to this country we had to take all sorts of vaccines in order to not get the types of diseases described above. I also asked an illegal alien, who shall remain anonymous, if she agreed with what was said and she confirmed that as a child in Brazil she had to take vaccines for all the diseases listed above and more.

Of course there are those who never were taken care of and come infested in hopes of being cured in America, and end up spreading diseases. However, what we have forgotten is this is a vicious cycle. What do you think happened when the first Americans settled here? Didn't the Europeans spread around their diseases to the truest Americans, the Natives? Yes, they did! Different cultures come together, that is bound to happen. And although that seems like a horrible think, biology teaches us that the more diverse a person is, the stronger their immune system will be. Besides, this is America. This country is advanced and has the means to find cures for their people, as well as the people who cross the border.

As far as the crime rates going down, theft ending, and gangs and illegal drugs being out of the street, that is quite an ignorant comment. According to NDIC, when talking about people who sell drugs on the street they confirmed that yes, Mexican and Hispanics do sell drugs however "Caucasian local independent dealers distribute much of the methamphetamine and marijuana produced in the state". There is no way that getting rid of all immigrants is going to change the scenery when clearly the American people are in on the drug distribution as well. You don't even have to read statistics, just read the newspaper or watch television. You see all kinds of races, from different socioeconomic backgrounds committing all types of crimes.

I could somewhat understand the bitterness towards illegal immigrants when it comes to diseases and crimes, but I cannot even begin to fathom why a person would be mad at the fact that another language is being taught at school. It is not a matter of compromising with illegal immigrants, it is a matter of broadening your horizons, becoming educated, letting go of your ignorance. Because this country is so powerful, it should be the first one picking up new languages in order to communicate with all the other countries around us.

After I read the article by Frosty I decided to write him an email asking him why was he so bitter towards immigrants, and why did he say the things he did. Thankfully, he replied to me saying:

"There are 20 million illegals in our country and those are the ones I'm talking about and they are not immigrants. They broke into our country and they are illegally here, work illegally and cheat us out of our taxes, our schools, lunch program and medical. They have drunk drivers and anchor babies and steal and diseases. We're not too happy about it.

Additionally, they are causing an overpopulation overload. Again, ILLEGALLY here in our country is illegal. They are not immigrants.

I'm not bitter, I'm pissed at the lawlessness and disrespect for our country."

Once again, Frosty is wrong. I have heard of cases where people have babies in America in order to collect money, but he is making a generalization because not everyone does that. And as far as cheating Americans out of their taxes, he could not have been more wrong. Aliens, whether legal or not, do pay taxes. The immigrant I interviewed has been illegally in this country for eight years and when I asked her if she paid taxes her response was "Sure, I have an I.R.S id. I pay taxes because I am not a criminal, and I think it is fairÐ'...it just isn't fair because we don't ever get money back."

Frosty talks about these illegal immigrants saying they are criminals. He and many Americans believe that if you want to come and work, you should enter the country legally. After all, the immigration policy does provide non citizens with two paths of lawful entry. You could either come with a permanent resident card or you could have permanent admission (Immigration Policy). I asked the immigrant interviewed why didn't she come legal and she stated she didn't have a sponsor therefore she couldn't get permanent or temporary residency. I also asked her why after