Illegal Immigration

I do not believe the U.S. should send the illegal immigrants already here back to their native countries. First, this would be extremely difficult to do, as the U.S. government would have to locate over eight million people and transport them to their respective home nations (I’m sure this would also prove very costly). Second this would greatly disrupt the economy, as millions of illegal immigrant workers would suddenly no longer be a part of the workforce. It would be difficult for business owners to replace these absent workers. The only exception to allowing the illegal immigrants to stay would be if they did not pay taxes or committed crimes. In that case they would be deported to their home country.

If we retain the illegal immigrants it is important that we help them adapt to American culture. I believe the first step would be to help them attain citizenship. It is important that we provide for them the same educational opportunities that all Americans receive and would be very prudent to offer them special assistance in learning English. I also believe the U.S. government must force all business to pay their employees minimum wage. This would help to increase the standard of living of illegal immigrants and would make them less of a burden to the government. At the same time, if all businesses were forced to pay minimum wage, American workers would once again be able to compete for jobs that illegal immigrants used to do for half the wage of an American worker.

I believe that illegal immigration is a bad thing and our government should do (and should have done) more to prevent it. The U.S. government must stop illegal immigration from happening and once they have they must fix the problems illegal immigration caused. I do no like the fact that illegal immigrants came and stole the jobs of hard working Americans; our government should never have let that happen. But sending the illegal immigrants back now is not an ethical or viable solution.

Illegal immigration hit North Carolina particularly hard. Illegal immigrants took the jobs of many hard working North Carolinians, especially in the textile and farming industries. The government must now provide a great amount of assistance to those affected negatively by the arrival of illegal immigrants; the federal government allowed this tragedy to occur so I believe it is their duty to assist those whose lives were ruined.

For years the U.S. has allowed immigrants to come to America so that they can live the American dream. I think we must slow immigration (and halt illegal immigration altogether) and help all Americans (including those who were formerly illegal immigrants) live the American dream.