Should Illegal Immigrants Be Allowed to Receive Social Services

Immigration is a large and controversial topic as far as the United States is concerned. However, there is one subject in question that isn’t quite openly addressed and up for discussion, as say border control. American citizens face many difficulties dealing with the admission of people in the United States illegally. The primary obstacles facing the system today include overcrowding in schools, availability of jobs and the unnecessary usage of Americans’ tax dollars. Unless every immigrant pays taxes, I do not believe they should receive health and social services. Some people argue that although illegal, immigrants still pay taxes (Carabelli 2-3). Numerous immigrants get false Social Security numbers in order to find jobs. Having these Social Security Numbers, employers are able to withhold all types of taxes. According to the internal revenue service, â€Å"†¦ about 6 million unauthorized immigrants file individual tax returns each year [thus confirming] estimates that between 50 percent to 75 percent of unauthorized immigrants pay federal, state, and local taxes† [ (Carabelli 3) ]. However, according to the united States General accounting office, a report they did shows that even if illegal immigrants do pay taxes, benefits provided to them cost more than they contribute, causing the United States a huge loss of money [ (Carabelli 4) ] Referring to Table 1, California spent a total of $1,770 million dollars on education, incarceration, and emergency services for illegal immigrants. In contrast, California only received $732 million in tax money from them. California lost $1038 million dollars. Also, Florida spent $461 million dollars in education, incarceration, and emergency services, losing $184 million dollars (Carabelli 4). (Carabelli 118) California tried to keep a handle on the costs of illegal immigrants by refusing to give social services to them. Illegal immigrants in the state were not supposed to be allowed state funded health care, public education, and other benefits. Some people had issues with this proposition; supporters of it made a point that Californians are suffering from the existence of illegal persons in their area and the violence they cause. Legal citizens have every right to safety and protection against these people who have entered the United States illegally from the government [ (Carabelli 6) ]. One of the biggest issues having to do with education is overcrowding in schools [ (Crisis 1) ]. In California, there have been reports of overcrowding to the point that schools are forced to reject students. Some people say there is a deficiency of teachers, but the truth is there are just too many immigrant students [ (Crisis 1) ]. According to usimmigrationlawyers. com, â€Å"The share of students in the U. S. ho are immigrants or the children of immigrants has tripled in the past 30 years; in 1970, they were only 6. 5 percent of the student body† [ (systems 1) ]. Immigrant students overwhelm around fourteen percent of schools by up to twenty-five percent. To accommodate overcrowding, a lot of schools have come up with alternatives to classrooms such as, portable classrooms, and using other facilities like cafeterias [ (systems 1) ]. Sometimes, having class in foreign rooms or places can be a distraction to students, especially if there are other things going on around them. Many towns and cities have resorted to building new schools because of the amount of students they are gaining [ (systems 1) ]. It is hard to keep track of exactly how many illegal pupils are in the school systems and determine the correct amount of funding needed. Some programs used to help educate non- English speakers; help to keep count as to how many there are [ (Carabelli 9) ]. However, other programs aren’t made specifically to meet the needs of Immigrants. Many schools find the need to hire bilingual staff to help immigrants. They also purchase special tools such as books and computer programs [ (systems 1) ]. One source of education, English Language Learner, needs extra funding to help it function correctly. This makes the teaching of immigrants more expensive, especially in areas where immigrants are dense [ (Carabelli 9) ]. One solution that has been brought to the table many times is amnesty. President Reagan signed the Simpson-Mazoli Act in 1986, which forgave about 2. 7 million immigrants for entering illegally, and allowed them to stay [ (Mcmanus 1) ]. The reason for this generous agreement was the hope that it would stop more illegal aliens from coming into the United States. This accord didn’t exactly help the problem. In fact, it became more intense, and more illegal aliens crossed the borders into our country [ (Mcmanus 1) ]. Since the big amnesty in 1986, the US has let about three million additional immigrants in. The authorities responsible for allowing them to stay neglect to admit it was them who did it because it attracted more newcomers [ (Mcmanus 1) ]. Even if the United States attempted amnesty again, it would fail for the exact same reason. Granting them amnesty is giving them what they want and in the long run, that costs the US more money than just deporting them. During the Second World War, many immigrants came across the borders to take the jobs of those who were a part of the army. When the war ended, service men came back to find that most of their jobs were taken, immigrants were committing many crimes that ruined the communities, and their millions of children were enrolling in school causing them to become overcrowded [ (McGrath 1) ]. A lot of people say that immigrants do all of the dirty jobs no Americans would do. However, a study done shows that if Americans were paid a reasonable, average wage, they would indeed choose to do those jobs as well [ (Immigration:Jobs) ] It is fair to say that immigrants have distorted the way people see jobs today. It used to be that citizens would do construction, bricklaying and other strenuous job like those, now it is not uncommon to find a Hispanic or other immigrant doing those jobs. Employers lowered pay for illegal immigrants because most of them are willing to do work for any amount. Which, in turn, makes the employer happier because they can hire more help for less so of course they would rather have undocumented workers than legal citizens. (Immigration:Jobs) One immigration case the Supreme Court had to face, dealt with schools in Texas turning away immigrant children. In 1975, Texas lawmakers chose to ban the use of state education funds to pay for the education of illegal immigrant students [ (Unmuth) ]. Some schools turned away all illegal immigrants; some accepted them but forced them to pay tuition. One man brought his family to the United States to get them a better education and his children were turned away because they were illegal [ (Unmuth) ]. The family chose to fight this in court with a couple of other people and won with a 5-4 vote. The spokeswoman for the Federation for American Immigration reform stated that people do not want to watch any child be denied an education, but they want to find a way to stop parents from coming over illegally in the first place. Many taxpayers are feeling as though they are being used; they are forced to pay taxes that support and pay for services and education or illegal beings in the United States. The Tyler vs. Doe case has ensured that all people, illegal or not, will be guaranteed an education. Also, under the fourteenth amendment, all illegal immigrants are promised equality and every civil right a natural citizen has (Unmuth). Asking natural citizens of the United States most will admit they do not like the fact that Illegal Immigrants receive benefits paid for by our taxes. Only one out of every four people believes it is okay for immigrants to receive food stamps and Medicaid [ (Staff 2) ]. Also, only eighteen percent are okay with illegal immigrants getting public housing. A little fewer than eighteen percent of citizens that took this poll decided that illegally admitted people should be allowed state grants for college. The goal for the senate is to come up with something to fix border control so more illegal immigrants cannot enter and catch people that employ illegals to stop providing them with jobs. With these laws in hand, hopefully immigrants will stop wanting to enter the United States [ (Staff 2) ]. So far, the United States has not found an effective way to prevent people from entering illegally. The first step that should be taken is being stricter with the borders. Currently, we have a fence along the US-Mexico border to attempt keeping people from crossing. It is 335-350 miles in length along the approximately 1969. 13 mile long border. That leaves around 1,619-1,634 miles of border un-blocked, wide open for crossing. Congress has ordered for the fence to be extended. Considering the fact that there are plenty of issues with land ownership, there are many problems with law faced with extending the fences. In addition to the fences, along the border we have several different types of electronic security systems. There are cameras and sensors that are monitored twenty-four hours a day by border patrol (Practice). Another strategy is worked from the inside. We are trying to prevent illegals from wanting to come over. This is preventing employers from hiring them in the first place. The United States uses a program called â€Å"E-verify†. It helps employers confirm that the people they are hiring are legal citizens. So far, â€Å"A study conducted in May 2008 by the Center for Immigration Studies estimates that the illegal immigrant population of the United States may have dropped by about 11 percent from the previous summer. It suggests that the total illegal immigrant population went from 12. 5 million in August 2007 to 11. 2 million in May 2008. † (Practice). According to writer Roger McGrath, there should be no problems deporting Illegal Immigrants back to their countries. In 1954 the US held a large deportation sending around two million immigrants back to their home countries [ (McGrath 1) ]. He says it was â€Å"done swiftly and cheaply by a relatively small force, proving that arguments we hear today about such an operation being logistically impossible are nothing more than a mask concealing a lack of political will†. I believe that the United States’ immigration problem will never be one hundred percent resolved. We can try building fences, or walls but there is always a way around, under or through those. We can try upping security along the borders with cameras and sensors, but there is a way to seem invisible to those. The matter of fact is that we have to come up with laws that make it impossible to get benefits, impossible to get a job and places to live. If we have to play dirty to get what we want, so be it. The American people worked hard to get where we are today and even with that, we struggle. Illegal is illegal we can’t make excuses to get out of our lives neither should they. I feel bad for those struggling in other countries, we have our problems too. The United States tries to help out other countries as much as they can, it is hard. So why should Americans have to pay for them to come into our country and live? Works cited http://www.usillegalaliens.com/impacts_of_illegal_immigration_jobs.html http://athens.usembassy.gov/dcm_immigration.html