Undocumented Immigration

Kaleb Breton

In 2014 the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed 315,943

undocumented immigrants either in the country or trying to cross the U.S. border.
The vast majority of these Undocumented immigrants were kept in detention
centers before they were deported. This year the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security estimated that there are currently 11.4 million undocumented immigrants
in the U.S, with many more arriving each year . People all over the U.S have come to
two main conclusions about this problem: that all the undocumented migrants
should be deported and that U.S border patrol funding should increase, or that all of
the undocumented migrants in the country should become legal citizens and the
current citizenship process needs to be revised. To revise the system all
undocumented immigrants should be sent back to their home countries to allow for
better economic growth in the U.S
Firstly, undocumented immigrants would cause a dramatic increase in the
unemployment rate, of both undocumented immigrants and legal citizens, if they
were to become legal citizens all at once. According to the bureau of labor statistics,
the US unemployment rate was an average of 6.15% in 2014. In relation there is, as
of 2014, around 11.3 million undocumented immigrants that make up about 5% of
the U.S. workforce, with the number of people in the U.S workforce being around
156 million people in total. If all those 11.3 million undocumented migrants became
legal citizens there would be drastic workforce rebounds. Many of these new citizens
would suddenly have the legal right to be paid minimum wage. That would not only
drastically increase the unemployment of low income citizens because there would
be less jobs available, but it would also call for farmers to pay more to their workers,

thus causing less work even then to be available. A sudden surge in legal citizens
especially those of the low class would only harm our economy as it would force
many farms to pay more only putting more people out of their jobs.
However, money should be spent not on detaining undocumented immigrants
but on revising the current citizenship process. Last fiscal year 18 billion dollars
were spent on border patrol money with people pushing for a 4.5 billion dollar
increase. Money could be spent putting a system in place that would allow for
businesses to decide the amount of visas given out to workers especially those of
lower income and education. The US government could judge the amount of visa by
looking at the demand from the last quarter and using that data to calculate the
amount of visa it would entail for the current business quarter, so that the system
would also adjust for seasons that require more work than others. This new system
would allow for a better more accurate way to give out visas so that when the
economy is in an up turn, it could have more workers, and in a downturn, less, while
also incentivizing more immigrants to use the legal process than not. A system such
as this would allow for the economy to better grow when it needs to and so that this
country doesnt have more people trying to work when there isnt any work
available
Undocumented migrants should be incentivized to come to this country
legally than illegally because it can cost them their lives. In 2013, 307 Immigrants
making the journey illegally to our country were reported dead by the U.S.
government. These places they are trying to cross have triple digit temperatures
and can stretch around 900 square miles. The reason many migrants are trying to
cross at these remote places are due to two main factors:1) They are forced by
overwhelming crime in their home countries and 2) The slow U.S. Naturalization

process plus the U.S border system. Because of the shear number of border agents,
the undocumented immigrants who need to cross the border are forced to do so
where those border patrol agents aren't, which are the most remote and deadly
places for them to cross. This not only shows how previously stated the U.S. border
system is costly, but how this increase in funding has cost people their lives.
Reworking the U.S. economic structure to better suit it for all of the
immigrants is the most effective solution to this problem, Which requires all
undocumented immigrants to be sent back to their home countries. This not only
affects undocumented immigrants, and low income families, but, affects the U.S.
economy as a whole, which in turn can affect the jobs of millions of Americans in
either a positive or negative way.The reasons behind why this problem affects so
many, is due to many factors, but by keeping there from being a sudden surge of
new workers looking for jobs, by revising the citizenship and visa process, and by
incentivising immigrants to enter the U.S. legally. The problem would not only
become fixed but it would benefit the lives of both millions of Americans, and those
trying to become Americans.