Illegal immigration is a crime. Let’s be clear about that. Whenever a person decides to enter or overstay in the Unites States without the proper process, they break the law. This is not only criminal, it makes legal immigrants suffer undue scrutiny and Americans be subject to downright disrespect. Yet today’s issue of illegal immigration has been confused by fear-mongering alarmists who vocally intend to feed you a myth: undocumented immigrants harm the nation.

It’s true, there are downsides to everything, but take account of are the real numbers. According to the PEW Hispanic Center 60% of the undocumented immigration wave is from Mexico, that’s estimated 4 million people. Granted, that’s a lot of sombreros, but there are untold millions of other nationalities too.

According to the study five states take the brunt of the impact: California, Texas, Florida, New York and Arizona (Pew Hispanic Center n.pag.). If the image of Mexican Mariachi strikes you as the culprit, it is no coincidence, these states are often made into the poster children of immigration’s brow-beaten states, and with Arizona’s new discriminatory laws; they take the headlines too.

This makes it easy to focus on those fence-jumping migrants, when in fact our entire problem is with those who have already settled in the U.S. The Immigration problem is something for U.S. Customs and Border Protection to resolve, this is not the Amnesty problem.

The Department of Homeland Security is tasked with preventing the flow of illegal immigrants. According to Washington Post columnist, Tara Bahrampour, as of 2007 the average is of 300,000 immigrants who enter the United States and become illegal (Bahramour 1). The new Amnesty construct is built to deal with the estimated 13 million undocumented workers who are a already an integral part of the economic food chain.

In a report titled “Immigration Myths and the Facts Behind the Fallacies” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the federation that represents the largest number of businesses in the United States, says those in the undocumented workforce “do not tend to compete with comparably educated natives; instead they complement natives and encourage specialization.” In other words, the research says that as American workers go right for the high paying jobs, the necessity still exists for other jobs to be taken care of. The result has been a “more productive society, and increased wages across the board” (U.S. Chamber of Commerce 3).

Yet even if the system as a whole has benefited from the new influx of laborers, doing nothing about it is worse. Even the alarmists agree with some of the dangers of inaction. Bob Dane, from the Federation of Americans for Immigration Reform (FAIR), opposes any form of amnesty. Yet Dane and F.A.I.R. warns about the dangers of undocumented workers creating an “underground economy”. Economist David Kallick from the Fiscal Policy Institute also warns about the dangers of an underground economy, because it is a system of work done “under the table” that could strike a real and tough blow against the U.S. economy (Nowicki 1). The problem becomes worse, Kallick says, when “It fuels an underground economy that forces workers into low-wage jobs and poor and often abusive conditions.” (Kallick 5).

Notwithstanding the worsening conditions in states like Colorado, which sits in the middle of the immigration spectrum, undocumented workers still contribute. The PEW Hispanic Center says that undocumented workers in Colorado number up to 210,000 or 4.2% of population. Ironically this is 5% of the workforce (Pew Hispanic Center n.pag.).

This does not mean undocumented workers are taking jobs from Americans or drive down the wages for legal workers. The dangers of the underground economy are a separate fork of fortune for those who maintain it, since it is all off the books. But the real economy has been shown to benefit from the undocumented workforce which propels it. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce cites research which finds that undocumented workers “tend to have a positive effect on the economy” and allows for the U.S. labor force to move on with ”the creation of new business” (U.S. Chamber of Commerce 4). Likewise the study showed that there was no impact on wages (U.S. Chamber of Commerce 4).

In a nutshell these 13 million undocumented workers form part of the American Economic Machinery, those who advocate removal would throw the country into economic anarchy and bloodshed. The question is how to treat the crime of entering the country illegally; there should not be a freebie for anyone. Back in 2006, then President George W. Bush was a staunch Amnesty enemy, but even he said we couldn’t just put “12 million” people on a bus. Instead President Bush wanted a “temporary worker programme”, calling undocumented workers “honest”. Bush said “A temporary worker program would meet the needs of our economy, and it would give honest immigrants a way to provide for their families while respecting the law.” (BBC News n. pag)

Honest, hard-working men and women work real jobs and pay their taxes. Therefore it is a myth that undocumented workers are crippling welfare. Undocumented Workers have no access to welfare. According to the Work Opportunity Act of 1996, welfare is limited down to “legal permanent residents” of “at least five years”, taking all undocumented workers out of the equation (U.S. Chamber of Commerce 6). The deficit in welfare can’t even be attributed to legal residents; the U.S. chamber of Commerce says that “Many states, such as Arizona, Texas, and Arkansas, have completed studies which found that immigrants have a positive net fiscal impact on their state budgets. In Florida, immigrants pay nearly $1,500 per year more in taxes than they receive in benefits.”

The question persists on what to do about those undocumented. If deportation will only bring collapse and ruin, then they are out of the question. The question is what can be done to ensure the illegal’s continued integration into our society. Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda, PhD, Associate Professor at University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), number the tax revenue from undocumented workers at $800 Billion (Procon .org n. pag), which as much as a the recent government bailout of banks, an amount proven to make or break an economy.

Throwing people into buses, the nation into turmoil, breaking up families and sinking the economy are not options to be put on the table, only a Nazi would do that. The only obvious choice is to offer a win-win situation, a compromise that would offer a roadmap to resident legal status to honest working folk. But let’s backtrack a little; this “road” should have a toll-booth, it is not a freebie.

Undocumented Workers with at least 1-years of tax returns must embrace the fact that they committed a crime and be asked to pay a fine to the state in restitution for their behavior. The crime should be counted as a misdemeanor and fined accordingly. Likewise the new immigrants should be unable to petition for government aid or be burdened with a higher tax rate; it should be up to the states to decide which would serve as fuel to fund the U.S. Border and the Homeland Security apparatus.

The reasons for this arrangement are simple; it will allow the continued existence of the working class and bring the underground economy out of the shadow. The elimination of the underground economy and the exploitation is paramount, it will provide new laborers to the market as well as new, and much needed tax revenues for the state and more funds to border security.

In addition to this arrangement, workers who can provide proof of taxes for at least 5 years should be given a way to attain legal residency status. As a legal resident they would fall under the normal tax bracket under which all Americans and residents abide by; and be able to function in a consistent framework.

The road to amnesty will not be an easy one, but it was never meant to be. Coming to grips with our national and moral inability to break away from an integral part of the nation, and culture, will be a hard task. However the benefits of acknowledging this underclass and bringing them into the fold of regular society will prove to be of much greater value both in economic and social terms.

Homeland Security and the Security of the borders is another subject of debate. Amnesty is the only road available to unite our society and relieve bigger states of their burden.
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Works Cited

Bahrampour, Tara. Number of Illegal Immigrants in U.S. Drops, Report Says. emWashington Post/em. 1 Sept. 2010. Web. 07 Dec. 2010. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/01/AR2010090106940.html.

Bush Immigration Speech: Key Quotes. emBBC News/em. May 2006. Web. 07 Dec. 2010. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4984852.stm.

Congressional Budget Office. emThe Impact of Unauthorized Immigrants on the Budgets of State and Local Governments/em. Rep. Congress of the United States. Print.

Fletcher, Michael A., and Jonathan Weisman. Bush Signs Bill Authorizing 700-Mile Fence for Border – Washingtonpost.com. emWashingtonPost.com/em. Washington Post, 27 Oct. 2006. Web. 30 Nov. 2010. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/26/AR2006102600120.html.

Illegal Immigration in the U.S.: State-by-State Totals – Graphic. emPew Hispanic Center/em. Mar. 2009. Web. 07 Dec. 2010. http://pewhispanic.org/unauthorized-immigration/.

Kallick, David. FPI Immigration Research Initiative – Immigrants and the Economy. emFiscal Policy Institute/em. FiscalPolicy.org, Dec. 2009. Web. 07 Dec. 2010. http://www.fiscalpolicy.org/immigration_immigrantsandtheeonomy.html.

Nowicki, Dan. Rose Law Group Blog » Blog Archive » Immigration News Roundup for July 25, 2010. emReal Estate Business Lawyers / Attorneys :: Rose Law Group :: Phoenix, Scottsdale, Arizona/em. Web. 07 Dec. 2010. http://www.roselawgroup.com/blog/wordpress/?p=10356.

Procon.org. Are Illegal Immigrants a Burden to Americas Economy? – ACLU. emProCon.org/em. Web. 07 Dec. 2010. http://aclu.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000713.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce. emImmigration Myths and the Facts Behinds the Fallacies/em. Publication. Washington D.C., 2006. Print.

Wooldridge, Frosty. Educating Illegal Aliens Children Bankrupting Colorado Schools – Denver Immigration Reform | Examiner.com. emExaminer.com/em. Walden Media, 28 Apr. 2009. Web. 07 Dec. 2010. http://www.examiner.com/immigration-reform-in-denver/educating-illegal-aliens-children-bankrupting-colorado-schools.

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