Trump's Wall: The Solution To Immigration

The building of a wall across the U.S./Mexico border is necessary in order to improve the illegal immigrant epidemic in America. According to Timothy Murphy, “Illegal immigration is crisis for our country. It is an open door for drugs, criminals, and potential terrorists to enter our country. It is straining our economy, adding costs to our judicial, healthcare, and education systems.” As defined by the legal dictionary, an illegal immigrant is a non-citizen who has entered the United States without government permission or stayed beyond the termination date of a visa. Being that our country is considered the ‘home of the free’ (contrary to what goes on in the news), it is a popular permanent destination for illegal immigrants.

Unfortunately, illegal immigration has always a problem in America. One of the most important parts of residing in a safe country is that every citizen is accounted for. When there are hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants living in the country, every person is no longer accounted for which can lead to a multitude of issues. This opens up the door for crime, overpopulation, identity theft and tax fraud. In addition, a frequent complaint made by tax-paying and law-abiding citizens is that illegal immigrants are occupying jobs that could have otherwise went to unemployed american taxpayers. Members of congress have struggled for years trying to find a solution to our illegal immigrant problem. Nothing has come to fruition.

A Washington Times article states, “Funding for the border wall was added to the bill in a 230-196 vote. Five Republicans defected to join all Democrats in opposition. The broader security package then cleared on a 235-192 vote.“Every single dime the president requested to start building a wall on our southern border, he’s going to get,” said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, CaliforniaRepublican. The money would cover 32 more miles of border fence in Texas, 28 miles of levee wall along the Rio Grande Valley, also in Texas, and 14 miles of replacement fence in San Diego.” Even though building a wall seems like a very drastic measure it is the only clear option to control the immigrant population that is plaguing the nation. In addition to ending illegal immigration through the border, the building of the wall will create thousands of jobs for Americans.

In America today, there are estimated to be between 12 and 20 million illegal immigrants. Not only do they take away jobs from Americans, but they make it harder for us to have access to medicine and healthcare. Some business owners hire illegal immigrants in order to save money. As illegal immigrants are undocumented, employers do not have to follow the law and can pay them below the already very low minimum wage. Their money is paid off the books and therefore is untaxed. Being that America is well known to be the ‘land of opportunities’, that is the main reason why immigrants choose our country. Immigrants that come to the United States are usually from poor and corrupt countries, like Mexico and Cuba, where there are not many job opportunities; and for the jobs that are available, the pay is barely livable. Illegal immigrants would much rather come to America and work for less money, because the currency is still worth more than what they’re used to. In “What If We Deport Them All?” by Jeff Jacoby, he states, “A lot of jobs that pay, say, $8 an hour are acceptable to a Mexican or Guatemalan alien with little education, fewer skills, and a fear of being deported would evaporate at the $16 an hour Americans would demand.” This exemplifies exactly how employers take advantage of illegal immigrant workers, and take jobs away from American citizens.

This negatively impacts the country because the IRS and government are losingmoney from business owners that are not paying taxes. “A program in 2008 called Secure Communities was launched with the purpose of focusing on illegal immigration of “serious convicted criminals” (Esquivel, 2012, p. 1). In this program, the FBI shares fingerprints from county jails with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Some local leaders and state leaders found that many immigrants that are caught in the system did not have any criminal records or they had low-level offences (Esquivel, 2012). Although illegal immigrants do not make up most of the criminal population in America, they still have a heavy effect on our country. Between America’s government and society, immigration has always been a hot topic. Some Americans feel as though immigrants are not welcomed properly into the country and they are actually the victims of danger and discrimination. I can see how this might be thought of as true because Caucasian Americans have been stereotyped to to perpetrators of hate crimes against minorities. However, there are some Americans who don’t think illegal immigrants are an issue for the nation. Some people think illegal immigrants bring new foods and ideas from their countries that we could benefit us here.

Also, many children have parents who are immigrants. Some people believe in cases like that, the parents should be granted a visa, so they can raise their children here. Illegal immigration is something that America has battled with solving for many years. It poses many risks for our country, such as overpopulation, heightened crime rates, and unemployment. Immigrants come to America for a better life, but they do not always get that. Illegal immigrants do not deserve the rights or opportunities that are reserved for tax-paying and law-abiding citizens. Personally, I think everyone should have access to live a great life. However, a great life must be achieved through legal means. The building of a wall along the border can help prevent incoming illegal immigrants and make sure that the immigrants that do come in, do so legally.