US Immigration

US Immigration Policy

There are about 11.7 Million immigrants living in the United States illegally. Fewer than one-third (29%) of immigrants in the United States are from Mexico. Roughly 28% are from Asia, 24% from countries in Latin America and the Caribbean other than Mexico, 12% from Europe, and 4% from Africa.

Moreover, contrary to some popular misconceptions, most Latinos in the United States (63%) are native-born—not immigrants. And 29% of foreign-born Latinos are naturalized U.S. citizens.

These statistics are interesting to me because when I hear of immigrants, I automatically think of Mexicans crossing the border illegally. True, this may be pretty judgmental and critical, but I think a lot of it has to do with the media’s portrayal of the situation and all of the laws and political upheaval that is concerned with Mexicans crossing the border and living in the United States undocumented. We only hear the bad stories about how these “illegals” are taking American jobs, not paying taxes, living off of our land for free, etc. What we don’t hear is that, in reality, they don’t use up our public services, they pay taxes, and they do a lot of the tough labor work that most Americans are unwilling to do themselves. Unauthorized immigrants are not eligible for most public benefits, and even legal immigrants are limited in what they can receive. Most legal immigrants cannot receive federal Medicaid, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), or food stamps during their first five years or longer in the United States—regardless of how long they have worked or how much they have paid in taxes. Like the rest of us, unauthorized immigrants pay taxes on their property and are subject to sales taxes on what they buy. More than half of them have taxes taken out of their paychecks. Households headed by unauthorized immigrants paid $10.6 billion in state and local taxes in 2010, according to estimates prepared by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). Moreover, ITEP estimates that, if provided the opportunity to earn legal status, formerly undocumented immigrants would pay a total of $12.7 billion in state and local taxes each year. Immigrants do not compete with the majority of natives for the same jobs because they tend to have different levels of education and work in different occupations. As a result, immigrants usually “complement” the native-born workforce. That increases the productivity, and therefore the wages, of natives. Immigrants are also more likely to start businesses than the native-born. According to a 2011 report from the Kauffman Foundation, “immigrants were more than twice as likely to start businesses each month than were the native-born in 2010.” Immigrant-owned businesses employ millions of people across the U.S.

What makes me feel conflicted is that, on one hand, I think we need to stop worrying so much about the fact that these immigrants are here illegally, and start coming up with ways to make getting them documented easier so that they can become legal residents who feel welcomed into our country and can give back. On the other hand, it is illegal for aliens to reside in our country undocumented and I don’t believe that its ok to just let it happen. Maybe if we worked more on getting them documents before they crossed the border than we wouldn’t be having these issues.