Student Highlight: Brenna Hanbury
Why do our fears make us, as a nation, come up with unnecessary problems and solutions? Illegal immigration has been a controversial topic throughout US history. Political parties have had starkly opposed views over solutions to illegal immigration for decades. However, all potential solutions proposed by both political parties proved to be ineffective. From immigrants overstaying their visas to poor foreigners trying to live in the “land of the free,” illegal immigrants make up a substantial portion of the US population today: around 1.8 million people in the US today are undocumented immigrants (Dudley). It is important to note that that number is likely below the true number because most illegal immigrants avoid the federal government so they can stay in the country without being detected. Given these facts and with the media sources and others criticizing the federal government for the chaotic immigration policy, politicians and other influential figures have stressed that there needs to be a solution to these undocumented immigrants coming to the US. While many presidential administrations have tried to address immigration, the US immigration system remains disorganized, benefitting neither the immigrants nor the US citizens. Democrats and Republicans offer their own solutions to this issue; however, the solution to illegal immigration is not as simple–or perhaps even as necessary–as these political parties have made it seem.
Democratic politicians, like Joe Biden and Barack Obama, have tried to create solutions to illegal immigration in favor of the illegal immigrants; for the most part, all of these have been ineffective. Instead of seeing the issue with the number of immigrants in the US, the Democrats view the problem as our immigration policy forcing immigrants to become illegal. For example, the Biden Administration aimed to increase the number of green cards and visas given to immigrants and took measures to keep them safe and free from violence (“The Biden Plan for Securing Our Values as a Nation of Immigrants”). While in theory, this seems like a good solution to illegal immigration, increasing the number of immigrants results in more anger and violence directed at that community, which ultimately increases the federal costs to protect them. Conversely, traditional Republican views see immigrants as foreigners who take advantage of federal and state government programs, such as the healthcare system through Medicaid programs (Lamborn). There is also a perception that immigrants are criminals because the illegal immigration process cannot include appropriate screening. These positions create fear and animosity towards immigrants, so with any increase in the number of legal immigrants, the corresponding negativity and even violence toward this population will increase proportionately. Therefore, this division will require more funding for the security measures needed to address this issue. Another flaw in the Biden plan is that more unskilled immigrants admitted legally will result in higher government costs. In 2012, the illegal immigrants (mostly unskilled) net cost the US 10 billion dollars ("Preface to 'Does Illegal Immigration Harm US Citizens?’"). In 2022, with Biden increasing the number of immigrants allowed in the US, immigrants cost the US a net of over 20 billion dollars (Bedard). Another challenge to implementing the Biden plans is the Republican-controlled Congress, which has promised to vote against any of the proposed legislation. Many Republicans in Congress, including Jim Jordan, have “accus[ed] Democrats of favoring an ‘open border,’” which has caused further tension within Congress (Leonhardt). It seems unlikely that a solution will ever be reached that both Democrats and Republicans can agree on. Regardless of the posturing in Congress, the democratic solution to illegal immigration has many flaws and ultimately will cost the nation more than in previous years.
Republicans have also proposed solutions to illegal immigration, typically focused on favoring the US citizen. These have also been suggested to be ineffective. One of Donald Trump’s main presidential campaign platforms was a solution to illegal immigration, and he did make controversial changes to the immigration system during his presidency. One of his first initiatives was to build a wall along the southern border between Mexico and the United States. However, he faced the same challenges as the Biden Administration in getting approval for these policies because of the split in Congress between the Democrats and Republicans. But, when COVID-19 hit in the winter of 2020, Trump was able to take advantage of the shutdown of the federal government, taking the funds to reinforce the building of this wall and supply border security along the entire border (“The Cost of Immigration Enforcement and Border Security”). While this may seem like an effective solution, the cost of the border wall and border security outweighed the “cost” of the illegal immigrants in the US. It is also noteworthy that even with the wall, illegal immigrants were still finding alternate means to get into the US, like by boat, so it was not as effective as the Trump administration was leading people to believe (Timm). Although now illegal immigration costs the US more than the building of the wall, the border security that the wall required outweighed the costs of illegal immigration. The 18 billion dollar wall that Trump supported did not account for the illegal immigrants that continued to find alternate means to get across the border. These statistics suggest that the 10 billion dollars that illegal immigrants cost a year seems to be a small price comparatively (“Adding Up the Billions in Tax Dollars Paid by Undocumented Immigrants”). It is clear that the Republican solutions to illegal immigration have also proved to be ineffective and costly.
If we look more closely at these failed policies, it seems as though a solution for illegal immigrants isn’t as necessary as many have previously believed. Since previous solutions have seemed to be ineffective and costly, unless illegal immigration proves to significantly negatively impact society, a solution to it is not necessary. The need for a solution stems from fear: fear of criminal activity, of lost job opportunities, of the costs, but these fears are just that, hypothetical fears. The jobs that illegal immigrants take are necessary for the economy, and the need for employment is not scarce, so the explanation that these illegal immigrants were taking opportunities from US citizens does not hold true. It is important to look at not what our country has done to immigrants, but instead, what immigrants have done for our country. Illegal immigrants make up 5% of the US workforce. The apples that you buy from the grocery store were likely picked by illegal immigrants. Half of the agricultural farmers are undocumented, suggesting that as a nation, we need them to continue our way of life (Dudley). The cost of illegal immigration has had little to no impact on the nation in previous years. Without the wall being built, or the new solutions put in place by the Biden Administration, illegal immigrants only cost the US 10 billion dollars a year in 2012, which was 0.1 % of the nation's yearly budget. While this number seems substantial, it truly had little to no impact on the 16.06 trillion dollar budget for that year (Historical Tables: Budget of the U.S. Government, Fiscal Year 2012). Although there is the stereotype that illegal immigrants don’t pay taxes and all US taxpayer money goes toward paying for illegal immigrant benefits, 50-75% of illegal immigrants pay federal and state taxes in the hope that they too could become US citizens (“Adding Up the Billions in Tax Dollars Paid by Undocumented Immigrants”). Illegal immigrants have had countless beneficial influences on today’s economy and the fear that they hurt our economy is based on the irresponsible spreading of false beliefs.
So, why is illegal immigration made out to be this substantial economic problem that the nation needs to fix? Without illegal immigration, many of our industries could not function, including agriculture and landscaping. Instead of focusing on the illegal immigrants in this country, there are much more pressing issues that we as a nation should be addressing. This topic is controversial and complicated considering all the people and nations that it affects, however, as of this moment, a solution to this problem is unneeded and unrealistic in the United States.