The Illegal US Immigration Problem
At the moment there are between ten and twenty million illegal immigrants residing in the United States. This is the case because illegal us immigration has become greater than legal us immigration over the last couple of years. Seventy-five percent of illegal immigrants arrive in the U.S. by crossing the southern border with Mexico. And since Mexico is the largest contributor to the us immigration problem, it is necessary to understand why.
It's a well known fact that fifty-three percent of Mexico's population of one hundred four million residents lives in poverty, which is defined as less than two dollars a day. Twenty-four percent of them live in extreme poverty, which is defined as less than one dollar a day. Mexico's unemployment rate is approaching forty percent and there is little healthcare. Only seeing these factors one gets the idea why there is such a big problem in regards to illegal us immigration. But this is only the beginning.
U. S. companies look for cheap, exploitable labor in order to increase their profit margins. Such companies hire illegal workers and offer them only poor working conditions, very low pay as well as no benefits, because the U. S. companies only need to accept identification that appears authentic from these workers and fake ID cards are readily available in every major city. So this factor as well enlarges the illegal us immigration problem. Due to both the legal and illegal us immigration, the Hispanic population is dramatically increasing and is now the largest ethnic group in the United States, and of course politicians are quite aware of the changing demographics and fail to adequately enforce laws that they perceive will not be popular with their Hispanic voters.
The U.S. Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 was meant to provide for penalties against companies that hire undocumented workers. In 1999, under the Clinton Administration, the U.S. government collected a meager 3.69 million from 890 companies in fines while in 2004, under George W. Bush, the amount of money collected in fines from companies hiring undocumented workers was zero. It is estimated that in that same year in 2004, three million illegal immigrants entered the United States.
In summary, Mexican people living across the border in poverty see the opportunity in the United States to put food on the table for their families. And as long as there are willing employers in the United States ready to offer them work, with low wages, poor working conditions and without benefits illegal us immigration will continue to grow. The fact is that for illegal immigrants, these conditions are still far better than the poverty of Mexico. Illegal immigrants enter the country through very porous borders then they acquire fake identification on the streets of America's cities and work for companies which exploit them. And one mustn't forget the fact that the career politicians in charge of government fail to enforce the immigration laws in place and adequately patrol the southern borders for fear of offending Hispanic voters.
Finally, illegal immigrants and the American people are both victims because they are both affected by the problem of illegal US immigration. The U.S. government needs to enforce the laws in place and there is a need for coherent us immigration policy. The selective enforcement of laws is divisive and confusing.
