Illegal immigrants have negatively affected the health and security departments in USA.http://writers-corp.net
Improvement of the immigration laws is one of the key issues that face U.S. policymakers and politicians (The American Legion). The increase in the total number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. - from 5 million to 12 million immigrants-in the last ten years has raised concerns on the possible effects of illegal immigrants on public finance and health, and the likely security threats that can come up with such illegal entry into the country. According to Kenneth, this has led to complaints by the people to the government, over its lack of control along the borders. This prompted the Congress in 2010, to pass more measures, which helped to tighten the law enforcement along the U.S. – Mexico border, to reduce the movement of illegal migrants (66). It is also expected to approve other efforts which will mark a radical inclusive reform of immigration laws.
Hanson observed that before 2001, illegal immigrants were in an unofficial way allowed in USA, after which the government invested in ways of securing ports, airports and borders - such as the construction of a $1.2 billion, 700-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexico border (122). Key policies have been put in place targeting unauthorized immigrants and those who employ them.
Borjas noted that there has been no formal agreement on whether to convert illegal immigrants to legal ones or to turn them away at borders (53). This is because of the balance positive and economic consequences that immigrants come with, where the positive one seem to outweigh the negative ones. This is because illegal immigration has benefited most of the employers in the country with benefits, which the existing legal migration system does not favor. Illegal immigrants are a good pool for food processing industries, building and construction, agriculture, as well as, other low status jobs. This coincides with a period when the proportion of the native individuals in the labor market, with low skills born in US has dropped significantly (Boeri 79)
Kenneth argued that unauthorized immigrants respond to the prevailing market conditions at any one given time in a way that the legal ones do not which makes them more appealing to employers (88). Illegal influxes largely track economic performance with increases during the time of expansion and slow down during downturns. By contrast, legal inflows such as green cards, especially for low-skilled workers are insignificant and insensitive to economic conditions (Boeri 77).
Despite the above statements, he overall impact of illegal immigrants in the economy of U.S. is small. The greatest losers are the low-skilled native workers. U.S. employers are the main beneficiaries since they gain from low labor costs coupled with their ability to manage land, capital and technology in a more productive way. The illegal immigrants have high gains after migrating.
Policymakers are thus put in a tight angle to deal with this problem. Any new reform agenda should focus on the need prevent and to facilitate and influxes of low-skilled foreign workers. Such legislation would encompass two things: execution of mechanism designed to prevent unauthorized immigration and accommodation strategies which will seek to divert unauthorized influx by means of legal action such as legalization and expanded legal options for potential immigrants (Smith 34)
A positive immigration policy would seek to maximize productivity gains while at the same time controlling the fiscal costs and maintaining enforcement spending under containable levels. Generally, this means changing the inflows of illegal immigrants into legal ones. This would be through the provision of sufficient legal ways to immigrants by expanding the legal options and maintenance of reasonable enforcement laws. Borgas put it that allowing the influx to change with the economy for both immigrants and employers such as rewarding immigrants for their obedience by availing them a chance to seek legal permanence residence, would also add to the improvement of such a policy (122)
Smith observed that in terms of health care for immigrants, there has been unending debates on the need for legislation to address the needs of the immigrants. Most of the immigrants, legal or illegal do not have health care insurance and face other problems in access to healthcare (105). The growing number of illegal immigrants has put pressure on the current system which is unsustainable and insufficient.
According to Boeri, one of the threats that illegal immigrants pose to the health department in U.S. are the possible transfer of contagious diseases since they do not undergo medical screening unlike for assurance purposes (93). This means there can be an introduction of such disease which has already been done with by the country’s public health departments. His follows the evidence of such disease along the borders of United States, which includes tuberculosis; dysentery and leprosy are experienced along the Mexico border. In regard to the case of dysentery, the people along the border have poor sewage treatment facilities, water systems, insufficient medical care as well as unhygienic environment. This exposes all the people along the border (Boeri 94)
According to a report by New England Journal of Medicine published in June of 2009, most of the fresh tuberculosis cases are diagnosed in foreigners (57.9%), and the TB infection rate was almost 10 times higher in foreigners than among natives. Since most of the illegal immigrants have moved into the country, not just along the borders, more health issues are bound to be witnessed which raises alarm in the public health departments over the health care threats posed by such illegal immigrants.
A good example is the typhoid outbreak that affected Silver Spring in Maryland, in 1992 when an immigrant who worked for the McDonald’s transmitted the bacteria through food. Other cases include malaria, river blindness and guinea worm which have all been cases of immigration in West Virginia. Contrary to public believe that TB have been wiped out of U.S., there has been cases of outbreaks mostly due to illegal immigrants such as in Alexandria high school, in 1995. In fact, half of the TB cases in U.S. are in the four main states which attract most immigrants, California, Hawaii, Washington and New York. (Hanson 47)
In terms of costs the illegal immigrants us as twice as much as the citizens hospital and emergency services since they do not embrace preventive medical care since most are either uninsured or underinsured. This has led to sky-high medical care costs which include delivery of babies to illegal immigrant mothers.
What are some of the solutions that can be employed to help mitigate on the economic burden in terms of health and security considering the possible and evident contribution of the illegal immigrants in USA? Questions have been raised as to why the Congress has not formed legislation considering that leaders from diverse parties with varied political orientations have agreed on debating broadly for immigration reforms. This has been because the divide between Democrats and Republicans based on disagreements on immigration laws and within the parties, which have made the issue even more complex especially in the establishment of a coalition to back the reforms.
Alternatively, the hindrance to such a legislation is that the existing system of illegal immigration, despite being faulty has sufficiently benefited U.S. employers and do not have confidence on the Congress in its capacity to better the scenario. Consequently, they are unwilling to risk their political ambitions by supporting such a reform. This can be explained by the decision to implicitly allowed illegal employment, which allowed the U.S. government to leave its regulation of the market, meaning that increased influx of illegal power helped provide to the needs and demands of the U.S businesses. This increased the productivity of U.S. the only draw back here was the loss of government control, which was minimal, as well as, insecurity and abuse on the side of the immigrants (The American Legion 32)
The main issue with illegal immigration focused at the costs, profits and incentives related to the national security within the peripheries of economics. This is because increased levels of illegal immigrants can jeopardize the national security and the rule of law especially by weakening the capacity of the U.S. government to labor –market regulations.
It is imperative to note that most of the illegal immigrants come from the Mexican border, and since there is increased entry, it increases the chances and exposure of U.S. to international terrorists although there has been no recorded terrorist, related case to date.
In health care, the federal government, in its efforts to address healthcare as a national issue which needs to be addressed with a national policy, has enacted legislation that will seek to look at the healthcare of illegal immigrants and noncitizen. This means that most of the national resources will go to servicing individuals not recognized by the country. Its estimated that, by the year 2060, the population of U.S. will be about 120 million where 80 million will be as a result of direct and indirect immigration. Legal immigrants can receive federal funding under government programs in the first five years of stay in U.S. (Boeri 22)
Security threats posed by illegal immigrants is not that pronounced although there have been cases of illegal immigrants being apprehended suspected to be linked to terrorism activity. Therefore, the government, and especially with the re-election of President Obama should put border security on top of the list.
Boeri asserted that since it is a violation and the type of business of immigrants is not known there occurs a conflict as some might get in the country to sell drugs and smuggle ammunitions. When this products land in the hands and in possession of Americans, especially the youth juvenile delinquency can become widespread and shootings, robberies and rapes become prevalent (30)
The adoption of immigration was permissive of the exploitation of the porous borders of U.S although border patrols have been beefed up. The major complex issue that comes with illegal immigrants that most people do not understand is the long-term effects of the immigrants. When the illegal immigrants pass through the border, they present possible criminal activities. The overstaying of such immigrants have made it quite hard for the border enforcement agents to put more focus on terrorist, organized gangs and criminals and violent individuals especially in cases of overstaying of visas which masks them under the cloth of anonymity which the existing situation harbors.
Borjas pointed out that the major security measure that the government should take should be to regulate the opening of U.S. borders to anyone who wishes. This is because the terrorists who target USA are people who should have never been allowed to live amongst the country’s population. About 3,000 people were killed on September 11, 2011 because the borders of USA had not been well secured and the law governing immigration has even up to date been enforced. The big question here is how many of such incidences are the policymakers waiting so that they can swing into action? Defending the people and property is the key to the security of the whole nation. Governing these illegal immigrants is paramount as they can be terrorist may want to cause more death and destruction. The government must protect and secure the nation, as well as, the borders. (19)
Boeri observed that terrorists have taken such opportunities where the U.S.government has failed in its control over unauthorized immigrants, which has overly risked the nation’s peace and stability. The unenhanced immigration policies have allowed a large number of illegal immigrants, which further exposes the country's vulnerability to terrorist attacks who mostly as already said entered U.S. illegally or have overstayed their passports (25).
Another factor closely tied to security and illegal immigration is an illegal drug trafficking especially from the Mexican border. Mexican drug gangs have now reached most rural and suburban areas especially in the Southern regions. Drugs come hand in hand with increased crime rates which puts pressure on the tax payer. Nationally, illegal immigrants make up 7% of the total prison population, which implies that more state resources are spent on noncitizens pushing the budgetary needs up. These illegal immigrant inmates account for 14% of manslaughter cases and 24% of drug charges.
In conclusion, deporting these millions of people is practically impossible; therefore, the best policy is to have a clear and precise way that is well organized to gain citizenship. In addition, the borders cannot afford to be porous and have to be controlled since the U.S. society cannot enjoy the same benefits and access to resources with those who have illegally immigrated in the country (Smith 30). Although America is a land of immigrants, amnesty to illegal immigrants and those who overstay their legal terms is unjust to the law-abiding immigrants and residents. This would also go against the best welfare of a law-abiding society.
Work cited
Boeri, Tito, Gordon Hanson, and Barry McCormick. Immigration Policy And The Welfare System. Oxford: oxford university press. 2002.
Borjas, George J. Heaven’s Door: Immigration Policy and the American Economy. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. 1999.
Hanson, Gordon H., and Antonio Spilimbergo. Illegal Immigration, Border Enforcement and Relative Wages: Evidence from Apprehensions at the US-Mexico Border. American Economic Review. 1999
Kenneth J. Franzblau. Immigration Impact On U.S. National Security And Foreign Policy. US commission on Reform. 1997.
Smith, James P. and Barry Edmonston. The New Americans: Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. 1997. The American Legion. Policy On Illegal Immigration. A Strategy To Address Illegal Immigration In The United States. Indian
Quality Work
Unlimited Revisions
Affordable Pricing
24/7 Support
Fast Delivery