The Role of Immigrants in the Growth of National Economy - Essay Example

The role of immigrants in the growth of national economy and issues that surround their illegal influx has always been a crucial dilemma which gave birth to heated debates on benefits that immigrants bring to us and drain of social resources that is a natural outcome of their illegal influx. Many intellectuals have used the public opinion in favor of their argument against the resource drain caused by ill-legal immigrants. LeMay (58) presents the same argument, “The anti-immigration sentiment, and particularly sentiment against ill-legal aliens, that is registered in public opinion polls emphasizes such aliens’ use of educational, health, and welfare services or the added costs to the criminal justice system caused by illegals.

” In addition to the resource utilization by illegal immigrants their extended load on economy and maintenance of security have become serious challenges in the recent past. Now is the time for this nation to decide and prohibit any illegal entrance into its homeland. We need to focus on more serious technological advancement instead of involvement in useless issues and conflicts as well as leaving an additional burden over border and security agencies. The cost and benefit analysis and studies on legal immigration and illegal entrances are now mature and should be dealt accordingly.

Another aspect of the debate over legal and illegal immigrants is that more and more Americans are now growing aggressive and blunt in their outrage against illegal immigrants. This may cause damage to our national harmony and peace of mind no matter how liberal we are. Schor states, “We are running out of resources and available tax dollars and yet we have people who want more immigrations. This is dumb. I do not feel that my tax dollars should be spent on illegal immigrants.” The sentiment against illegal immigrants gets more and more intensified whenever our civic requirements are not aptly fulfilled for US citizens and legal immigrants.

Health care, transportation, welfare, education, utilities, natural resources etc. there is drain everywhere and there a staunch disagreement everywhere on immigration policies that supports legalization of illegal immigrants. The most important aspect of this debate is the morality concerns over the argument that illegal immigrants should face a denial of civic resources because legal or illegal they are present on our soil and people favors a minimum life standard for them. Terminating health care, education, food and jobs assistance to these illegal immigrants will leave a bad sentiment over the liberal and human face of America and therefore we need to tolerate the issue to certain acceptable levels on humanitarian grounds.

However, this does not change the fact of the matter that we need to exercise a strict control over the newer illegal immigrants. At the same time, we need to beef up the facilities and provisions for the legal immigrant to send an encouraging node to those who want to immigrate to America, no matter how prolong the legal process may be or how sever and compelling circumstances they are facing in their respective homelands. It is the need of hour to formulate an all encompassing immigration policy through a well controlled immigration regulations and strict legislation to stop all possible avenues of entering into America through any of the several illegitimate means and ways.

The deterrence against illegal immigration and later on deportation and detention policies need further enhancement to ensure all possible means are employed to track and control illegal immigrants. Darrell (x) observes, “The United States expanded categories for aliens’ punishment and deportation in the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act and the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act and in Administrative decisions following September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

” Despite continuous changes and advancements in the immigration policies we still face a challenging situation as far as illegal immigration and related impact on resources is concerned. Even today, having employed our valuable resources on infiltration, yet the result is not quite encouraging. “The number of unaccompanied children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border increased 90 percent between 2013 and 2014, drawing the attention and concern of the U.S. government, media, and public.” (MPI, n.p.).

Yes, we need diversity and human capital but it should not be at the cost our existing population and civic resources. The only solution is to foresee and plan immigration requirements correctly and exercise maximum control over the immigration process to avoid an unforeseen burden on our resources which may include natural resources and organizational resources. Works Cited Darrell, M West. Brain Gain: Rethinking U.S. Immigration Policy. USA: Booking Institution Press, 2010. Print. LeMay, C Michael. U.S.

Immigration: A Reference Handbook. USA: ABC-CLIO, 2004. Print. Schor, Fred. An American Speaks out. USA: Trafford Publishing, 2004. Print. MPI. “Child Migration Crises in United States”, Migration Policy Institute. http://migrationpolicy.org/programs/us-immigration-policy-program/child-migration-crisis-united-states (2014): n. page. Web. 01 November 2014.