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A.J. Faletti
Professor Christie Bogle
ENGL 1010
July 29, 2016
Illegal Immigration, and Forced migration as a solution
One of the most controversial topics in the United states at this time, is
Illegal Immigration. This is a problem that has been developing more and
more in the last several decades, and to understand the many aspects of
such a broad issue, several perspectives must be analyzed. Its obvious that
a Mexican family struggling for work will not see illegal immigration the same
as a law enforcement officer, and that a hard-headed politician wont see the
issue the same as a realist. You cannot easily say who is right regarding the
issue unless you dig a little deeper, and look at all options, and in this paper,
that is what I plan to do.
Though many illegal immigrants come to the U.S. for a better life,
thats not always what they receive. Many immigrants are unable to find
jobs, and some that do are so under-payed that they cant support their
families anyways. Recent studies using the Health Opinion Survey have
shown that 52% of undocumented families have high levels of stress. Also,
because of many of their poor educations, and poor knowledge of community
services, many do not know how to obtain welfare. Another recent study on
undocumented immigrants use of community services showed that only 8%
used welfare, only 12% used unemployment, and only 40% used social

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security. Though this gamble of moving to the U.S. is risky, these people
have no choice. One Mexican woman explained, in Mexico, once you are
poor, you die poor (Salcido 4). Many regions of Mexico are now extremely
dangerous due to the drug cartel as well. Considering the time consuming
nature of becoming a U.S. citizen legally, and the poverty that many of these
individuals live in, one can begin to see why immigrants would illegally come
to America.
Now that we have talked about the illegal, undocumented immigrants,
lets talk about the legal ones. Lately legal, documented immigrants, and
even American citizens of Latin American and Muslim descent have been
unhappy with the ideas of some of the big political figures. Donald trump has
taken the lead in hostility towards immigration, and because of his
propositions to build a wall, deport eleven million illegal immigrants, and lock
up our borders (Sullum 5), many Latin American and Muslim voters have
developed a disliking for him. Many think he is racist, and because of this, he
could potentially be losing a big chunk of his possible votes. A recent Gallop
Poll was conducted, and it showed that 79% of Americans said they favored
work permits or citizenship be granted to undocumented immigrants, while
only 19% favored mass deportation (Sullum 5). These types of numbers dont
look well for Trump considering his blunt discussion of mass deportation.
Though we have talked about the immigrants points of view, we have
to look at a few others. Some may not see illegal immigration as a big

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problem, but the law enforcement officers that have to deal with it do. In the
perspective of counter-narcotic and other law enforcement officers, illegal
immigration is a huge problem for the U.S. Thousands of pounds of illegal
substances are brought across our border every year, and the drug cartel
isnt stopping. I interviewed a former counter-narcotics officer that worked
near the border and he said, The United States needs to follow its current,
existing immigration policy, there should be zero illegal immigrants in the
United States. If they are here illegally, it is against the law, period. The
Wall (which includes the Canadian border) is only a metaphor, for a
comprehensive immigration policy. At the turn of the century, the wall was
Ellis Island. A key element of a comprehensive immigration policy, is the
ability to track every immigrant, and to be able to vet every immigrant
before they are able to enter the country. Current federal law enforcement, is
not able to perform that function effectively. This being said, this virtual
wall will never be effective unless we can track every single immigrant
coming in and out of the U.S. International law enforcement is a farce,
because our enemies will never want to comply with these rules. Its virtually
impossible for our country to track and keep tabs on every one of these
people.
That being said in the last paragraph, lets talk about several different
plans that politicians have had to fix the illegal immigration problem. As I
spoke about earlier, Donald Trump has talked bluntly about Building a Wall

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and Deporting 11 million immigrants (Sullum 5). He even said that he


wants Mexico to fund big parts of the wall plan (The Trump Plan 6).
President Barak Obama said, Nobody thinks that is realistic. But more
importantly, thats not where we are as Americans (Rhodan 2). Other
politicians have proposed less provocative plans that dont involve mass
deportation. Hilary Clinton proposed a more affordable plan, in which she
only deports illegal immigrants with criminal records. Some argue that this is
ironic because the very act of illegal immigration is criminal. Bernie Sanders
objected the idea of open borders originally, but as he saw how much favor
Pro-immigration candidates were getting, he started to side with proimmigration people. There is a lot of opposition in candidates ideas, but in
the end, it all comes down to what the gets the people going.
Many of these plans can sound enticing, but one must also look at
things with practicality, logic, and realism. If one looks at illegal immigration
from a realists view, they can see a few different things. Swedish professors
Erik Melander and Mark Oberg at Uppsala University said, Civil War and
other forms of generalized violence have been identified as the main
determinates of forced migrationForced migration is arguably one of the
worst scourges that torment mankind (Melander, Oberg 1). If we look to the
past, forced migration of Africans to America in the form of slavery did cause
a civil war. If we were to force deportation of 11 million immigrants, we would
be splitting families apart, and this is the kind of scourge Melander and

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Oberg were talking about. This could cause a great contention between
America and many countries of the world. Another realists view, is that we
can keep all of these immigrants here, because our country is already in a lot
of debt, we cant support all of these extra people, and they bring with them
crime, drugs, and poverty. So what is the correct move to make? That is
something that no one can accurately answer, its all dependent on whose
eyes you see this issue through.
As you can see by the many examples given, there are many different
perspectives on whats the right thing to do regarding illegal immigration. I
cant see forced immigration being effective, seeing all of the evidence I
have presented. I do believe that America needs to step up their game if
they want to effectively monitor, and control immigration into the U.S. In the
end, the law leaves no room for sympathy, but we as people do.
Controversial problems like this can seem impossible to fix, but with so many
plans from upcoming presidential candidates, America should anticipate big
changes to this specific issue in the near future.
Works Cited
Melander, Erik, and Magnus berg. "The Threat Of Violence And Forced
Migration: Geographical Scope Trumps Intensity Of Fighting." Civil Wars
9.2 (2007): 156-173. Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 July 2016.

Rhodan, Maya. "President Obama Says Donald Trumps Immigration


Plan Is Not Realistic." Time.Com (2015): N.PAG. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 27 July 2016.

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SALAM, REIHAN. "Trump's Immigration Disaster." National Review 68.8


(2016): 24-25. Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 July 2016.

Salcido, Ramon M. "Undocumented Aliens: A Study Of Mexican


Families." Social Work 24.4 (1979): 306-311. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 27 July 2016.

Sullum, Jacob. "How To Lose The Latino Vote." Reason 47.12 (2016): 12.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 July 2016.

"The Trump Plan." National Review 67.16 (2015): 14. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 27 July 2016.

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