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Jose Sanchez Campuzano

LaFond

Adv. Soph. English

March 29, 2017

Immigration and the United States

If America was founded on people migrating here, why do we now look down upon on

people coming to the United States to better their lives? In the United States we now have a

president, along with his co-government officials, that are not pro on the idea of immigration or

people coming to this country. The reality is that many people are influenced by this idea, many

times proposing to build a wall along the Mexican - U.S border, making travel bans, and even

opposing laws that favor immigrants. Many Americans contradict the benefits of having

immigrants in our country and also fail to realize that they bring no harm or very little harm to

this society. Foreign-born people that live in the U.S bring an overall positive influence to

American culture, the economy, and the education system many times throughout college.

American culture belongs to the many people that have migrated throughout the years and

are now here influencing and teaching people their own customs. “When it comes to traveling,

many Americans can boast stories about visiting all 50 states, but only 30% of Americans

actually own passports.” (Nataly Kelly). This means that all the cultural interactions that

Americans have are within U.S borders. This teaches them how to respect and treat people from

different cultures. While immigrants are planted here in the United States there is no need for

Americans to leave the country and can easily boost the economy by spending money here.

A misconception that many politicians, along with their supporters, have is that immigrants

bring a negative impact to American native-born jobs, the economy. The EPI (Economic Policy
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Institute) reported that immigrants contribute more to the system then they take out.

Undocumented immigrants, due to legal status, are unable to associate with government

programs beyond public schooling systems. Meaning they take much money from city taxes

neither government funds. (NBC News). Many Americans believe that they don’t contribute to

this economy but that it is proven to be wrong. Undocumented immigrants work under

fraudulent social security numbers and pay into social safety net programs that they cannot use.

They also actually do pay taxes, weather that is from income or sales-based, adding revenue that

is being used by the state and federal budgets.

Many school-aged immigrants come to the United States to have the opportunity to have an

education, an education they could not get in their home country. “In 1982, an immigration case,

Plyer Vs. Doe, was brought to the Supreme Court which there they ruled that illegal alien

students were permitted to enroll in public school systems. (Zoe Hoffman). Many people that

believe immigrants should not have the right to the American education. I believe this is due to

not wanting them take advantage of our services. The matter of fact is that immigrants account

for 10.5 million college degrees. There is a higher increase of college educated foreign-born

people than native born. Immigrants increased 89% from 3.1 million to 5.9 million graduates in

2012, while native-born respectively from a 32% to a 39%. Based on this information there is a

benefit as to the community as the society with these immigrant college beings.

Foreign-born people that live in the U.S bring an overall positive influence to American

culture, the economy, and the education system, many times following all the way through

college. Immigrants that come to the Unites States don’t come here to not succeed. The goal of

theirs is to progress forward, to be able to live better and have the chance to get out of misery.

On the contrary, they live with hope and their dreams are fulfilled in very undemanding way. In
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a way where they do not need much to get something out of it because there is a value to

everything. As people are quick to think negatively about foreigners coming to the U.S, they

should also think about the benefits.

Kelly N. (March 4, 2013) 3 Ways Immigrants Are Helping American Culture and Business Soar.

https://mic.com/articles/28614/3-ways-immigrants-are-helping-american-culture-and-business-

soar#.BasLNh3ma

Passy J. (August 13, 2014) 5 Things to Know About Immigration and the U.S. Economy

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/5-things-know-about-immigration-u-s-economy-n179196

Hoffman Z. (Date Unknown) How Immigration Impacted Public Policy, School Districts and

High School Curriculum in Southern Arizona

http://www.hofstra.edu/pdf/academics/colleges/hclas/geog/geog_zoehoffmannthesis2015.pdf
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