Since the second half of the 20th century, the issue of immigrants into the United States of America has raised many concerns as immigrants from different parts of the globe trickle into the US to seek for greener pastures and better their lives. Accordingly, the US government under different regimes has worked on different ways of dealing with this issue, with the Senate and the Congress formulating different laws and regulations to deal with the issue. As a matter of fact, the policymakers in the US have had a great divide on immigration laws. The Congress and the Senate has been divided in the past right in the middle with some policymakers arguing that the immigrants should be given an opportunity to live, work and acquire American citizenship whereas other policymakers have argued against the issue of being lenient to immigrants and instead proposed that tougher immigration rules should be put in place to deter or rather make it difficult for immigrants to gain access to the United States (Preston, 2010).
With this in mind, there are strong arguments that have been presented by both the supporters and those who oppose the implementation of tougher immigration laws by the United States. Furthermore, their arguments have been backed up with concrete evidence to support their sides. In this regard, before a conclusion can be reached on which side to take, it is important to examine, first why it is necessary to implement tougher immigration laws and then examine why such an implementation would be detrimental to the US or rather why the US needs to be lenient on its immigration laws.
To begin with, the United States’ economy has been struggling in the last ten year period. This has been made worse in the last fours due to the onset of economy downturn that affected nearly every economy across the globe. As a result, the national debt has grown to enormous amount and it continues to grow even as the US works on getting out of the current economic recession. Therefore, when immigrants are allowed to freely immigrate into the US as a result of lack of stringent measures, this would increase national debts and continue to create budget deficits each and every year. Therefore, to deal with immigrations that could further worsen the economic situation of the United States, the government of the US has a mandate of formulating laws and regulations that would make it difficult for immigrants to gain an easy access into its boundaries (Borjas & National Bureau of Economic Research, 2007).
Following this point, it is important to note that the contribution that is made by immigrants with professional skills and knowledge is minimal as compared to the contribution that is made by the US towards immigrants as the settle in the US. Therefore, this means that the US has been going at a loss rather than profiting from the skills and knowledge that these immigrants have. In this regard, the tax burden to support these immigrants is passed on to the citizens of the US thus straining them even more, especially during this period of economic recovery of this economy. Therefore, to lessen the tax burdens on the American citizens, the US legislature have to makes laws that will be strict on immigrants to reduce the number of immigrants who would be a liability to the government rather than being an asset by contributing positively towards building the US economy (Borjas & National Bureau of Economic Research, 2007).
There is also the need of the United States to protect its employees from unfair competition from immigrants. Currently, immigrants have been found to offer cheap labor as compared to American citizens. As mentioned earlier, the countries of origin of these immigrants offer cheap labor as compared to the US. Therefore, when these immigrants arrive in the US they are more than willing to offer their labor at a cheaper price as compared to US citizens. This has forced the American citizens out of their jobs as employers are more willing to employ immigrants due to their cheap labor. This poses a risk to the economy, political and social structures of the United States.
The number or rather rate of unskilled workers in the United States has been rising at a very high speed. It is important to note that despite the fact that the US is one of the most developed countries across the globe, it still has issue with its literacy level and possession of professional skills among its citizens. There are a lot of people across the US especially among the African Americans who have basic education but lack the necessary skills and knowledge that could secure jobs in the professional fields across the United States and in other parts of the world. As a result, these people are employed in different sectors that do not require a lot of education such as doing menial work in industries and other areas of the economy (Borjas & National Bureau of Economic Research, 2007).
Therefore, allowing immigrants to continue settling the United States without tougher immigration laws would increase the number of people who are unskilled. This poses a risk to the economy of the US since as the corporate and industrial world continue to adopt new technology and means of production, these people faces a high risk of loosing their jobs, a factor that could tremendously increase the number of people who are unemployed in an economy. In other words, as time goes by, companies and industries would increase the minimum level of education and skills that is required for one to either continue working with them or to be employed. Therefore, those who lack these skills and academic qualification would be kicked out of employment thus increasing the unemployment rate. Thus, immigrants would worsen this figure if they are allowed to continue trickling into the US (Borjas & National Bureau of Economic Research, 2007).
Still on the issue of employment, the securing of jobs by the Americans ensures or rather guarantees that the economy of the United States continues to develop and expand. This is due to the fact that these American would invest back their proceeds or rather earnings into the American economy. However, it has been observed over time that most of the earnings that immigrants get are usually send back to develop their home country, with or without their knowledge. In other words, when these immigrants send home some of their earnings, they build their country of origin’s economies rather than building their own economy. This has been found to create a vulnerable point for the United States since much is taken out of its economy and used to build other economies (Hall, 2005).
The unfair competition in the employment sector has also been found to affect the social lives and status of the Americans. In this regard, reduced earnings by the American due to lowering of wages affect the overall spending by the Americans. As a result, the American citizens have to changes their spending lifestyles in order to be in a position of living within their budgetary means. In this line of thought, they therefore have to reduce their spending on luxurious goods and services such as electronics and holidays that has uplifted the social standards of people in the American society. In this way, leisure is eliminated from the budget of the US citizens. Therefore, to ensure that Americans are not living on the edge in terms of their earnings and spending, the government has a responsibility of limiting the number of immigrants that find their way into the United States. This can only be attained through the implementation of tougher immigration laws (Borjas & National Bureau of Economic Research, 2007).
Another issue that has continued to raise concerns in the American society is the resources that are available to cater for the American citizens. Such resources or rather amenities include healthcare, education, national security and social welfare. Every year, the government has budgetary allocation to these amenities to ensure that American receive the best services ever. However, with the increase in the number of immigrants, the services that are delivered in the healthcare, education, social welfare and national security is reduced drastically as there is an drastic increase in the number of people who need these services whereas budgetary allocation and the number of professionals offering these services remains relatively constant. With this in mind, there would be a compromise in the services that are offered to the US citizens thus putting their lives at risk due to poor services. For instance, an increase in the number of children per classroom has been found to compromise with the standards or rather quality of education that is offered to these children (Borjas & National Bureau of Economic Research, 2007).
On the other hand, whereas there are measures that have been put in place to control or rather deter people from discriminating one another in the American society in terms of race, there is still racial discrimination that is still elicited in the American society. One of the contributors of racial discrimination is the high level of immigrants who have been settling in the United States and taking over jobs that belong to the American citizens. Therefore, to reduce cases of racial discrimination in the American society, the government should work on ways of reducing the number of immigrants who have taken up job opportunities that belong to its citizens. This can only be done by controlling the number of immigrants into the US through stringent immigration laws and regulations.
Immigrants have also been a cause of the rise in the rate of drug use in the American society. This is as a result of the fact that some of the immigrants are drug dealers in their countries of origin and their aim of immigrating into the US is to further their drug trafficking businesses and activities. Therefore, they have acted as the source of hard drugs such as cocaine and heroine. Among the immigrants that are feared due to their involvement in drug trafficking are the Latin Americans, especially from Mexico. There is therefore the need for the government of the US to cub the number of immigrants from these areas by increasing cross border surveillance and formulating stringent laws that would make it difficult for these immigrants to settle in the US. With this in mind, the US government would be able to help its citizens to protect their children and secure their future which will act as a way of protecting the future of the United States (Borjas & National Bureau of Economic Research, 2007).
The challenges that have resulted from drug trafficking are not the only challenges that the US face due to the high rate of immigrants into its boundaries. Another issue of concern is terrorism. The recent times have seen a rise in terrorist activities that have targeted the US citizens. In line with this, it is important for one to note that there is need for strict laws and regulations to be formulated on immigration as a way of reducing the risk of terrorist activities on the US soil. It is also important for one to note that some of these terrorist have worked on their way into the US as immigrants in order to recruit disloyal US citizens to accomplish their terrorist activities. Therefore, while taking this into account, the government should always remember the September 11 attack on the US soil that caused many deaths and casualties to the US citizens (Hall, 2005).