Introduction
Illegal immigration is one of the most controversial topics in the political circles as well as in the social circles. There has been a huge influx of illegal immigrants in the United States in the recent past. An illegal immigrant is a person who leaves his country of residence and moves to a new country without proper authorization.
The massive exodus of illegal immigrants into the U.S has created enough problems to the native born Americans. The topic of illegal immigration is one of the rare topics that have the ability to divide people into two distinct groups; those that support illegal immigration and those that are against illegal immigration. The following is an argumentative essay on the case against illegal immigration which has a negative impact on health care, welfare, education and crime (Billiard 2002).
Illegal immigration
According to Payne, “Most of the illegal immigrants getting their way to the U.S damage the economy. This is because the illegal immigrants are allowed to use the state’s important social services, which include social security, food stamps, healthcare, insurance, education and other social services (2008)”. Illegal immigrants in the country are not documented as residents of the United States. Therefore, their total expenses in the national grid will never be known with certainty. The research that has been conducted so far can approximate the total amount of expenses it has cost the U.S taxpayer into several billions.
Payne noted that, “In 1992, five states that are part of the greater U.S accounted for 80% of the total people who migrated to the U.S illegally. The states include California, Florida, New York, Illinois and Texas. The five states faced a major burden in their economy totaling $2.9 billion as a result of the illegal immigrants in terms of expenses in the state, local costs and federal government (2008)”. To date, the figure has risen to more than $15 billion in 2010. Accordingly, White noted that “the five states mentioned paid $2.39 billion from their reserves in 1992 while the federal government paid $544 million of the total $2.9 billion (2012)”.
In California, the cost of the illegal immigrants was in the range of $1.7 billion. The amount of money used to take care of education for a child born of an illegal parent is huge in California. It is estimated that it costs $1.6 billion to educate the child. It is stated that, “in most of the states, the total cost of medical aid and health service advanced to the illegal immigrants is estimated to be $150 million while the cost of incarnating the illegal immigrants is $1.2 million. The immigrants usually put a strain on the provision of services by the states. Most of the states have a huge burden in hospitals in terms of unpaid medical bills by the illegal immigrants (Payne 2008)”.
In some point in time, it was estimated that there were more than 5000 illegal immigrants attending schools in the state of Washington, which was a strain on the available limited resource budgeted for the natives. One of the biggest hospitals in Colorado, called Denver General Hospital stated that it admitted approximately 11 illegal immigrants per day. This amounted to taxpayers coughing out a further $600 million to cater for the number of increased admissions.
“In the U.S illegal immigrants are in the process of being given the nod to draw from the social Security. For example, the President of Mexico has been supporting the idea that illegal immigrants who come from his country should be allowed to draw from the social security in the United States if they have worked in the United States for a period of more than five years (Payne 2008)”.
If his proposal is accepted, then he will have succeeded in exporting most of his poverty in the United States since the U.S has systems and policies that cater for the less fortunate members of the society (White 2012). This idea is very noble in theory but it was not meant to benefit poor people who are from other countries and who break the law by migrating illegally to U.S. “If this plan to allow illegal immigrants from Mexico access to Social Security is successful, it is estimated to cost $345 billion to the American taxpayer over the next two decades (Billiard 2002)”.
Another important aspect of illegal immigrants is the burden to taxpayers in the U.S due to their children. When an illegal immigrant gets a child in the U.S, the child becomes a citizen of the U.S by birth (Younglai 2013).
This child is legally entitled to social benefits and welfare. The benefits finally spill to the illegal parent. A program funded by the federal government, called, “Aid to Families with Dependent children (AFDC) used a total of $479 million for citizen children of illegal aliens (Payne 2008)”. White noted that, “these children born of illegal parents in the U.S are entitled to AFDC where their parents come in as guardians who are given money by the organization on behalf of the child (2012)”.
Conclusion
In conclusion it can be seen that, illegal immigrants are costing the U.S taxpayer a lot of money. “This is because the illegal immigrants are able to receive welfare, medical care, hold a job, and enroll their illegal children into our free education without having to pay taxes; therefore making those who are legal taxpayers pay the differences (Younglai 2013)”. Therefore, illegal immigrants put a strain on the country’s service provision such as food stamps, welfare, and medical care.
Works Cited
Billiard, James. “Illegal Immigration.” 2002.
Payne, Lauren. “The Case Against Illegal Immigration.” 2008.
White, Deborah. “Illegal Immigration Explained – Profits & Poverty, Social Security & Starvation.” 2012. Web.
Younglai, Rachelle. “Majority of U.S. citizens say illegal immigrants should be deported.” 2013. >.