Bush Pushes Immigration Reform
Over the past year President Bush has been working on ways to decrease the amount of illegal immigration to the United States from Mexico. During this past year two new fences have been erected along the Mexico border over the past year. There are around 12 million illegal Mexican immigrants in the U.S. These people are working for less money than Americans and are also working around 12 million jobs that Americans could be potentially working. This year alone the amount of illegal immigrants working in America is down 68% in the area that the fencing has been built.
Another idea that is being worked on is of "z" visa's. Z visa's are granted to immigrants so that they can work in the USA for up to three years at a time before the must renew their visa. Each time that they renew the visa it will cost them $3,500. If the percent of illegal immigrants could be decreased even more, what would that do to the American economy? What would this do to the prices that Americans pay for goods and what effect would it have on the number of unemployed workers in America? Also, is it economical for America to allow people from other countries to purchase a work visa for three years?
4 comments:
I believe that if the percentage of illegal immigrants working in the U.S decreased it would be very beneficial for Americans trying to work in the job market. Mabye the illegal immigrants are being paid less but its still against the law and should not be tolerated. Also I believe less illegal immigrant workers will mean that prices for products such as food and groceries may possibly go up or not depending on how many Americans take advantage of the open jobs. Lastly, if the foreigner buys their own work visa then they should be allowed to work in the U.S. It's a huge difference when an immigrant pays to work in America instead of climbing under or over a fence for free.
Regardless of the two new fences that were constructed to keep illegal immigrants from entering the country, the United State's has a wet foot/dry foot policy that would allow many of these "illegal" immigrants to saty in the United States. If we do lessen the amount of immmigrants working American jobs, it may increase the prices of many good and services, because American's demand to be payed more for their labor. The total cost of production would increase, considering the variable cost of labor would rise with the dissapearance of immigrant workers. However, I think any measures being taken to eliminate the illegal immigrant population in the United States are good ones. Paying an American worker to do the same job as an immigrant is a sacrifice we should be willing to make to ensure the safety and culture of this country.
It would be great if we could get rid of illegal immigrants sneaking over here to take our jobs. A lot of people say that Americans will not work for a particular wage and that's why we have the immigrants over here doing the job, but I think if the jobs were advertised to the American public, Americans would be more likely to take them at a lower wage if they needed a job bad enough. This could also help take care of the homeless population and get more people off of welfare. If it wasn't so hard for people to find jobs, there would be less unemployment. As for effecting prices, I think it might make prices rise a little, but that's going to happen anyhow. Obviously, we aren't worried about prices rising, or Ohioans wouldn't have voted to raise the minimum wage. I think if the immigrant goes through a process to purchase a work visa, then maybe it would be okay, but the way I see it, if they want to work in America, they should just move here and become a LEGAL American citizen.
I don't like to see illegal immigrants in the country for two reasons. One is that it does impact employment opportunities for American citizens. Another is the fact that the government doesn't know they are here. They have no prof of who they are. If you get caught you get sent back to your country. Perhaps if you up the outcome of being caught as an illegal it would cut back on illegal immigrants. Instead of slapping you on the wrist we should actually punish illegal immigrants. I hate knowing that illegal immigrants are on my roads driving. When they are not licensed to do so. This is a huge problem and needs a lot more then just some fences. This is a prime example of the black market with human capital. It simply brings down the economy. Someone please stop this invasion.
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