Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Self Analysis Post
Throughout my blogging experience I discovered many new and different things about my topic of illegal immigration. When I first started my blog I had one idea in my head and that was it. As I started researching my topic some more I started to learn about other ideas on the subject. I learned more about the different political views our country shares on the issue. The problem that I had to overcome was becoming unbiased in my argument. At first I only talked about my side of the argument while barely grazing over the other side of the argument. As I progressed through the assignment I learned how to share both viewpoints while still effectively conveying my argument. I also learned many interesting facts and statistics which allowed me to make a more compelling argument. What I found very interesting was the history of illegal immigration in this country. This allowed me to share background information with my readers, which many found to be very helpful and interesting as well. After doing more research I learned about many of the problems that have arisen due to the increasing immigration problem. The crime, healthcare costs and anchor babies, are all major problems caused by illegal immigration that I did not know about when I first started this blog. I feel as though this blog has allowed me to become more informed on this topic and in turn inform others who might be uninformed. Raising awareness on this issue I found to be of the upmost importance because something needs to be done about this issue that is causing Americans their jobs and money. This blog project has really allowed me to see the different aspects of illegal immigration and become more open to other ideas.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Links Post
This link gave me all the information I needed on the complete history of immigration in the U.S. This was a very informative link and it helped a lot in allowing me to understand the history of illegal immigration and where the problem first started.
This link gave me many statistics that were useful in presenting my argument. This link allowed me to show exact numbers to help make my blog much more accurate and informative. This was a very helpful link for me.
This link talks about the new law that Arizona enacted in its fight against illegal immigration. The reason I find this link interesting is because this new law is the toughest law on illegal immigration to date. It shows what some states are doing to protect themselves from the growing problem.
This link discusses the problem of anchor babies in America. This is a very serious problem and this link does a good job of giving some detailed information about it. The link also explains what actions America has to take or can take in order to solve this problem.
This link is another statistical site that shows up to date statistics on cost and numbers dealing with illegal immigration. The reason I really liked this site is because the numbers they give are current and there are also many links on the site that you can use to further explore the illegal immigration issue.
This link does a good job in showing the two polar political views on illegal immigration. Through this link you are able to learn what both sides believe in and what they think should be done to solve this problem.
I like this link because it shows what illegal immigrants are costing us in the healthcare department. With healthcare as big an issue as it is right now, this link allows you to look at how illegal immigration is causing us even more problems in the healthcare department. The link does a good job in explaining a key problem caused by illegal immigration.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Anchor Babies
Another big problem that accompanies illegal immigration is what we have come to call “anchor babies”. I touched briefly on this issue in one of my earlier posts but will go into more detail in this post. These babies are born of illegal immigrants and under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution any person born on U.S. soil is considered a U.S. citizen. Most of the time U.S. officials will not separate parents from their kids even if the parents are not citizens of the U.S. This allows many illegal immigrants to stay in the U.S. without going through the proper procedures to become a citizen. The other problem that these “anchor babies” present is the costs that these babies incur. Since the parents of these babies are not true citizens the costs of providing for these babies are covered by the taxpayer’s money. The controversy arises because to solve this problem you would have to amend the 14th Amendment. This is something thought that needs to be fixed somehow. I do not really know how to solve this problem and right now no one really does. Since 2002 there have been approximately 5 million “anchor babies” born in the U.S. which is costing the U.S. approximately $6 billion a year. Some states are trying to make laws that would deny citizenship to “anchor babies”. I don’t see these states having much success because they do not have the power to over throw the Constitution. How this problem gets resolved will be very interesting and I feel there will be a lot more controversy in the years to come.
Class Links Post
I really like this blog because it is covering such an interesting topic. The author gives really good background information on the subject and gives very good and unbiased viewpoints too. Reading the blog is very entertaining and informative at the same time. Before reading this I did not know that this serious problem was actually going on. I am glad I read this blog so that I am aware of what is going on around the world. Reading this blog is well worth your time and I highly recommend it.
The reason that I like this blog is because it talks about a very controversial topic that is going on in today’s world and gives you very good and unbiased information on it. I didn’t know much on this topic before I started reading this blog, but after reading it I feel that I have a much better understanding on the matter. Anyone that wants to learn more about the Mosque and the controversy surrounding it should definitely take a look at this blog.
This blog talks about the going green movement. The reason I found this blog interesting was because i have always supported the movement to create better and cleaner energy sources. I am glad somebody decided to blog on this topic because I feel that Americans need to be more aware of what could happen if we do not do something to change our habits. This blog gives very good details about what is being done and what still needs to be done to create cleaner energy sources. A very well written blog.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Implications Post
Coming to a solution for this growing problem is going to be very difficult and something I do not see happening very soon. The reason for this is because the two political sides are so far apart from each other, with neither one willing to compromise. If a solution is not put into place then this problem will just get more out of hand than it already is.
Right now illegal immigrants account for”29% (630,000) of the inmates in all state and federal prisons are illegal aliens—at a cost of $1.6 billion annually”. The costs that illegal immigrants bring upon our country are massive. If they are left to go unchecked then these costs will only continue to rise, something that our country really does not need right now. The longer our government sits and argues about what the best action to take is; our costs continue to increase in order to cover the increase in illegal immigrants. No one likes higher taxes but that is what is going to be the consequence of not handling the problem. How else would the government afford to cover all the costs illegal immigrants incur? A big problem is the healthcare costs for illegal immigrants. When illegal immigrants go to the hospital for injuries and don’t have insurance to cover the treatment, who do you think picks up the tab? We do! We have to pay for the losses the hospitals take from treating these patients with our taxes. Our government needs to do something about this and do it fast.
You could argue granting amnesty to these people and make them pay taxes and everything would help just as you could argue securing the border would help. Whatever the solution is, it needs to be put into action fast. The longer we wait to fix this problem the more money we end up spending.
The other side of the Arguement
I noticed that many of you feel like I have only been showing one side of the argument, so I thought I would bring you the other side’s point of view more thoroughly. If you have read my blog you have noticed I take a more conservative view on the matter, but I want to stress that I do not believe in every aspect of the conservative perspective. The more liberal side has a very different outlook on this situation. This side wants to focus more on providing amnesty to those immigrants who are not “documented”. This would allow immigrants who came into this country illegally to receive the rights granted to every U.S. citizen. They don’t feel that arresting and deporting a mass of people is fair and cost efficient. I do agree with this. Mass deportation would cost the U.S. billions of dollars, which is not something the government needs to be doing with spending already out of control.
The liberal side believes that illegal immigrants should be entitled to educational and health benefits, just like American citizens receive. They want to incorporate these people into our society and care for them. Yes this would require taxpayer’s money to support these people until they were able to care for themselves, but you have to look at it from the view that you are helping those who might have come from a far worst situation back home.
I am not saying that I necessarily agree with this perspective, but I feel that it is a bit more information on the liberal point of view.
Theory Post
When it comes to illegal immigration the two political sides are clear across the map from one another. The conservative side wants to first secure the border and then worry about getting rid of the illegal immigrants in the country. The liberal side wants to do more to help the illegal immigrants in the country, such as provide amnesty for those who have been in the country for a certain amount of years. The only way for there to be a compromise to this situation I believe would for the government to reinforce the border but provide amnesty for illegal immigrants already in the country. This would help satisfy both sides because both get their primary concerns taken care of. The likeliness of this happening is very slim just because the cost to support the illegal immigrants granted amnesty along with reinforcing the border would be too great. We would have to pick one area of focus to begin at and that is why little has been done to resolve the problem. Something that would also greatly help the efforts in restricting illegal immigration would be to make obtaining a green card easier. I know that many people can not acquire a green card and therefore choose to enter the country illegally. It would be helpful to both sides if laws were passed that allowed acquiring a green card easier for immigrants.
Unfortunately this is a problem that I don’t see being resolved any time soon. The two political sides are so far apart on their views for solutions that nothing is getting accomplished at the moment. Compromises are going to have to be made at some point before this problem gets more out of hand than it already is.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
History of Illegal Immigration
To fully understand the issue that America is facing right now I feel that it is important to look at the history of illegal immigration into this country. Illegal immigration dates back to the late nineteenth century when the U.S. banned convicts and prostitutes from entering the country. This then lead to the banning of Chinese immigrants and the mentally ill from entering. Ellis Island became the main immigration station. Here they processed most of the immigrants seeking refuge in America. By the time Ellis Island was shut down in 1954, it had processed over 12 million immigrants. The part I want to talk about is the history of Mexican illegal immigration into this country. Mexican immigration into this country started in the 1920’s. Many employers desired these immigrants for cheap labor, just like in today’s world. The government at this time was focused more on maintaining the immigration procedures for immigrants coming from Europe and overseas, allowing Mexican immigrants to pour into the country. When the Great Depression hit there was a severe decrease in immigrants from Mexico, approximately 500,000 to 100,000 immigrants left the country. This was a combination of deportation and the severe drop in employment opportunities.
To help fight against the growing increase in immigration the U.S. established the border patrol sector of El Paso in 1924. These men and women were responsible for protecting the Texas-Mexican border. As many know today this organization is still in existence and is the main line of defense against illegal immigrants attempting to cross the border.
In 1942 the U.S. signed the Bracero Treaty, which allowed for Mexican immigrants to come over and help with the increase for the demand of labor due to the war in Europe and Japan. This not only brought legal immigrant workers to America, but also brought many illegal ones too. These immigrants were only supposed to be hired if there were not enough American workers but employers preferred the cheap work of the immigrants instead.
In 1954 “Operation Wetback” was launched under president Eisenhower which cause illegal immigration to drop by 95% by the end of the 1950’s. This would not last however after the Immigration Act of 1965, which allowed for an increase in legal immigration, which cause an increase in illegal immigration as well. Ever since then there has always been a large number of illegal immigrants in our country and if we do not do something about it, it will only get worse.
For a more detailed history on illegal immigration you can visit this site.
Analysis Blog
To fully understand the issue that America is facing right now I feel that it is important to look at the history of illegal immigration into this country. In the article you can see that illegal immigration dates back to the late nineteenth century when the U.S. banned convicts and prostitutes from entering the country. This then lead to the banning of Chinese immigrants and the mentally ill from entering. Ellis Island became the main immigration station. Here they processed most of the immigrants seeking refuge in America. By the time Ellis Island was shut down in 1954, it had processed over 12 million immigrants. The part I want to talk about is the history of Mexican illegal immigration into this country. Mexican immigration into this country started in the 1920’s. Many employers desired these immigrants for cheap labor, just like in today’s world. The government at this time was focused more on maintaining the immigration procedures for immigrants coming from Europe and overseas, allowing Mexican immigrants to pour into the country. When the Great Depression hit there was a severe decrease in immigrants from Mexico, approximately 500,000 to 100,000 immigrants left the country. This was a combination of deportation and the severe drop in employment opportunities.
To help fight against the growing increase in immigration the U.S. established the border patrol sector of El Paso in 1924. These men and women were responsible for protecting the Texas-Mexican border. As many know today this organization is still in existence and is the main line of defense against illegal immigrants attempting to cross the border.
In 1942 the U.S. signed the Bracero Treaty, which allowed for Mexican immigrants to come over and help with the increase for the demand of labor due to the war in Europe and Japan. This not only brought legal immigrant workers to America, but also brought many illegal ones too. These immigrants were only supposed to be hired if there were not enough American workers but employers preferred the cheap work of the immigrants instead.
In 1954 “Operation Wetback” was launched under president Eisenhower which cause illegal immigration to drop by 95% by the end of the 1950’s. This would not last however after the Immigration Act of 1965, which allowed for an increase in legal immigration, which cause an increase in illegal immigration as well. Ever since then there has always been a large number of illegal immigrants in our country and if we do not do something about it, it will only get worse.
Now that you have seen a brief history of some of the immigration problems America has had to deal with I would like to focus now on the problems we are facing in the present time. There are a lot of different views on my topic of illegal immigration. With the upcoming elections I just feel that a major issue for discussion is what needs to be done about this increasing problem. My view on the situation is the government needs to do more on the prevention of illegal immigration into this country. I am focusing my discussion primarily on the illegal immigration across the south western border of Texas and Mexico. This is not where all illegal immigrants come from, but it is where majority cross into the U.S. The percentage of illegal immigrants from Mexico has grown from 51% in 2001 to 60% in 2009 as shown in the article. One cause for this increase is because there has been a decrease in illegal immigration from other countries due to the economic downturn that America is struggling through right now. This is a reason why I feel that we need to focus our efforts on the Texas-Mexican border. Not only do these people come into our country illegally, but some of the time they bring crime with them. This article shows how illegal immigrants tend to be repeat offenders and cause many problems for law enforcement here in America. I feel that background checks are necessary for all convicted criminals in today’s world. There is no reason for an illegal immigrant to be a repeat offender, if they are arrested a background check should be performed and if they are found to be illegal then they should be deported immediately. This would help with the overcrowding of the jails in America. In Arizona illegal immigrants represent about 14.8 percent of the state prisoners, seen at. The places being hit hardest by illegal immigration are the border countries Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. This is obviously because these are the states that immigrants cross over into. These states governments have started to take it upon themselves to solve the increasing immigrant problems in their state. Arizona has recently enacted a new law, which allows them to run background checks on everyone that comes through their legal system. The federal government has not done a very good job with regulating the illegal immigration ever since President Bush took office. Since 2000 when he took office there has been an estimated 850,000 illegal immigrants entering the U.S. each year as shown in this article.
Not only do these people come here illegally but they also bring illegal drugs into our country as well. This is why I feel that securing the border should be a priority for the government. If we could limit the amount of drugs entering the country is would be huge. Right now there are some very different political positions on what to do with this problem. Now I personally lean toward the conservative views on the subject. I feel that the government needs to do more in the regulation of immigration. There should not be amnesty given to illegal immigrants who have stayed here a certain number of years nor should babies born here by illegal immigrants be considered citizens of the U.S. Right now America is spending an outrageous amount of money taking care of these illegal immigrants. The more liberal side of politics believes that we should support these people regardless of legal status. They want us to provide healthcare, education, ext. to people who are not even U.S. citizens. This is a widely debated topic in the upcoming elections on what to do with these people. The conservative view point is to first secure the border and then worry about getting rid of the illegal immigrants already within the U.S.
Another problem is that the cost for a mass deportation of all these immigrants would be way too much. It would cost around $43 billion to deport the approximate 390,000 illegal immigrants in the U.S. With the government spending out of control as it is I feel that this is something that we can wait on. I feel that spending should be focused on increase in the border security. Hopefully with the increase in security there would be less cost in the future from having to deal with these immigrants.
It is more commonly known that illegal immigrants are notorious for taking jobs for very low wages, jobs that should go to American citizens. There are approximately 7.2 million illegal immigrant workers in the workforce. Especially now in today’s rough economy jobs are a scarcity and it’s not right for Americans not to be able to find jobs when illegal immigrants are taking them. These jobs belong to American citizens and it is not fair to them that non-americans are taking these jobs away from them.
Many immigrants are trying to find ways around the laws to become legal citizens. A popular way is to have “anchor babies”. This allows illegal immigrants to have babies in the U.S., who then become citizens which allows the parents to stay with them. Because of this rule many immigrants are able to gain citizenship because they had a baby born on U.S. soil, and this is something I feel needs to be fixed as well. In 2005 more than 380,000 anchor babies were born and were raised on taxpayer money.
My blog will talk about all the different problems America is facing with illegal immigration. I will show the different viewpoints in the political world and solutions that are being proposed. If you would like some statistics that might shock you visit this site.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
What Should Be Done
So what needs to be done in order to regain control of our south western border? Would it be better to have an increase in man power, increase in technological resources, or anything else? To me the ideal situation would be to have roving death bots on the border protecting us from those trying to enter our country illegally, but we all know we don’t have the resources for anything like that. I guess that will just have to wait a few years. But something that can be done is increase the amount of agents sent to protect the border. I know that the government has started to send National Guard troops to help out the cause. With more men you can search larger areas quicker, reinforce a bigger area, and overall just do a better job keeping our border safe. I know that the army has drones that can be sent to fly overhead and recon a certain area. I’m not sure how readily available this kind of technology is, but if the agents were able to use something like this in order to recon large areas of land in a short period of time. I know that these ideas would require a lot of government spending, but as I have said before this spending is necessary, unlike majority of the government spending being done now.
I almost think that creating a big wall that goes across the border wouldn’t be a bad idea; it would actually be kind of cool. The immigration problem has really gotten that bad though that ideas like that are coming into people’s minds. The recessing economy for the past couple of years has actually helped with the immigration problem a little, no one wants to come somewhere where they can’t find a job, but what is going to happen if/when our economy starts to go back up. We need to be ready for this because if that does happen illegal immigrants will start to pour back into America hoping to find work, and we need to be ready in case that does happen.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Illigal Immigration and Crime
Lately I have been thinking about the types of people who come into this country. Many of the people who come here illegally are associated with some type of criminal activity. After looking at some statistics I saw that of the 392,862 immigrants deported last year 195,772 were convicted of some sort of crime. That is over half of the people deported. Not only do these people come here illegally but they also create a more unsafe living environment for people in America. The reason we need to increase border security is to keep people like this out of our country. Border security is not only needed to keep illegal immigrants out, it is there to keep criminals out of our country. The federal government needs to do more to protect its citizens from the vast number of criminals pouring in across the border illegally. In order to help with the deportation effort of criminals, law enforcement can now run immigration status checks on all individuals who come through any kind of jail or court house. I believe that this is a good idea in order to get these people out of our country, but think of the time and resources we waste in having to do this. If we just kept these people from entering our country to start with then we wouldn’t need to worry about deporting them.
I know that in many of the Mexican Border states, especially Arizona, the states are starting to make their own laws about immigration since the federal government has failed to adequately provide security for the border. In the upcoming election people need to look for candidates who are looking to increase the security of the border. I think it is sad when a state has to start making its own laws because the federal government has failed to provide the national security it has always promised its citizens.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Post 1
Over the past few years I have watched the news and continuously see reports on the problem of illegal immigration into this country. The government has failed to control this situation and I feel that things need to change. What made me want to talk about this topic is a story that my grandfather told me about his experience with illegal immigrants. My grandfather was hunting in Texas one summer and during his hunt a family of illegal immigrants ran across the field. They were coming in from Mexico, and the ranch my grandfather was hunting on said they see people do that all the time. This story just made me angry because it is so easy for people to come into this country illegally, and that has to change. I have also watched the television show Border Patrol, which is a documentary on the lives of real border patrol officers. What interested me was how hard these men and women work at keeping people out of this country, but have not received enough support from the government to completely control the situation. The government has started taking steps in increasing the security of the Mexican/U.S. border by increasing the amount of border patrol agents to 17,057, which is way up from 6,315 which was in 1997. I still feel like more needs to be done. It is hard to say that the government needs to spend more money on the security of the border when government spending is already out of hand, but you have to look at the benefits that would come from increasing the security. With an increase in border security there would hopefully be a decrease in the amount of illegal immigrants coming into America, therefore decreasing the amount of money spent on INS resources. Increasing the spending now would hopefully decrease the amount of spending in the future.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Introduction Post
In my blog I will be talking about the problems that have arisen due to the heavy illegal immigration that has occurred over the past decade. As most people know the majority of illegal immigrants come from Mexico and that is where I will be focusing. I want to focus more on the illegal gang activity that comes with illegal immigration and what I feel needs to be done to control the illegal immigration flow. The reason I chose to blog about this issue is because I feel that our government has done a very poor job in regulating the immigration flow into this country. It has not done enough to control the flow of illegal immigrants and what they bring into our country. The amount of illegal immigrants in our country is outstanding. The government needs to do more to keep out illegal immigrants. The problems that illegal immigrants have caused for this country have been massive. They take jobs away from Americans and there are many times where illegal drugs are smuggled into the country. Immigration issues should be a big factor in the upcoming midterm elections. So much needs to be done with the regulation of these issues and right now that is not happening. I want to let people know how illegal immigration has hurt the American economy and what I feel needs to be done to stop it.
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