Illegal Immigration in the United States

Illegal Immigration in the United States The United States (US) has always been viewed as the land of opportunity because it is the only true free country in the world. This being the case people have been fighting their way into the country for decades. However, it is becoming more and more of a problem each decade that passes. With the United States border being so close to Mexico it is now seeing the highest population of illegal immigrants to date. The rising population is due to the lack of jobs in their country, poor pay and bad work environments. It has become the issue it has because the US is now having problems with high taxes, steep insurance costs and new laws. Even though the
The Kennedy-McCain bill is the result of ten months of hard slog. The two senators were still hammering out the details the day before they unveiled their plan. But the product is a hard-nosed law that tries to align America's immigration laws to the economic realities without rewarding illegal behavior." (On the Border, 2005) This was a big stepping stone for the US government. Reason being, "The bill provides both illegal workers and law-breaking employers with a ladder out of the shadow world they now inhabit. Illegal workers will be allowed to apply for temporary work permits (which will not be tied to specific jobs, as in earlier schemes). And employers will be allowed to hire immigrant workers if they can demonstrate that no Americans want their jobs. But at the same time the bill avoids being soft on illegal immigration. Any illegal immigrants in the country will pay hefty fines, as well as their back taxes, and go to the back of the queue for green cards. Employers will also face much stricter penalties. Money will be pumped into border security and a new system of tamper-proof identity cards." (On the Border, 2005) This bill was a great starting point on the fight to end illegal immigration and it is still being put into action. To provide a good understanding of why the bill was so important the graph below clearly shows the increase and decrease in the illegal immigration population over a nine year span.

The statistics on Illegal