Immigration is what has made America what it is today. In fact, there would be no America if not for immigration because everyone in the country is an immigrant or is directly descended from one. In the state of Texas, about 6.8 percent of its population is composed of illegal immigrants. Throughout the years, many people have brought up this issue in political campaigns and have advocated either the legalization of these immigrants or the deportation of them. Two of the most outspoken advocates for the legalization of undocumented immigrants are President Obama and Professor Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda. While Mitt Romney, the presidential candidate for the Republicans, has been avoiding the issue over immigration.
Professor Hinojosa- Ojeda, the founding director of the North American Integration and Development Center, wrote a book called The Consequences of Legalization Versus Mass Deportation in Texas. In this book, Hinojosa goes on to explain what the benefits would be if the undocumented immigrants were to be legalized and consequences of their deportation. In a study made in 2010, it was recorded that undocumented workers brought in $14.5 billion in tax revenue to Texas. This number would increase by $4.1 billion if these workers were legalized. With that extra money our state would be able to give nearly 300 days of free school lunch to every K-12 grade students in the state, and fund over 1 million students through the Top 10% Scholarship Program among other things.
All of the things mentioned are the benefits of the legalization of these undocumented immigrants; the repercussions of deporting these people, however, outweigh the benefits. If the illegals are deported, there would be a $77.7 billion decrease in gross state product plus a $33.2 billion decrease in total wages. Another consequence of the deportation would be that there will be a lot of jobs needed that not many born Americans would be willing to take as the immigrants would take any job