Cacie Nichols
Sociology 101
28 January 2013

Immigration is a big social problem in the U.S., but with stereotypes and over generalizations, the mass media seems to amplify the negativity. Even those who make up the U.S. society today all have come from immigrants. Regardless of how long certain families have been in America at one point in time everyone migrated to this land. The issue is not immigration itself it is the illegal immigrants living among the people. There is no way of knowing which immigrants are here legally or illegally unless they are checked. However, it is socially unacceptable to ask someone for their green card or visa because it questions their legal presence in this country. The problem with enforcing certain laws to prevent illegal immigrants from the country is there are so many gray areas in the underlying issue. There are current problems that have been previously attempted to be addressed and with a new strategy there could be greater progress. The current problem is not immigrants it is the eleven to twelve million of those who illegally live among the people and take advantage of the system. A majority of those in poverty in the United States are Hispanics. They have created a negative name for immigration. This country was built upon immigration but not with the mass amounts that the Hispanics are entering at. Most Americans have no issue with immigrants, who come to this country legally, learn to speak English, payback taxes, and have had a background check. There are many underlying issues with immigration; how to decide which immigrants come in, the controversial topic of not issuing enough green cards or visas, and the money it costs to be able to get in the country legally. Most of the illegal immigrants who come to this country illegally are in poverty and typically do not have the money to invest in a green card. America is still a land of opportunity and the less fortunate thrive to be successful but have only managed to do so illegally in this country. Society as a whole becomes majorly impacted by this problem because it leads to the division of ethnic conclaves. This immigration problem needs to be addressed because rates of poverty, crime, and violence are increasing in the country. There has been efforts made to address the problem previously but with the increasing rates society has to come up with a different solution. There have been many previous efforts made to deal with the social controversy about immigration. Since there is such a split decision with society and how the deciding factors on what to do with immigrants the issue of regulating immigration has been difficult. In 1986 there was an act called the IRCA which was the legalization of immigrants in a group. The problem with this act was lack of boarder control and security. In result there was a stampede of two million illegal immigrants who came in across the borders. First and foremost the border security has always been an issue that has to be re-established border security. Other previous efforts have been made as far as putting up fences and surveillance cameras. But they have not been successful because there are still many immigrants that cross the borders illegally. According to the American legion there are many areas where the United States has failed with immigration. Previous efforts that have been made to restrict illegal immigrants in the workforce need to be more intensely enforced. Homeland Security and Social Security should enforce the penalties for industries knowingly hiring illegal immigrants. Immigration needs to be regulated so immigrants can be easily integrated with society. The best way of regulating immigration is harshly enforcing the law. After researching many problems on immigration I believe the only way to solve the issues is to start out by harshly enforcing rules. Putting more military force on the borders would be beneficial to regulating those who come across the