Essay: The Necessity of Immigration Reform

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Bilete: Åse Elin Langeland

Illegal immigration has been a widely discussed topic in politics in the US. Some argue that immigrants are necessary as they take the jobs Americans do not wish to take, and that they therefore should be given permission to stay in the country. Others however, are of the opinion that they should be severely punished seeing as what they are doing is illegal, arguing that the illegal immigrants are taking away jobs from Americans and not paying their taxes. Although there are arguments supporting the claim that undocumented immigrants should be punished, there are many counterarguments for why they should be allowed to stay. The extent of illegal immigration has reached such enormous proportions that a reform of the immigration is vitally necessary for American society. It is not tenable that such a large part of a society's life contains an irregular and 'illegal' element, and it is necessary for large numbers of these immigrants to have their lives and their contributions legalised and regularised.

One of the main arguments against illegal immigration is that there will be fewer jobs left for the Americans as they demand higher salaries compared to the illegal immigrants and it is only beneficial for the companies, rather than the country as a whole. A counterargument for this is that most of the illegal immigrants take the jobs Americans do not want. And although many Americans may be desperate for work after the financial crisis, there are still many who do not want to do labour or low-paid jobs, such as working at a farm. Many illegal immigrants however, are happy as long as they find work. It is therefore necessary for them to be legalised so that there are enough people within these fields of work. Without the workforce of 'illegal' workers, much of the American economic life would suffer or come to a standstill, due to the fact that they are concentrated in huge numbers in just a few states, such as California, Texas, Florida and Arizona.

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Bilete: bavetta, Flickr

A third reason for legalising illegal immigrants is that everyone deserves equal rights as human beings. Many people migrate from their own country to the US because they seek better opportunities, freedom, and rights. An example is Mexicans, they account for more than half of the illegal immigrants in the US with a number of 6.1 million people. Almost half of Mexico's population lives in poverty, which is one of the major factors for why Mexicans migrate, they wish to provide for their family and for some the only way to do that is by finding work in the US.

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Bilete: Korean Resource Center

According to the Human Rights Watch World Report 2013 there are also some human rights that are being violated in Mexico. One of them is the criminal justice system, which fails to fight human right violations done to victims, due to corruption and inadequate resources. Other rights that are violated are the labour rights. In 2012 there was a new labour law reform that would make it easier for employers to replace the regular employees with workers on a short-term contract. Because of this a lot of Mexicans may choose the US for better security of their rights. Although these examples are of Mexicans, other undocumented immigrants may come for similar reasons, or they may come from countries with even worse conditions.

Americans may argue that this does not affect them and that it is not their responsibility. However, a large part of the human rights violations in Mexico that people are trying to escape from come about because Mexico is a conduit for drug traffic going to the US market. Without the drug demand on the 'market place' there would be fewer problems with such violations in Mexico and central American countries. Americans should rather fight drug demand and drug trafficking than the human beings that are the victims.

Although there are arguments for punishing immigrants that come to the US illegally, there is a lot of evidence in support of arguments for why it instead should be legalised. Contrary to common belief they do pay taxes, meaning they have rights to the same benefits. They also take jobs most American citizens avoid. Furthermore many illegal immigrants live in countries that suffer from poverty, and where certain human rights are overlooked. These are all reasons that support the legalisation of illegal immigrants.