Immigration

We live in very difficult times. Poverty stricken people from other countries are feeling the pains and pressures caused by unemployment, homelessness, poverty, hopelessness, lack of education, low-paying jobs, stress and hunger. Should people from south of the border be blamed and penalized in the courts of public opinion for trying to have a better life? What about legal immigrants and citizens who also face economic woes? Don't we have a moral obligation to take care of our own citizens and legal residents first? Every day, over 1 million children in America have no place to call home and many are hungry and exposed to drugs and violence. Shouldn't these come first?

Considering both sides of the issue of illegal immigration to America

Pros to allowing immigration

1. It helps keep the economy moving by filling low-wage jobs.

2. It provides a better lifestyle for those who enter the country illegally.

3. It creates a pool of consumers for a variety of goods and services.

4. Farmers are able to plant and harvest less expensively.

5. Contributions to social security funds often go unclaimed.

6. Illegal immigrants pay sales taxes.

7. Illegal residents, who are property owners, also pay real estate taxes.

8. Millions of illegals rent properties in depressed areas where renters are hard to find.

9. They purchase real estate and generate commissions for agents and brokers.

10. Illegal immigrants contribute to mortgage loan profits.

11. They open bank accounts that yield interest and dividends to bankers.

12. Many purchase auto insurance and contribute to insurers profits margins.

Cons to allowing immigration

1. Burden on tax-based resources, costing taxpayers billions of dollars.

2. Difficult prosecution and justice when perpetrators flee the country.

3. Disparity between legal immigrants who follow the rules and those who don't.

4. They risk death when traveling the desert to reach the borders.

5. Those who successfully cross the border inspire those left behind to do the same.

6. Continued growth of the demand for cheap labor and low wages.

7. No government reimbursement to offset states illegal alien maintenance costs.

8. Potential negative effects on working and middle-class citizens.

9. Millions of U.S. dollars remitted to Mexico

10. Mortgage loan fraud

11. Fake document mills

12. Imbalance in authorized immigration quotas

13. Interstate human trafficking

14. Population health risks due to no pre-entry immunizations

15. Increase in road traffic and usage, injurious or fatal accidents

16. Congestion of tax-based public parks and recreation

17. Overcrowding of public schools

18. Continued law-breaking rationalization for those who employ illegals

19. Growing number of uninsured illegal aliens who can't pay for claims

20. Monopolization of Spanish language in various segments of society

21. Lack of true ethnic diversity

The debate over illegal immigration is a heavy one. President-elect Barack Obama wants to preserve the integrity of our borders. He supports additional personnel, infrastructure, and technology on the border and at our ports of entry. He believes we must fix the dysfunctional immigration bureaucracy and increase the number of legal immigrants to keep families together and meet the demand for jobs that employers cannot fill. He supports a system that requires undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens.

To learn more about Obama's plans for illegal immigration, you can click here.