Final Thoughts

So I learned a lot from this experience. I never blogged before and I found it could definitely be a good way to get your thoughts out. Sorry if my topic bored the readers. The only part i had diffucluty in was the video links. Sorry. I guess just copy and paste :). Well I hope yall enjoyed my project. It's due tomorrow. I'm kinda nervous. I don't really know what to expect. I'm sure other peoples are better than mine. But oh well, I guess that's how it goes. I've had so much to do with finals coming up and all. Well I hope everyone has a good time over the holidays. I can't believe this is the last week of school. It came too fast. Peace and Love

SP

Works Cited

Anderson, Jason. “Illegal Immigration.” Wisconsin Briefs from the Legislative Reference Bureau. April 2007. 21 October 2008. .

Associated Press. “Report: Illegal Immigration Declines as Economy Falls.” Fox News. 02 October 2008. 4 November 2008 .

Hopkins, James. “Importing Poverty.” The American Resistance. 2008. 21 October 2008 .

“Inside Illegal Immigration.” 1:05. Fox News: Video. 31 October 2008. 3 November 2008 .

Kane, Tim, and Kirk Johnson. “The Real Problem Immigration…and the Real Solution.” The Backgrounder. 1 March 2006. 21 October 2008 .

Krikorian, Mark. “Enforcement At Work: A Strategy of Attrition is Bearing Fruit.” National Review. 4 August 2008. 21 October 2008 .

McCaffery, Paul. Hispanic Americans. United States: H.W. Wilson Company, 2007.

Orrenius, Pia. “Illegal Immigration and Enforcement Along the U.S.-Mexico Border: An Overview.” Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. 2001. 21 October 2008 .

Paul, Ron. “On Illegal Immigration and Border Security.” Texas Straight Talk. 2 December 2007. 21 October 2008 < http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2007/tst120207.htm>.

What I Think

I think that this is a huge problem in The United States that need to be dealt with NOW. I think that the solution must be comprehensive and include all of the previous said solutions. These combined efforts will make a more secure and economical nation. I think all migrants should be forced to go back to their homeland and wait in line behind those who have properly petitioned to come to America. A worker program should be formed to maintain balance. However, I don't believe in Amnesty. Amnesty is just an excuse for everyone to stay.
President Obama is for the legalization of the illegal population. He thinks that if immigrants pay a fine, stay out of trouble, learn English, and get a job, they should get an opportunity for citizenship (Krikorian 2).

This is a serious problem, but one, I believe, can be solved. Sure it may cost millions or billions of dollars to fix, but money ain't a thing. haha just kidding. We are already spending a lot of money on the immigrants living here so why not put that money toward getting some of them out. The Hispanic influence on our country is evident and the more and more they are allowed to come freely, the more and more it will change. Is change good or bad? You decide.

Solutions

There are many different proposed solutions to this problem. To find one solution will most certainly not get the job done. You must have a comprehensive solution. Proposed solutions include: “improving border security, strengthening verification of employment by employers, establishing a new temporary guest worker program and offering some level of amnesty to the illegal immigrants living in the United States” (Kane 1).
The Department of Homeland Security, founded in 2003, trains and employs the border patrol men and women. The number of border patrol agents along the Mexican border has more than doubled since September 11, 2001 (McCaffrey 12). So with this growth, our protection has also grown. But, we could alsways use ore agents and more advanced techniques. We need to make the borders stronger.
Also, employers have been asked to verify citizenship of all workers before accepting them as employees. This would greatly affect the immigration rate because if there is no where for them to work when they arrive, they would have less reasons to come in the first place. In 2005, The Real ID Act was put into effect. It requires that an identification card must be presented in order to partake in government services (i.e. open a bank account, travel by plane, etc.) (Anderson 2). This also made it harder for illegal immigrants. If it is hard to live without citizenship, a lot of problems would be solved. But, these immigrants do do a great deal of good things for our country. So maybe they shouldn't all be asked to leave.
A guest worker program is another solution to this problem. The immigrants here today do a lot of labor in our country. Without them, our country wouldn't function properly. If we were to force them all to leave, our employment rate would drop and things would not run very smoothly. So maybe some should be allowed to come as guest workers.
Some level of amnesty should also be given. Amnesty is basically a pardon for offenses against the government. Where should you draw the line on who gets amnesty or not? Maybe those that obey the law and establish a good life here should be granted amnesy, while those breaking the law and disrespecting our country should be forced to leave. But who knows where to draw such a fine line. There are lots of solutions to the problem. Using one will certainly not be sufficient.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy day of thanks to you all! I'm very thankful for my family, friends, and this dank food I'm about to eat. Hope yalls holidays are as great as mine! Have a good one!


SP

Continued... The Effects

Ok so I got a little distracted but anyways...

Immigration effects out economy, standard of living and our security, among other things. Because our economy has been struggling lately, the number of illegal immigrants has dropped below that of those entering legally (Associated 1). Even though our economy is bad, these migrants are still taking American jobs. this has depressed the lower-income worker wage by as much as 5 percent in 15 years (Hopkins 1). It has been said that Americans don't want to do these jobs, but who did them before? Americans probably. Also, illegal immigrants are getting free health care, education, food stamps, etc. The cost of border patrol has increased. Where is the money coming from to pay for these things? Our tax dollars. Approximately 20 billion dollars a year is given to illegal immigrants (1). 20 Billion! wow. With this economic damage, out standard of living is lowered. The quantity and quality of goods and services decrease due to the surplus of people living in America.

Our security is also in jeopardy. Three out of every 100 people in America are undocumented. This is not safe. We take pride in out security, yet hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants are arriving each year. How would you know if these people entering our country are mass murderers or molesters? Some are criminals, some are not. I would like to point out the fact that I am not racist. I understand that there is good that comes from illegal immigration. But i also think there should be a solution to this problem or the long-term effects could be damaging.

Here is a video to show the effects of illegal immigration. I'm not sure I agree with what Lou Dobbs has to say but the facts are astounding. This is an older video so its not exactly accurate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY6t2ckpb5g

again having trouble with the whole posting a video. It won't work on my computer.

The Problem

Ok, so I know I was slacking this weekend. I had a lot of things to do. But now I will explain the basis of my project. A short history, and description of the problem....

America was found by immigrants. Thousands of people from all different cultures came here to start a new life for their families and to be free. But, when too many people come to exploit this freedom, a problem is formed. In 1942, The Bracero Progam was created. This program allowed Mexican people to legally come to our country and work, due to the labor shortages from World War II (Orrenius 4). (Work Cited page to come soon) When the Mexicans were allowed to come over they did more than take advantage. Soon it was hard for an American to find a job. The Bracero Program was abolished in 1964. So for 22 years Mexican immigrants came into America. They did more than work though. They formed lives and made more money than they could dream about in Mexico. After the ending of the worker program, Mexicans came illegally. But who wouldn't? After a taste of freedom, wouldn't you want more? There are laws upon laws forbidding these people to come into the U.S. freely but they will go to extreme measures to come.

Smuggling is one form of crossing the Mexico-U.S. border illegally. This is very dangerous, especially for the person who agreed to smuggle them in. These people are called coyotes. The advantages to being a coyote is the large amounts of money they are paid. Their job is very risky. If caught, they could face jail time. There is a video I watched on FoxNews.com of a migrant floating down the river to come to America. I can't seem to link it in here but here is the address if you feel like copying and pasting.
http://www.foxnews.com/video/index.html?playerId=videolandingpage&streamingFormat=FLASH&referralObject=21530&referralPlaylistId=search|illegal%20immigration

And this is a graph showing the percentages of illegal immigrants in the US.

This Is Nuts

So I've been ridiculously sick for the past two days and totally even forgot about this assignment and actually going to class for that matter. Good thing I remembered I had a Calculus test this morning. Woo. It was hard. Well the reason for this blog is to inform the reader about illegal immigration in the US. It is for a project in my English 1101 class. Its kinda like a follow up to the research paper that we wrote last week. So basically I'm going to describe immigration and why it's a problem and what I think we should do to fix it. Boring? I know. But who doesn't want a good grade? And who knows you might actually learn something by reading this. I thought this topic was going to be so totally boring but I found it more and more interesting as I researched. My mom work for Homeland Security so I thought maybe I could relate to her more if I learned more about what this agency actually does. So i don't think I'm going to get into this whole topic today but I'll try to find the strength to do it this weekend. I'm gonna go back to bed. Goodnight.