Impact of Illegal Immigration in the US

28.4 million immigrants now live in the United States, according to the Center for Immigration Studies (www.cis.org). That means that more than one in ten US residence are immigrants. Further, more than 1.2 million immigrants, both legal and illegal, are now settling in the U.S. each year.

It’s easy to jump in with an opinion on a subject like this, which for many of us it is a hot button issue. The economic and social aspects of immigration have raised concerns regarding economic stability, job competition, the drain on pubic education and other social services, crime levels, national security, and other issues. However, it’s never wise to make judgments and create influence without taking a moment to review the full situation, from all perspectives. After all the title of this article is about “the impact of immigration” not how it’s good or how it’s bad, but understanding the impact.

I am going to focus my exploration on the United States; however the principles certainly apply to other countries. And in particular I’d like to focus on illegal immigration, as after all, America is a country built on principles of legal immigration. Certainly legal immigration has an impact also, but we must assume its effect falls within reasonably governmentally controllable boundaries. It is the growing problem of illegal immigration which has our current attention.

So, how big of an issue is illegal immigration in the U.S? Did you know nearly eleven million illegal immigrants reside in America today? And the number is steadily increasing by around seven hundred thousand persons yearly, according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

What are the socio-economic impacts of this problem? And what do the statistics say about the validity of common American concerns? The hypersensitive stereotype would have you believe that illegal immigrants are 1. stealing our jobs, 2. not paying taxes, 3. increasing crime rates, and 4. some are terrorists. Although there is some validity to the concerns behind these accusations, the accusation themselves are flawed.

On the subject of job competition, there is not enough empirical evidence to show firmly one way or another that there is a significant influence on the American job market. The obvious counter-argument would be that due to educational, lingual, and legal constraints the large majority of American jobs are just not reasonably attainable for an illegal alien. The only employment area which may be noticeably affected is that which requires no formal education and provides low pay. Statistics do show a current surplus in these types of jobs which American workers are less eager to fill in an upturned economy, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But this will not stop American concerns if and when the economy experiences a period of decline.

Regarding tax paying, you may be surprised to find that many illegal aliens do pay taxes via false tax identification numbers. Even if they avoid income tax, they pay sales tax when they use that income to purchase goods and services. Although there is no definitive evidence, some sociologists argue that per capita illegal aliens may be paying more taxes than citizens do. On the other side of the argument, evidence is clear that certain areas of the country, like southern California are experiencing a drain on social services due to illegal immigrants, particularly in healthcare and educational services.

The entry for illegal immigration on Wikipedia references some very interesting contradicting evidence on the concept of increased crime associated with illegal immigrants: “The bulk of empirical studies the last century have found that immigrants typically are underrepresented in criminal statistics.[2] An Op-Ed in the New York Times by Harvard University Professor in Sociology Robert J. Sampson says that immigration of Hispanics may in fact be associated with decreased crime.[3]A 1999 paper by John Hagan and Alberto Palloni estimated that the involvement in crime by Hispanic immigrants are less than that of citizens.[4]” (www.wikipedia.org)

In response to American concerns regarding terrorism, the 9-11 commission study did find that fifty-nine out of the ninety-four terrorists who operated within America committed some form of immigration fraud, and many violated multiple immigration laws. However the direct conclusion that illegal immigrants are in some way participating in terrorism is ludicrous. The concern that terrorists could enter our country illegally is a valid one; however there is absolutely no practical way to eliminate this threat through illegal immigration policing. So although fears of terrorism have no realistic basis in illegal immigration, there are concerns regarding national security which are partially valid. The tighter our borders are to illegal entry means, the better our national security is on the whole. We can also have better awareness of and control over the impact of immigration on our country.