Pro-Republican Immigration

While Democrats may believe they hold the moral high ground when it comes to immigration, their priorities do not support long-term American success. George Washington once famously said, “The people are the country.” If we prioritize other nations and other peoples before the American people, there will soon be no America at all. This is not to say that we should not aid other countries, but rather that we should simply prioritize America first.

Before I make my argument, I would like to clearly distinguish between a legal immigrant and an illegal immigrant. A legal immigrant is someone who takes the time to complete the necessary processes in order to become a citizen of the United States. They are individuals who have something genuinely valuable to add to our great country. The American Dream is rooted in hard work and determination, which all legal immigrants possess. Illegal, or undocumented, immigrants simply look for an easy way into this country. They are unwilling to go through the admittedly long process of becoming a citizen. They cite things such as low income, which I will discuss later in the article, when in reality they simply do not want to go through such an arduous process. Thus, these people who are unwilling to work hard to achieve their goals will add little to nothing to American society compared to the legal immigrants.

Firstly, the problem is not the immigrants—it is the countries from which they come. Mexico, accounting for the most immigrants to America by far, is by no means a thriving economy. In fact, the GDP per capita in America is over $40,000 higher than Mexico’s. The lower class citizens in Mexico and other Latin American countries clearly see a way out of their current situation. In my opinion, aiding Latin American economies would be more beneficial than simply trying to prevent any immigrants from crossing the border for two reasons. One, it provides an incentive for Latin Americans to stay in their home countries, as a healthier economy means greater opportunities for success. Two, such action would create better trade partners for the U.S. in the future. However, such a plan is difficult to execute successfully. Should the U.S. use tariffs to encourage Americans to buy Mexican goods, or should the government directly influence those economies by pumping money directly into them? These methods have their pros and cons, but they are almost certainly long-term solutions to this issue.

However, before we consider any long-term fixes, we must consider some short-term solutions. The system the government already has in place, the Border Patrol Agency, is responsible for securing the borders and apprehending illegal immigrants. However, these border patrol and ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officers are severely underfunded, receiving an annual budget of only $4.9 billion. To put that into perspective, the annual budget of the Los Angeles Police Department alone is nearly twice that, at $7.6 billion. Considering that over 10.7 million illegal immigrants crossed the border in 2021, the Border Patrol Agency needs additional funding to perform their task successfully. Another short term solution is the border wall, a rather popular idea in recent years. Along the nearly 2,000 mile-long border between the U.S. and Mexico, only half is protected by a border wall. While critics of the wall claim that it is “ineffective” and “a waste of money,” data shows that the wall clearly causes a decline in illegal immigration. For example, Tucson, a border city in Arizona, saw a 25% decrease in illegal immigrant population after a section of wall was built along the local border. However, there are many things standing in the way of building a more extensive border wall. One, much of the land on the U.S.-Mexico border is private property, and must be bought by the U.S. government before any new wall can be built. Two, a minority of congressmen in support of the wall, which means that any new bills providing money for the wall will have to come once those individuals gain a majority in Congress.

Additionally, despite the Democrats’ fallible arguments that illegal immigrants do not harm American society, the facts say otherwise. Firstly, one fact about illegal immigrants is that they are often paid less than minimum wage, as they have very few employment options. This means that citizens are less likely to be hired into blue collar jobs, since they expect more money than the illegal immigrants, and are thus less appealing to employers. Additionally, while it is not necessarily widespread, illegal immigrants do contribute a large amount to drug trafficking across the border. Also, since they are undocumented, they do not have to pay their share in taxes, yet they still receive all the government benefits of a legal citizen. Additionally, since undocumented immigrants are not usually tried in court as U.S. citizens, they often get away with crimes, or, if they are deported as a result of a crime, there is nothing preventing them from simply crossing the border again and committing those same crimes. In fact, there have been reports of criminal illegal immigrants being deported up to 20 or 25 times for individual crimes they committed. However, this is not to say that all illegal immigrants commit crimes, as the percentage is actually relatively low.

In the end, what affects America the most is that illegal immigrants undermine the immigration system, negatively affecting those who choose to enter the U.S. legally. For example, an immigrant from Mexico with a good education and work experience, making him a valuable addition to the American population, chooses to enter the country legally. He goes through the entire process to become a citizen, proving that he is willing to work hard and make a positive impact on society. At the same time, another immigrant from Mexico sees an opportunity in America, but is not willing to put in the hard work to become a citizen and chooses to cross the border illegally, leeching the benefits reserved for legal immigrants. Countries are formed in order to create unity and opportunities for their citizens, and they should always consider the welfare of their own citizens before that of those on the outside. As former President Ronald Reagan famously said: “A nation without borders is not a nation.”