Sabrina's Super Blog :)

I think I gave 98% effort, and the quality of my work is 95%. I am most proud of my conclusion because I wrote it in a very strong way, and it really made my point. I also thought it was neat and organized. In the past my conclusions have not been as well written as this one. This time I took my time writing it, revising, and editing, which really made an impact on the final result. I would still like to improve the second and third parts of my third argument because they were not as convincing as the rest of my paper. I had some trouble with this because some of the information was very difficult for me to find. I feel they could have been written more powerfully. My academic goal was to learn what the benefits of illegal Mexican immigrants were. I definitely met this goal because with all of the research I have done, I learned many facts and opinions that good things to know about. Many people do not know about the impact illegal immigrants have given to the United States, and I really thought it would be a good thing to tell people about. My organization goal was to get my work done as soon as I could and to not procrastinate. In some ways I don’t think I completely met this goal, because there were a few nights when I procrastinated, which I was not proud of. Those nights taught me more about how procrastinating is not pleasant at all, and that when you don’t procrastinate you feel more relaxed and relieved.  My skill goal was to learn how to write transitions better. I really think I met this goal because I started feeling more comfortable with my transitions and doing them. I now know better on how to make one sentence/topic connect to another, which really worked out for me. The most important idea I will take away from this project is that the obvious answer is not always the right answer. At first when we learned we were doing an essay on this topic, I thought closing the border would be better. As I read more about the topic I realized that it could have bad results. One last thing I want you to know is that though this project was very challenging at times, but I really learned a lot and with what I learned I will use in the near future when I need to write more thesis essays.

Invited Illegal Immigrants

A Practical Approach to Illegal Immigration

The True Benefits and Burdens of Illegal Immigration

As explained above, closing the border may just make things worse.  If we did happen to close the border, it may affect families in Mexico with the fact that one out of ten families depend on remittances.  Also closing the border will mean that since it is basically impossible to move back all the illegal immigrants to Mexico (that is in the United States), some of those illegal immigrants will have to stay in the United States for the rest of their lives unable to see their families.  Not only does not closing the border have benefits, but if we do close the border many problems will happen.  Thus, the United States should not close the border.

Did you know that 10 to 20 million illegal immigrants live in the United States?  Many people illegally cross the border between the United States and Mexico, looking for better opportunities.  In this process many of them die from things like drowning in rivers and canals, dehydration, hypothermia and heat stress in the desert.  In 2000, 369 immigrants died while trying to cross the border.  The harder the United States tries to close it, the harder people will have to try to cross-causing more deaths.  Therefore, the United States should not close its Mexican border to immigrants.

Illegal immigrants provide economic benefits to the United States as well as to Mexicans living in extreme poverty.

Since 2005, the government has spent a large amount of money trying to build a fence to close the border.  This fence has been breached 3,363 times, and with every breach it costs the government $1,300.  The government is spending a large amount of money on the fence that is still being crossed over with illegal immigrants.  After spending $2.4 billion, the fence only covers about 600 miles of the 2,000 mile long border.

Taxpayers benefit from the $7 billion of Social Security taxes paid each year by illegal immigrants in the United States.  These illegal immigrants are using invalid Social Security numbers.  Therefore they will never receive any Social Security benefits.  Illegal immigrants also pay all sorts of sales, property and excise taxes.

Illegal immigrants primarily work in jobs that are undesirable to Americans.  Such jobs include dish washing, working in meat plants, and agricultural work.  These are dead-end, low-paying, and hard jobs in an unpleasant environment.  For example, most small ethnic restaurants in Ann Arbor hire illegal immigrants for dish washing and other similar jobs.  If they had to pay the wages that an illegal resident would demand then they would have to raise their prices substantially or go out of business.  Residents of Ann Arbor benefit by having this variety of ethnic restaurants that depend on illegal immigrant workers.

For decades we have been trying to close the border.  Even as the United States has been trying harder to seal the border close, the number of illegal immigrants has been increasing, until the economy slowed down recently.  As a comparison think about the fact that the United States has spent enormous amounts of money trying to close its borders to illegal drugs for decades.  But, today you can buy still buy illegal drugs anywhere in the country.

The law of supply and demand is the reason why the United States has such high illegal immigration.  As with illegal drugs, the only way to truly stop illegal immigration is to reduce the demand.  With the recent drop in the economy, the demand for illegal immigrants dropped.  As a result, the number of illegal immigrants dropped by 25%.

Another practical problem with trying too hard to close the border is that it will hurt both inter-racial and international relations.  Inter-racial relations will be hurt because many Latinos legally living in the United States will feel that they are being discriminated against.  Likewise, taking drastic actions to close the border will hurt relations with Mexico and other countries.

The United States needs to consider ethical issues related to illegal immigration.

As long as there is extreme poverty in Mexico and a high demand for cheap labor in the United States, illegal immigrants will keep trying to enter the United States.  The harder the United States tries to close the border, the more dangerous it is for illegal immigrants that are crossing.  As a result of trying harder to close the border, more illegal immigrants will die.

Fifty-four percent of Mexico’s population lives in poverty, and 24% lives in extreme poverty.  When illegal immigrants come to the United States, the second generation is able to get a good education and have opportunities that they would not have in Mexico.  By forcing these people to stay out of the country, the United States is suppressing this ethnic group from progressing.

The United States is a nation of immigrants (other than Native Americans).  Almost everyone in the United States is either an immigrant or a descendent of immigrants.  Most ancestors of Americans came to the United States looking for better opportunities.  One could argue that it is only fair to give the same opportunity to Mexicans.

Outline

I.  Introduction

II.  Economic Reasons

a.  Closing the border

b.  Taxes

c.  Undesirable jobs

III.  Practical Reasons

a.  Impossible to close

b.  Relations

c.  Supply and demand

IV.  Ethical Reasons

a.  Danger to immigrants

b.  Suppression

c.  Fairness

V.  Conclusion

The United States should not close its Mexican border to immigrants.

I. Introduction

II. Economic Reasons

III.  Practical Reasons

IV. Ethical Reasons

V. Conclusion

The United States should not close its Mexican border to immigrants.