Illegal immigration has been a problem for the United States for a long time. This phenomenon is not new, and thousands of illegal immigrants have entered the United States through the Mexican border, the Pacific Ocean, or through many other ways. Some people entered the country legally via a visit visa, but then stayed illegally and work in various places. Illegal immigration is a double-edged sword; on the one hand it provides cost advantages to the local economy since illegal immigrants are not paid as much, while they are more productive. On the other hand, these illegal immigrants do not pay taxes and their employers also do not pay taxes. There are both pros and cons of illegal immigration and this paper will review some facts pertinent to illegal immigration in the United States. “Every day, thousands of illegal immigrants cross the 2,500-mile border with Mexico. According to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, or INS, the total number of illegal immigrants in America from this source is increasing by 275,000 each year. The United States already hosts an illegal population of between 7 and 12 million, the vast majority of whom are of Mexican or Hispanic origin. These illegal and uninvited guests help each other get jobs, education, social assistance and unemployment benefits. The many whose wages are paid under the table pay little or no tax. And they are easy prey for unscrupulous employers and politicians” (Hayes 2000) Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The population of the United States is growing primarily due to births in minority and immigrant communities. We don't like to think about it – because it's an issue of political correctness – but there is a stratification of work, especially along the education pathway, where the tough jobs in agriculture, industry and services are done by those who don't have access to the world of work. world of white collar work. Especially when these low-paying jobs don't require language skills, immigrants have historically jumped at these opportunities as a way to get their foot in the door. Unemployed people born in the United States don't think first of having just any job to help them plant their feet. First they think about what their salary will be. If you are here illegally, you clearly have a competitive advantage (Howell 2006). Most Americans and American officials are of the opinion that illegal immigration is harmful to the country and should be completely stopped. The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) is a law of the United States of America that covers employment-related policies and regulations. This law was enacted in 1986 for various reasons, including the fact that many illegal employees work in the United States. The two main requirements of the IRCA include: “(1) employ only persons authorized to work in the United States, and (2) not discriminate on the basis of citizenship status or national origin” (LMD 1992). In order to work in the United States, workers must complete an I-9 form and must be able to demonstrate to their employers their authorization to work in the United States. “Employers cannot refuse to consider all qualified individuals with work permits, citizen or non-citizen. Employers must accept any document listed in the INS Handbook for Employers and may not arbitrarily specify an INS document or request additional documents. Employers cannot refusehire a skilled worker whose work permit expires at a later date. The IRCA imposes back wages and severe penalties on employers who commit immigration-related employment discrimination” (LMD 1992). I support this immigration reform because I believe illegal employment is a drain on the U.S. economy. There are more than 10 million undocumented workers (not including their families) in the United States (white). Most of these illegal workers are concentrated in California and Texas, although their presence can be felt across the country. About three-quarters of these illegal immigrants arrive in the United States after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Many of these illegal immigrants are hired by U.S. employers as undocumented workers, and this is because they can be hired for less than the minimum wage. Most of these workers are hired to work in the agricultural, manufacturing and construction sectors or in behind-the-scenes jobs. These workers are not afforded any type of healthcare or other benefits (White). These jobs are mostly opened illegally by US employers in order to save on taxes and also costs by paying workers less than the minimum wage. This is why I think it is important for immigration reform to be implemented as it makes it harder for employers to take taxes, etc. out of the government. Another advantage that can derive from the IRCA is that of the social costs linked to illegal immigration in the United States. When illegal immigrants enter America, they do so without documents or any authorization. This means there is no record of where they come from or what kind of background they have. They could be infected with a hundred diseases, such as polio, tuberculosis, etc. These diseases can spread and cause many problems for American citizens. On top of this, there are more additional costs to a state as it has to pay for education, etc., for these illegal immigrants. “In already underfunded programs, these services become a heavier burden to address. Republicans reached agreement among themselves on legislation to combat illegal immigration (Carney 1996). But with their package facing delaying tactics from Senate Democrats and the president's veto, they ended the week of September 2 unsure of their next move” (Website). It would be helpful to consider the disadvantages of implementing strict immigration laws. If the job market wasn't filled with illegal immigrants crossing the Mexican border, these positions would have to be filled by someone else. If we were to bring more agricultural and service workers to the United States through a regularized process, the resulting immigrant body would be less Mexican and more Arab, Muslim, South Asian, and African. For those who want to get a sense of the impact this could have on American society, let's look at Europe. This is a question of culture, language and religion. Author Samuel Huntington (Who Are We?) and others have argued that Mexican culture is not easily compatible with the Anglo-Protestant culture under which the United States thrived. This could be true. but it is certainly more compatible than Iraqi culture (Howell 2006). If Mexicans weren't coming in illegally, we would have to screen and track them all. What would the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS, the successor agency to the Immigration and Naturalization Service under the new Department of Homeland Security) look like to process the 500 workers whoare they illegally sneaking into the country every day? How much would it cost? There are approximately 11,000,000,000 illegal immigrants in the United States. Any process other than deporting them all, there would be a substantial increase in the size of government agencies designed to monitor them (Howell 2006). By making such an issue of illegal immigrants from Mexico, we are discouraging all immigrants from living in the United States, including those we desperately need. The problem is blocking the immigration system for applicants who have mathematical and scientific skills. Many argue that the education system is overloaded due to the children of illegal immigrants. However, such skills have not been produced, at least for the past 20 years, by that same system, forcing us to import our technological capacity from India, East Asia, and elsewhere (Howell 2006). One could argue that immigrants are after all people and that they should not be discriminated against even if they enter the country illegally. Much public controversy has erupted over the issue of affirmative action, which concerns discrimination against immigrants in the workplace. This began as a period of "passionate debate beginning around 1972 and gradually declining after 1980, and the latter indicating a resurgence of debate in the 1990s that led to the Supreme Court's decision in the summer of 2003 to uphold certain types of actions positive" (Fullinwider 2005). Beyond this, there have been two paths that have taken the development, defense, and challenge of preferential affirmative action. “One has been legal and administrative as courts, legislatures, and executive departments of government have established and enforced rules requiring affirmative action. The other has been the path of public debate, where the practice of preferential treatment has generated a vast literature, pro and con” (Fullinwider 2005). Many people argue that immigrants are usually skilled labor and help increase local U.S. manufacturing. Others also argue that when businesses pay less than the minimum wage, their costs go down, which means that production costs as well as prices go down, and this helps the citizens of the United States. It is also argued that immigrants tend to send their American dollars out of America to their families, and this strengthens the value of the dollar, making it more valuable, thus making the US economy stronger. However, we find that these benefits are far from outweighed by the costs that illegal immigrants endure in the United States. Many immigrants feel that they are being discriminated against in the workplace due to one or more of the various types of discriminatory practices that occur within various organizations. Many of these employees are women who believe they have been discriminated against on the basis of sex. The Revised Order of 1972 brought about a change that included women among the “protected classes” whose “underutilization” required the establishment of “targets” and “timetables” for “full utilization” (Graham 1990). There are some theories presented in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that covers employment discrimination, even if the employee is an illegal immigrant. IRCA changes all that. An illegal immigrant cannot be considered an employee of the IRCA, which automatically deals with the problem of discrimination. It can be concluded that immigration reforms are a good practice both for immigrants and, more importantly, for the United States. Illegal immigrants pose many problems for our country and should not be allowed in the first place. But since it is very difficult to guarantee a 2006).