Illegal Immigrants Haven’t Disappeared

Two years ago, illegal immigration was such a hot topic that any conservative politician who even mentioned the word “amnesty” for undocumented aliens—also called illegal immigrants—in anything other than a hostile tone risked being tarred and feathered and subject to a recall. But today the issue of aliens unlawfully present in the United States has been moved to the back burners, if not completely off the stove. The only recent controversy involving undocumented aliens is whether they and/or their children should be covered by the new healthcare plan that is currently being crafted by Congress. President Obama, on the other hand, is supportive of a “path to citizenship” for immigrants who are here unlawfully.

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, the number of illegal aliens in the United States dropped by almost 14 percent, or 1.7 million people, between the summer of 2007 and the spring of 2009. It has been estimated that the number of immigrants entering the U.S. illegally has dropped by one-third, while the number of illegal aliens returning to their homeland has more than doubled.

What are the reasons for this dramatic turnaround? One reason is that more of our border with Mexico has been fenced in, deterring potential immigrants from trying to illegally cross into the United States. Although during his candidacy President Obama pledged that he would moderate the Bush administration’s tough policy on immigration enforcement, his administration is pursuing an aggressive strategy for an illegal immigration crackdown that relies substantially on programs started by his predecessor.

Immigration authorities have backed away somewhat from the Bush administration’s frequent mass factory roundups of unlawful immigrant workers. Despite this, a no-nonsense approach toward illegal aliens has resulted in an increase in the number of immigration cases in federal courts. According to a study by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, in April 2009, there were 9,037 immigration cases in federal courts, an increase of 32 percent over April 2008. An immigration bill overhauling the system was expected to be ready to introduce into Congress at the end of this year, but it now looks like it won’t be until sometime in 2010 that the bill will be ready.

Another reason for the rise in numbers of illegal aliens being deported is the expansion of a controversial federal program known as 287(g), which allows for cooperation between federal immigration agents and state and local police agencies. 287(g) was intended to identify and arrest criminal illegal aliens, but critics of the program said it allowed local police to identify and arrest illegal immigrants for such minor infractions as a broken tail light and led to racial profiling. In July 2009, the Department of Homeland Security announced new guidelines that sharply curtail the ability of local law enforcement to arrest and screen suspected illegal immigrants. They are intended to prevent sheriff and police departments from arresting people for minor offenses as a guise to initiate removal (deportation) proceedings. Under the new policy, 287(g)\ will now focus on illegal immigrants who are more serious criminals.

President Obama favors shifting the burden of immigration enforcement to employers, while making it difficult for illegal immigrants to get hired. It is estimated that tens of thousands of jobs created by the economic stimulus law could end up being filled by illegal immigrants, especially in big states like California where undocumented workers make up a substantial number of construction workers. Studies by two conservative think tanks estimate that illegal immigrants could take 300,000 construction jobs, or 15 percent of the two million jobs that new taxpayer-financed projects are expected to create.

Employers can certify the legal immigration status of workers before hiring them by using a Department of Homeland Security program called E-Verify. This program allows employers to check the validity of the Social Security numbers provided by new hires, and is available to employers on a voluntary basis. However, E-Verify has been criticized as being riddled with errors that could result in millions of workers being wrongly identified as not authorized for work.

Illegal immigrants come to the United States to improve their lives through the opportunities offered in this country, but often end up becoming employed in low-paying sectors that don’t attract American workers. The illegal workers may be abused and exploited by their employers, but they are afraid to report such abuse and exploitation to the authorities out of fear that they will be deported.

But the main reason for the decline in the number of immigrants here unlawfully is the sorry state of the United States economy. Jobs for unskilled workers have simply dried up, meaning there’s no work available to the foreign immigrants. Research published in September 2009 by the Cato Institute dispels the notion that preventing illegal immigrants from entering or working in the United States is good for the economy. According to the Cato Institute’s findings, legalizing low-skilled immigrants would expand the economy and lead to the creation of new higher-skilled jobs, resulting in “significant income gains for American workers and households,” estimated at $180 billion a year.

Illegal immigrants are a big burden on hospital emergency rooms. Unable to purchase health insurance, they do not receive preventive medical care. If they have a medical problem, they wait until it is serious enough to warrant treatment. Federal law requires emergency rooms to examine everyone who comes in with a medical complaint and to treat emergency conditions regardless of whether or not the person has health insurance or is here legally or illegally. Undocumented aliens should be free to purchase their own private insurance if they can afford it, and if they can’t, then they should be covered by Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California).

Undocumented aliens are vital to the economy of the United States, doing the jobs most Americans would not do. They are underpaid, overworked, exploited, work in substandard and often dangerous conditions, and live in constant fear of being caught by immigration authorities, jailed, and deported. Call them illegal aliens or undocumented aliens, the fact is that the lure of a better life in the once prosperous United States is hard to resist. We who are fortunate enough to live in the United States take many things for granted, such as pure drinking water, healthful and abundant food, easy transportation, a comfortable house or apartment to keep us cool in the hot summer and warm in the cold winter. Can you really blame a Latino or eastern man for wanting better living conditions for his wife and children, let alone himself? The squalor they often live in in the United States is considered by them to be a paradise as opposed to the cardboard shack, impure water, tainted food, and rampant disease of their native country.

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