Aguirre 1

Michelle Aguirre
Professor Adriane Mozzini
Sociology 001
7 August 2016
Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants
Illegal immigration has been and will continue to be one of the most argued topics. Many
disagree with the fact that illegal immigrants are allowed to stay in the United States even after
coming into the country by breaking the law and coming here illegally. Many argue that illegal
immigrants are coming to the U.S and taking citizens jobs, education, health care, and many
other resources. On the other hand others argue that illegal immigrants migrate to the United
States seeking better opportunities while contributing to our country by getting low-wage jobs
and willingness to work countless hours of labor work. Although many argue that illegal
immigrants weaken our country, if illegal immigrants receive amnesty our country will benefit
by increasing our economy, giving equal opportunities to everyone, and making them a part of
society.
The United States spends billions of dollars towards illegal immigration every year.
Billions of dollars are spent trying to put an end to illegal immigration such as hiring more law
enforcement at borders, building detention centers, and deporting the individuals back to their
homeland. By giving amnesty to illegal immigrants the country as well as taxpayers will save
billions of dollars a year. The cost of detention centers is very expensive. There are about 31,800
illegal immigrants detained, the cost per person each day is about 159 dollars, adding up to a
total of 5 million dollars per day. Many of theses illegal immigrants are detained up to six
months and when released deported to their homeland costing taxpayers millions. Although

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many argue that it would be easier to deport all illegal immigrants at once to reduce the cost of
deportation and detention centers, this is not true. It will significantly hurt the economy, based on
a News Week article by Philip E. Wolgin, he states, Based on previous analysis from the Center
for American Progress, a mass deportation strategy would cost an average of $10,070 per person,
for a total of $114 billion to remove 11.3 million people. With this amount of money a large part
would be spent into finding every single illegal immigrant and the cost to detain individuals
while waiting to be deported. The conservative American Action Forum, or AAF, has argued
that it will take 20 years to accomplish a mass deportation program, with a full cost between
$420 billion and $620 billion (Wolgin). Granting amnesty to illegal immigrants will decrease
the expensive cost of deportations and detention centers spent every year.
A majority of the illegal immigrate population consists of children who were brought to
the United States involuntary. Many of these children were brought by their parents before the
age of two and had no idea that they were breaking the law. As children, there is no way of
distinguishing the differences between illegal and citizen children in schools. Once in high
school everything changes, applying to colleges becomes difficult for undocumented students.
Illegal students do not receive the same benefits as citizens. Before the DREAMers and Deferred
Action For Childhood Arrival( DACA) many undocumented students we not allowed to continue
their education due to not being able to apply for federal aid. Very few were able to pay for
college but even then, their chances of getting a job in their desired major was very little due to
the fact that they are undocumented and workplaces do not want to hire illegal immigrants.
Journalist Eileen Martin explains in DREAMers Amid Immigration Reform that, DACA
permits DREAMers to not only escape immigration prosecution and removal but to obtain an
open Employment Authorization Document (EAD), valid for two years. Although this is a big

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accomplishment for illegal students, there are still some down falls. How will this benefit the
individual in the long run? What happens after the two years pass? Amnesty should be given to
illegal immigrants as a way to help our economy. Granting amnesty to these individuals who are
pursuing their educational and career goals could help the economy by creating better and more
professional careers. Many of these individuals could have the chance create their own
businesses creating more job opportunities for everyone, and the wage will increase based on
skill level.
Giving amnesty to illegal immigrants will help the economy in various ways. First of all,
these individuals will begin paying taxes. According to a CNN article, Legalization of more
than 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States would raise wages, increase
consumption, create jobs and generate more tax revenue. Many argue that illegal immigrants are
weakening the country and suggest for the continuation of deportations as a way to fix this
problem. Deportation would lead to a loss of $2.6 trillion in gross domestic product over 10
years, the report says, while a worker program would lead to a gain of $792 billion. Full
legalization would lead to the best economic results (CNN). Amnesty for illegal immigrants is a
win-win for both the individual and the economy. The individual will be able to obtain better
wage jobs, have more job opportunities etc. While the economy will benefit from these things by
receiving more gross.
Although the reason behind why an individual migrates to the United States differs, many
could agree that they migrate here legally or illegally for better opportunities. Some might even
refer to it as the American Dream. In American Dream, by Michael Schudson, he defines the
American Dream as, anyone, with hard work according to the rules has a reasonable prospect of
succeeding in life. With this being said, illegal immigrants should be allowed to migrate to any

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part of the world that they feel would best suit them to reach their American Dream. The United
States are famously known for being the land of the free and opportunity but to what extent is
this true? Many migrate to the United States with hope that they will reach this American Dream,
yet they are turned down time after time for being undocumented. The American Dream is more
difficult to reach for illegal immigrants due to not speaking English, not being able to obtain
good paying jobs leading to not being able to move up on economic mobility, and lacking
resources that are only available for citizens.
The American Dreams meaning differs for every individual. While it could mean
becoming successful to one person it could mean living in peace for another. Illegal immigrants
do not only migrate to the United States seeking the American Dream, many migrate to the U.S.
for better opportunities such as better education resources, health care, better wages etc. many
migrate to the United States escaping crime, drug violence, freedom of religion, freedom in
general, hoping to give their family a better life, better opportunities, and a few migrate to
reunite with their families.
Amnesty for undocumented immigrants needs to be given. These individual deserve an
opportunity to succeed in life. They need an opportunity to work for a decent pay wage. They
need to be given an opportunity to move their family upward and give them the opportunities
they did not have.
Many argue that illegal immigrants are weakening our country by taking jobs, education,
health care and many other citizen resources. Yes, illegal immigrants are allowed to receive
public education and health care for their children, but this does not compare to all the other
resources citizens benefit from such as financial aid, social security, being able vote, being able
to travel without fearing deportation, etc.

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Many undocumented immigrants are living in the shadow right know.
Unauthorized workers tend to be concentrated in the lowest-wage occupations: they try to
minimize the risk of deportation even if this means working for lower wages: and they are
especially vulnerable to outright exploitation by unscrupulous employers. Once unauthorized
workers are legalized, however, these artificial barriers to upward socioeconomic mobility.
Undocumented immigrants should not be living in fear. Amnesty for illegal immigrants
will take them out of the shadow in which they are living in right now and make them part of
society. Granting amnesty to undocumented individuals will make great changes to the country
by raising wages, creating more jobs, increase consumption, and give equal opportunities to
everyone.
From A functionalist perspective, illegal immigration is cheap labor for business. It is
also beneficial for the government because they collect taxes but will never pay these illegal
immigrants social security.

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Annotated Bibliography
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/01/07/immigration.economy/
The legalization of undocumented immigrants is beneficial for the economy for various
reasons. Legalizing illegal immigrants help the economy by increasing tax revenues,
increasing consumptions, creating more job opportunities, and increasing wages. The
legalization of undocumented immigrants will also help the many people to come out of
the shadow in which they are living in right now. Many are living in the fear of being
deported and are trying their best to stay in the shadows of citizens.
Michael, Schudson. "American Dreams." American Literary History 16.3 (2004): 566573. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Apr. 2016.
The definition for the American Dream differs for every individual. The most commonly
used definition of the American Dream is that everyone despite his or her ethnicity, race,
gender, etc. has the equal opportunity to succeed in life with hard work. This article
explains how one gives the American Dream its own meaning and its up to the
individual how much work and effort they will put into reaching their American Dream.
MARTIN, EILEEN. "DREAMers amid immigration reform." Buffalo Law Journal 29 Oct.
2012: 3. Regional Business News. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.
DREAMers refers to illegal immigrants who come to the U.S as children, have not been
in trouble, are in school or the military. Although the DREAMers act did not pass, a
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) did. DACA allows immigrant students to
be in the U.S and obtain an employment-authorized document valid for two years.
Although they are secure for those two-year, the individuals must renew and
show evidence every two years to continue being allowed in the country.
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?
q=cache:GLGwSoNYxTYJ:https://immigrationforum.org/blog/themathofimmigr
ationdetention/+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

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Detention centers are very expensive. Billions of dollars are being spent
every year to detain illegal immigrants while they await deportation. About 5
millions of dollars are being spent everyday in detention centers. Be
granting amnesty to illegal immigrants taxpayers as well as the government
will safe millions of dollars