It’s not secret that American’s view of immigrants have steadily soured in the past few

years. Instead of being portrayed as the hardworking, contributing Americans that they are, the
tide of xenophobia has branded immigration with crime, drugs, and terrorism. So it is germane to
reconsider immigration policy, and why the US should be more friendly towards immigrants. In
exploring the truth of this, ​we must look first at the contributions of immigration​;​ then, clear up
some common misconceptions about immigrants​; then finally, ​discuss why anti-immigration
policies are based on mistruths and can hurt the economy.

Immigrants, legal and illegal, have had a profound influence in society. For example,
according to a CNBC poll, 64% of Americans own an Apple product in 2017.1 Many Americans
know who the founder of Apple is - Steve Jobs, of course - but few realize that he was actually
born to a Syrian refugee.2 The most famous Silicon Valley Innovator, the brain behind Pixar, the
iPhone, and the Macbook, is the son of a Abdulfattah Jandali, a conservative Muslim refugee
from Syria. Jobs was only later adopted by an American family in California. This isn’t an
isolated case - according to the Atlantic, about 40% of Fortune 500 Companies were either
started by immigrants or the children of immigrants. This list includes, AT&T, IBM, Coca-Cola,
Microsoft, McDonald’s, Goldman Sachs, eBay, Kohls, Comcast, Pfizer, and Yahoo!.3

Furthermore, immigrants contribute to a massive part of the nation’s economy and have
reached the apex of culture and education in America. Americans have won 78 Nobel Prizes in
the fields of Chemistry, Medicine and Physics since 2002; 31 of those, or 40%, were won by
immigrants.4 Thus, one can see that this paints a completely different

Immigrants are often the scapegoats for crime, drugs, and the loss of jobs, and this image
of immigration is not only hurting immigrants, but also Americans. Contrary to popular belief,

1
​Liesman, S. (2017). ​America loves its Apple. Poll finds that the average household owns more than
two Apple products​. ​CNBC​. Retrieved 22 January 2018, from
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/09/the-average-american-household-owns-more-than-two-apple-pro
ducts.html
2
​Steve Jobs' biological father was Syrian migrant, some note​. (2018). ​USA TODAY​. Retrieved 22
January 2018, from
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/baig/2015/11/16/steve-jobs-biological-father-syrian-
migrant-some-note/75899450/
3
​Phippen, J. (2017). ​The CEOs Revolting Against Trump's Travel Ban​. ​The Atlantic​. Retrieved 22
January 2018, from
https://www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2017/01/companies-against-trumps-ban/515028/
4
​Immigrants and Nobel Prizes​. (2018). ​Nfap.com​. Retrieved 22 January 2018, from
http://nfap.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Immigrants-and-Nobel-Prizes.NFAP-Policy-Brief.Octob
er-2016.pdf
illegal immigration actually raises wages and increase jobs for native-born Americans.5 This is
because when illegal immigrants take manual and agricultural jobs, it increases the capacity of
American industries in those sectors, and more profits are produced. This creates a wage increase
for other workers as well, including native-born workers. Furthermore, ​according to the Center
for American Progress, comprehensive immigration reform can actually build 900,000 jobs in
the US and increase our nation’s GDP from around 1.3%.

A common misconception is that jobs in the US are becoming scarce for native citizens
due to competition with immigrants. This could not be more wrong - there will be more jobs in
the next decade and not enough native labor to supply it. As the native population of the US ages
and the large generation of Baby Boomers retire, the US will need more foreign-born workers to
fill the 10 million jobs in growing sectors by 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.6
These sectors include cooks, construction laborers, janitors and other cleaners, software
developers, computer systems analysts, and maids and housekeeping cleaners; these sectors
already have large shares of immigrants than the national average. Each of these jobs is expected
to add more than 100,000 jobs by 2024​7​.Demand will exceed supply without the influx of
immigrants upholding those careers.

Another misconception is that immigrants bring gangs, drugs, crime, and terrorism to the
US. Donald Trump has heavily lambasted allowing Syrian refugees and Latin American
immigrants into the US, going so far as to put a “travel ban” on six muslim majority countries.7
This stems from xenophobia that brands the 1.3 Billion muslims as terrorists; however, this fear
is not based on any rationality. The average American is more likely to be killed by gun violence
than be killed by a radical Islamic terrorist.8 Crime rates among immigrants are generally are
lower than crime rates among native residents. For example, according to the American
Immigration Council, incarceration rates of young, less educated Mexican, Salvadoran and
Guatemalan men, which comprise the majority of illegal immigrants are at 2.8% and 1.7%. This
is three times less than incarceration rates of native-born young men without a high-school
diploma at 10.7%. Yet, the unbacked fear has resulted in deporting even nonviolent illegal
immigrants - breaking apart families and ruining lives.

5
Project, M. (2018). What New Immigrants Could Mean for American Wages. Brookings. Retrieved 22
January 2018, from
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/jobs/2013/08/02/what-new-immigrants-could-mean-for-american-wages/
6
Hogan, B. (2015). Occupational employment projections to 2024 : Monthly Labor Review: U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics. Bls.gov. Retrieved 23 January 2018, from
https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2015/article/occupational-employment-projections-to-2024.htm
7
​ rump border policy: Who's affected?​. (2018). ​BBC News​. Retrieved 23 January 2018, from
T
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38781302
8
​Julia Jones and Eve Bower, C. (2018). ​American deaths in terrorism vs. gun violence in one graph​.
CNN​. Retrieved 23 January 2018, from
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/02/us/oregon-shooting-terrorism-gun-violence/index.html
 Many Native-born Americans take their citizenship status for granted. The fact of the
matter is, becoming an immigrant is costly, risky, difficult and tedious.
9

Our current President has risen to victory based on his platform of keeping immigrants
out and deporting those already here, as we have seen with his proposal to build a $21.6 Billion
border wall using taxpayer dollars and his repeal of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.10 As
we have already discussed, immigrants are an important contribution to American society.
Preventing immigration from certain areas is xenophobic. Deporting immigrants results in
separated families and ruined lives. The DREAM Act, an Obama-era program similar to DACA
that, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, would reduce the National Debt
by $2.2 Billion over a decade through increased tax revenues. 11 The plain fact ignored by many
politicians is there - immigrants, and yes, even illegal immigrants, are good for the economy -
and removing them would be devastating to both the lives of natives and immigrants alike. ​If
illegal immigrants were completely removed from the US, it would cause a massive detriment to
the economy, reducing the GDP at $4.7 trillion over 10 years.12

Thus, by “putting America First”, Trump is actually hurting our country.

9
​RIBITZKY, R. (2018). ​Path to U.S. Citizenship Costly, Tedious​. ​ABC News​. Retrieved 23 January
2018, from http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=87996&page=1
10
​Exclusive - Trump border 'wall' to cost $21.6 billion, take 3.5 years ​. (2018). ​U.S.​. Retrieved 22
January 2018, from
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-immigration-wall-exclusive/exclusive-trump-border-wall
-to-cost-21-6-billion-take-3-5-years-to-build-internal-report-idUSKBN15O2ZN
11
​S. 1615, Dream Act of 2017​. (2017). ​Congressional Budget Office​. Retrieved 22 January 2018,
from https://www.cbo.gov/publication/53410
12
Immigrant Workers Are Important to Filling Growing Occupations - Center for American Progress.
(2017). Center for American Progress. Retrieved 22 January 2018, from
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/news/2017/05/11/431974/immigrant-workers-impor
tant-filling-growing-occupations/