What Problems Are Caused by Illegal Immigrants?

Problems Caused by Illegal Immigration

The New York Times reports that for the first time in U.S. history, the number of illegal immigrants is larger than the number of legal immigrants. In 2010 there were 11.2 million illegal immigrants living in the United States.

Different people will give you different opinions about what they think constitute problems caused by illegal immigrants. However, some issues that a number of people agree on are:

Security and terrorism
Lack of jobs for citizens
Strain on the economy
Cultural tensions
Overpopulation

Security and Terrorism

People are very concerned about security in the U.S. in light of terrorist attacks in the U.S. and throughout the world. One of the major fears is that if illegal immigration continues to occur in massive numbers, more people who want to attack the country are going to be able to get in. People are worried about terrorists immigrating here without the government knowing about it.

Security becomes an issue at the borders as well. Not only is the government concerned about protecting the borders, but sometimes very dangerous situations can arise when people are attempting to illegally immigrate into a country. Most people do not want violence occurring in their country, so the border issues are of concern as well.

Jobs and the Economy

One side of the debate says that illegal immigrants take jobs to which people who live here legally should be entitled, while the other side of the debate says that no one wants those jobs anyway; therefore, the illegal immigrants are doing us a "favor" by taking them. As unemployment increases, the debate becomes more heated.

When there are more people living in a country, the government needs to spend more money into services such as education and processes such as transportation to keep the economy functioning. People become angry because this money is indirectly going to support the needs of illegal immigrants, when they feel that it should be going to them instead. Generally, as far as money and economics are concerned, illegal immigration causes a vast number of issues.

Cultural Tensions

As far back as we can go in history, we see that people who are culturally or racially different tend to have problems with one another. Some people view cultural diversity as being a "problem." Some individuals are simply prejudiced towards anyone who is not like them.

Others tend to say that they are concerned about the identity of the United States being changed by a lot of illegal immigrants living here, although technically everyone comes from a family of immigrants at some point in their history. Even the Native Americans crossed over a land bridge far back in time. Legal residents feel that illegal immigrants should have to conform to the identity of their new country, but that is not really what happens.

Overpopulation

We hear about overpopulation in so many areas of the world. Some people feel that the resources available in the United States - whether it be drinkable water, medicine, housing etc. - should be only for those who are legally living here. They do not feel as though they have to share with illegal immigrants.

The legal residents see overpopulation as a problem, and they wanted to make sure that they get first - if not all - choice of the goods that the United States has to provide. Whether or not people feel like sharing, overpopulation is an issue.

Whether you feel strongly about illegal immigration or not, you can see that it does cause disagreements between those who hold different levels of acceptance about immigration in general.