Illegal Immigration: A Major Problem in the United States

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Illegal immigration is a major problem in the United States, as it causes economic problems and negatively affects homeland security. Illegal immigration causes population increase, which in turn, results in a decrease in job opportunities, increased pressure on the few available resources, and more cases of criminal activity in the country. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) needs to push for stringent policies and measures to enhance border security and prevent illegal immigration into the country.
Illegal immigration into the United States leads to an unchecked and unplanned for increase in the country’s population. Population increase is not necessarily a problem, but it becomes an issue when too many people rely on the country’s limited resources such as food, education facilities, and health care, which are meant to help poor citizens who cannot manage to pay for them. The U.S. citizens end up paying for the resources, which are availed to underprivileged individuals, through taxes (Anderson, 2010). When the population increases as a result of illegal immigration, the same citizens are forced to pay more taxes to obtain more resources to sustain unemployed illegal immigrants. With the increased taxes and limited resources available, unemployed citizens are likely to get involved in criminal acts, which significantly affect the country’s homeland security (Hanson, 2007).
Illegal immigration also leads to the reduction in job opportunities for American citizens. When the illegal immigrants come into the country, they need a means of survival. As a result, they compete with American citizens for the available job opportunities. Some illegal immigrants are relatively more qualified than American citizens; as a result, they are given first priority at the various companies in the country (Anderson, 2010). Similarly, some companies employ illegal immigrant workers to avoid following the legitimate employment procedure, which is longer and more expensive for the employer. When such things happen, the less qualified citizens remain unemployed. With increased cases of unemployment, some jobless citizens resort to criminal activities to make a living (Hanson, 2007).
Illegal immigration is also to blame for the unfairness of the United States criminal justice system. When an illegal immigrant commits a crime in the country, it takes relatively longer for them to be prosecuted and sentenced than cases involving ordinary citizens. In many occasions, the prosecutor is forced to search for accurate details concerning the illegal immigrant suspect (LeMay, 2007). The process of searching the details sometimes takes too long, delaying justice or causing congestion in the criminal justice system.

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