The Pros And Cons Of Immigration Reform

775 Words2 Pages

Immigration reform has been one of the “hot” topics that have been consistently at the forefront of many American discussions. At this time, there are more illegal immigrants in our country than legal immigrants. This is a major controversy in the realm of other social policies. Illegal immigration, or undocumented immigrants, refers to foreign people entering the United States without government permission or violating the immigration law. This is typically done by sneaking into the country or staying beyond the allotted time frame. There seems to be no general agreement on how the government should alleviate undocumented people entering our country, or how change could be introduced to improve the current immigration condition. The two sides of the controversy is whether to open immigration and/or expand the policies to accommodate those wishing to migrate to our country or if policies need to be tightened to reduce or eliminate any folks coming into the United States of America. One thing that can be agreed on is the proposals from both sides wanting to increase legal immigration while decrease illegal immigration. Most feel that this will alleviate the violence for our border patrols and law enforcement as well as the dehumanization and disruption of families that occurs to those illegal immigrants trying to enter this country. According to Garcia (2013), “In 2000 there were an estimated 8.4 million undocumented persons residing in the United States. This population peaked in 2007 at 12 million, but decreased and remains stable at 11.1 million in 2011.” This is a situation that is increasing significantly and is not going away. Typically foreigners want to come to the US to get better jobs and to escape poverty environments. ... ... middle of paper ... ... great need to put a new policy into effect, which addressed the changing immigration issues of family, visas, workforce, citizenship and other legal matters. In June 2013, the U.S. Senate approved a policy called S.744 which is called “The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013”. This reform bill will now be sent to the U.S. House of Representatives. The majority of the Republican Party is expected to oppose this bill. This reform includes, as Traurig and Reiff (2013) stated, “A path to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants, an innovative temporary worker program, increased visa numbers for skilled foreign workers, and a nationwide employment eligibility verification system”. One thing is for certain; we can all agree that immigration reform is a must. It is apparent that his bill is a step in the right direction.

Open Document