The issue of illegal immigration has evidently become a major problem for the United States. The number of illegal immigrants is growing increasingly and has risen considerably over the past few years (Congress Homeland Security para. 2). At present, the idea of making immigration laws more stringent and imposing greater penalties onto illegal immigrants is being promoted actively. However, in order to address the problem, it is necessary to deal with the cause instead of fighting the symptoms and analyze the reasons that make people move to the USA illegally instead of blaming them for the economic distress and the ethnic issues that are traditionally related to the problem of illegal immigration.
As far as the unemployment rates are concerned, the increasing number of illegal immigrants admittedly affects the aforementioned field. However, when it comes to defining the factors contributing to the growth of the unemployment rates among the local population, not only the growth of the number of immigrants, but also the quality of the skills of the local candidates, must be taken into account. Indeed, it is important to realize that the success of illegal immigrants as candidates for cheap physical labor can be explained by not only the low salary that they demand but also the quality of their work compared to that of the local candidates.
It would be wrong to assume that the issue of illegal immigration should not be addressed – quite on the contrary, the rates of illegal migration must be brought down. However, for the measures used to address the situation to be fair, the reasons for people to immigrate illegally into the United States must be considered. There is no need to stress that people choose to commit a crime only when they are brought to the breaking point; therefore, such factors as the military actions carried out in the state of an immigrant’s origin, deplorable poverty rates or nationwide epidemics, which may have stricken the immigrant’s native state, should be viewed as attenuating circumstances.
In other words, it seems that viewing the concept of illegal immigration through the lens of morality and interpreting the phenomenon as the lack thereof seems wrong. Though the ideas of morality do make the stronghold of the society, they often lead to emotional and, therefore, irrational thinking, whereas, in the discussion of the issues related to immigration, reasonability is the only tool that the situation can be addressed with. It is relatively easy to blame the people, who have obviously crossed the law, without any regard for the factors that made them consider the possibility of illegal migration. However, from a humanist point of view, such an attitude towards the people, who have obviously resorted to the drastic measures, is wrong.
The issue of morality can also be hard of any use when it comes to discussing the so-called phenomenon of “ethnic chauvinism” (Hanson para. 3), as the author defines the idea of immigrants promoting their concepts of equality among them and the local residents. The issue of having more Latino voters and, more importantly, the fact that these voters can affect the course of elections significantly should not be viewed as an undesirable change of the existing system of voting; living in the United States, the Latino population has the right to voice their position and affect the current legislation. After all, it is important to realize that the United States is often called as the “nation of immigrants,” meaning that the current residents of the country are the descendants of the British colonists (Enterprise on the Water para. 3). Therefore, it is crucial that illegal immigrants should be provided at least with basic human rights in the United States; otherwise, the American nation would betray the principles that make the basis of democracy.
While illegal immigration clearly must remain a punishable crime, the laws that infringe the right of illegal immigrants must be reconsidered. In addition, illegal immigrants must be provided with their irrefutable rights, like the rest of the American population. Finally, and most importantly, the idea of considering the problem of illegal immigration through morality lens must be abandoned, since the reasons behind illegal immigration often serve as the attenuating consequences for illegal immigrants.
Works Cited
Congress Homeland Security. Waves of Immigrant Minors Present Crisis for Obama. 2014. Web.
Enterprise on the Water. n. d. Web.
Hanson, Victor Davis. “Illegal Immigration Is Immoral.” National Review 2011. Web.