We Are All Illegal Aliens

The United States is a nation of immigrants. Immigration to the United States has been an ongoing movement since the early 17th century. In 1607, immigrants from England migrated to North America and settled in Jamestown Virginia. American history is made up almost entirely of issues concerning immigrants and our relationship with other countries. Native born Americans began showing resentment towards newcomers as early as the 1800’s. These new immigrants were considered less skilled and less literate than the earlier settlers. From this perspective, it would appear that nothing has changed concerning foreigners. Only now, present day immigrants have the relatively new title of illegal aliens. In this essay, I will discuss the origins of the term “illegal alien,” where the majority of illegal aliens come from, and why Americans are so concerned about immigration.
The term “illegal alien” could have only been used after congress passed the first law restricting immigration. In 1882, congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. This prohibited workers from China to immigrate to the U.S. Since 1887, Nativist groups urged congress to provide more immigration restrictions. An illegal alien is a non-citizen who “enters the United States without having been admitted after inspection or without presenting himself for inspection.” (Warren 5). An illegal alien may have also legally entered the United States but subsequently violated a condition of his or her visa. One example of this would be a tourist who decides to stay after his or her visa expires. The majority of illegal aliens arrive in this country as legal non-residence visitors.
In 1996, the Immigration and Naturalization Services of the United States released the statistics of illegal immigrants in the U. S. It was estimated that about 5.0 million illegal aliens lived in the U.S. The total number has been growing approximately 275,000 each year. An estimated 2.7 million illegal aliens came from Mexico. This was the largest group of illegal immigrants. The next largest country of origin was El Salvador with 335,000 followed by Guatemala with 165,000. Naturally, our government can only estimate the statistics of illegal aliens. “California is the leading state of residence, with 2.0 million, or 40 percent of the undocumented population. The 7 states with the largest estimated numbers of undocumented immigrants--California (2.0 million), Texas (700,000), New York (540,000), Florida (350,000), Illinois (290,000),
New Jersey (135,000) and Arizona (115,000)--accounted for 83 percent of the total population in October 1996.” (Warren 1).
We all know that immigration is not a new phenomenon. So why does this topic remain as one of the most controversial issues plaguing American consciousness? One reason for this debate is our economy. An enormous amount of American workers blame our failing economy on the influx of illegal aliens working in the United States. These same Americans believe that the jobless rate is in direct correlation with illegal alien employment. But there is no substantial evidence to support these theories. Unlike unemployed legal citizens, unemployed illegal aliens do not receive financial support. Most federal, state, and local agencies are only available to help legal citizens. Healthcare and education are the exceptions. But the overall benefits of a cheap labor force outweigh the cost of healthcare and education. One needs only to examine American farming for proof of this fact.
Farming in the United States is on the verge of becoming a not-for-profit organization. In order to compete with fruits and vegetables that are exported from other countries, farmers are forced to keep prices low. In many instances, farmers are forced into foreclosure because of their outstanding financial obligations. For the farmers who are able to remain in business, many rely on the cheap labor force of migrant workers. If farmers were forced to hire only American workers, many more farmers would be bankrupt. This is due primarily because of the labor laws in effect for all legal citizens in the U.S. It is infeasible to offer minimum wage, health insurance, overtime pay, and other benefits to migrant workers. Farmers would be unable to pay for their property taxes, maintenance, and supplies of their farms. Farms would simply go out of business. Although a migrant farmer is receiving much less than the average working American, his or her salary is many times greater than what they would be receiving in their homeland. In many cases these immigrant farmers send a large percentage of their income to family members who are living back at home.
In conclusion, Americans need to examine why they believe illegal aliens are responsible for the problems in the U.S. By researching the facts, they would uncover that the stigmatism of modern day illegal aliens, is the same as the resentments that their immigrant ancestors faced. In almost every case, immigrants had to face not only discrimination but also ethnic, religious, language, and cultural barriers. It is selfish of us to say that someone should not be given the same opportunity simply because we were here first. If we truly believe this, then all of this land belongs to the Native Americans and we are all illegal aliens. For this, I am reminded of the saying, “Do onto others as you would have them do unto you.”



Bibliography
Griswold Del Castillo, Richard. Cesar Chaves. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995.
Hing, Bill Ong. To Be an American. New York: New York University Press, 1997.
Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Standard 2001, Microsoft Corp., 1993-2003
Warren, Robert. Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States, by Country of Origin and State of Residence: October 1992.Washington, DC: Unpublished Paper, U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1994. p. 1-6.