“Once I thought to write a history of the immigrants in America. Then I discovered that the immigrants were American history.” ~Oscar Handlin

The United States is a country that takes pride in its freedom and opportunities. Since its beginnings, people across the world have come for exactly these reasons. Many citizens have or are descended from a family that has entered this country as an immigrant. Arguably, everyone in the United States arrived as an immigrant from another country. However, many people say that illegal immigrants are taking away from the United States and that they don’t have a right to be here. Immigrants that are already in the country illegally should be allowed to stay because of the economic benefits and lower crime rates they bring, and the harm that deportation causes their families.

Illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay in the US because immigrants actually help our country’s economy. “... Although immigrants increase the supply of labor, they also spend their wages on homes, food, TVs and other goods and services and expand domestic economic demand. This increased demand, in turn, generates more jobs to build those homes, make and sell food, and transport TVs.” (The Effect) While it is true that immigrants in America work jobs and get paid by their companies, they are not taking that money from America. The money that they earn goes right back into the economic system and pays for other things that it would if anyone else earned that money. The demand that is created when immigrants spend more money to get food and other goods creates more jobs because the companies manufacturing these goods need other people to work for them. Overall, immigrants are not detracting from the economy because they aren’t removing any money from the cycle, and they are indirectly creating jobs as well as taking them. “A 2011 survey of the top fifty venture capital funded companies found that half had at least one immigrant founder and three quarters had immigrants in top management or research positions.” (The Effect) Immigrants not only work for American companies and therefore balance out job demand, but they also represent a large group of people who work jobs that are necessary for our economy’s success. They are not taking from native borns, they are actually earning a fair share of intellectual achievements that aids the US as a whole, making advancements in research and STEM, and working commanding roles in many companies. Also, since skilled workers are linked closely to GDP growth, the more skilled workers there are in America, the better the economy will do as a whole. “... As baby boomers have begun moving into retirement in advanced economies around the world, immigration is helping to keep America comparatively young and reducing the burden of financing retirement benefits for a growing elderly population. While natives bear some upfront costs for the provision of public services to immigrants and their families, the evidence suggests a net positive return on the investment over the long term.” (The Effect) As a large portion of the US population was born before 1965, many citizens are moving into retirement and no longer contributing much to economic growth, immigrants are helping the US to uphold the younger working population. While spending money on public services for struggling immigrants may detract slightly from the economy at first, overall it will bring more money and workers for the country. Immigration actually improves the United States’ economy, therefore immigrants should be allowed to stay in the country so that their positive impact will continue.

Another reason that immigrants should be allowed to stay is that they are very law-abiding compared to natives. “... There were 1,797 criminal convictions of natives for every 100,000 natives [and] 899 criminal convictions of illegal immigrants for every 100,000 illegal immigrants.” (Nowrasteh) Many believe that immigrants cause a lot of crime in the US and that is a reason that they should not be allowed into the country illegally, this is not necessarily true. Yes, both legal and illegal immigrants commit crimes, but put to scale with crimes that natives also commit, immigrants both legal and illegal commit much fewer crimes than those born in the US. “Illegal immigrants made up about 6.4 percent of the Texas population in 2015 but only accounted for 5.9 percent of all homicide convictions. Legal immigrants made up 10.6 percent of the Texas population but accounted for only 3.8 percent of homicide convictions. Native-born Americans made up 83 percent of the Texas population but accounted for 90.3 percent of all homicide convictions.” (Nowrasteh) More specifically, of homicides, immigrants both legal and illegal both committed less than proportional to their population size in the area. This means that native borns committed more homicides per their population size than immigrants. According to these statistics, if immigrants made up an equal share of the population, natives would account for many more homicides than illegal immigrants as well as almost three times as many as legal immigrants. “There were 28.6 sex crime convictions of illegal immigrants per 100,000 in 2015, about 7.9 percent fewer than for native-born Americans in the same year... There were many fewer sex crime convictions against immigrants, including illegal immigrants than against native-born Americans in Texas in 2015.” (Nowrasteh) For sexual assault, the same thing was true. The rate of sexual assaults per 100,000 in the native population was higher than those of both the legal and illegal immigrant populations, so it is unfair to assume that immigrants aren’t lawful and use that as reasoning against letting them enter the country legally because natives are more often at fault for these crimes. Overall, while immigrants are often blamed for many crimes, they are proportionately committing fewer crimes than natives.

One last reason that these immigrants should be allowed to stay in the US is that deporting immigrants is ethically and morally wrong. “A 2013 report found that 150,000 children had been separated from one or both parents as a result of US immigration policies. The same report found that children who experience the loss of a parent also suffer from poverty, reduced access to food and health care, and limited educational opportunities.  A 2011 study estimated that at least 5,100 children were living in foster care whose parents had been either detained or deported, with 15,000 more in similar circumstances in the next five years.” (Impact) When illegal immigrants are deported, it has great impacts on not only the individual but their family that is still living in the country. Within the last ten years, the number of children that have had to grow up without at least one parent has risen. These such children statistically will experience struggles later on in life, especially surrounding their mental and physical health. Also, many children have been put into foster care, and that alone can have very negative effects on the development of a child. “For migrant children who may have experienced trauma without a stable caregiver, the consequences are not temporary. These children are at risk for cognitive delays and impairments in executive function and self-regulation skills, for chronic health issues such as anxiety, depression, and cardiovascular problems, and for learning difficulties, poorer reading skills, and lower rates of high school graduation.” (Migration) Many immigrant families with children are separated at some point because of deportation. Because of an unpredictable childhood, these children will have a higher chance of health issues that may impact them for the rest of their life, affecting things like education, job success, health, and happiness, not to mention the pain of not having a family member, or any, in their life. “In a study of 190 children in 85 immigrant families across six US cities or towns spanning from the west coast to the south, Chaudhary and colleagues (2010) concluded that children faced serious challenges due to deportation of a parent, including economic hardship, housing instability, food insecurity, and separation from parents. Children experienced behavioral changes in eating and sleeping habits, and emotional changes such as increased crying, anxiety, anger, aggression, withdrawal, and a heightened sense of fear. These outcomes were still present six months later… with children feeling abandoned, isolated, fearful, traumatized, and depressed (Capps, Castañeda, Chaudry, & Santos, 2007). In fact, in a comprehensive review of the literature that ranged from 2009-2013, Capps and colleagues (2015) discerned that children experienced psychological trauma, material hardship, residential instability, academic withdrawal, and family dissolution after the deportation of a family member. Children who were present at the moment a parent was detained tended to have greater emotional, cognitive, and behavioral effects (Chaudhary et al., 2010). Furthermore, after a deportation, older children often needed to take on jobs to help support the family, which impacted school performance, persistence, and retention.” (The Effects) Again, children whose families have been separated experience trauma that lasts throughout a large portion of their childhood. This trauma can bring on developmental issues that will have a continuing impact on their lives, at home, at school, and even in a working environment. In some cases, children must support their families, making their childhood even more difficult and filled with responsibility. The threat of deportation and our methods of forcing illegal immigrants out of the country can be traumatic and scarring, especially for children, and these events can have lasting effects on families of those deported. These negative effects can be quite deep.

Many people believe that immigrants are taking away from our country, but that is not true. For example, many people say that immigrants are taking jobs away from natives. That is false, however, because as described earlier, immigrants living in the country earn money from their jobs, but that money is used to buy goods or services, and that creates more job demand. While immigrants are filling up jobs, the number of jobs is not actually dropping because the end up creating jobs with the demand that they cause. Another example, many people say that immigrants are responsible for a lot of crime in our country, and therefore should not be allowed to stay. That is also false because when the total populations of immigrants versus natives are compared alongside the crime count, the ratio for crimes committed in a time period per the population is much greater for natives than it is for immigrants, legal and illegal. To say that illegal immigrants are more often criminals is not only insulting, but it is also completely incorrect. Another common opinion is that immigrants are taking money out of the economic system, money that is never given back, and people already living in the country will be indirectly harmed by that. While it is true that immigrants are getting paid by American companies and therefore by money that was already in the US, it is not true that that money is removed from the US economy. The money that is used to pay immigrant workers is later on used to buy goods and services for the immigrants, letting that money flow right back into the system. While some people argue that immigration is having a negative impact on the country, that is not true. Immigrants have more positive effects on the United States than negative ones but are often targeted because of this misconception.

Immigrants make a great overall benefit to the United States economy. Not only do they balance out the aging population and create more job demand for other citizens, they often contribute to large companies, earn degrees, and aid our country in research and growth. Immigrants also are even more lawful, on average, than citizens. They are responsible for fewer crimes per person, and in total, even though they are blamed in the media for many such things. When Immigrants are deported, it can cause deep pain due to children not having one or either of their parents, being put into a corrupt foster system and not treated properly. This pain can lead to trauma that can last a lifetime, affecting schoolwork, mental health, and even physical health.

Works Cited

"The Effect of Immigration on the United States' Economy." Budget Model, Penn Wharton U of Pennsylvania, 27 June 2016. Accessed 15 Jan. 2019.

"The Effects of Deportation on Families and Communities." Community Psychology, Society for Community Research and Action. Accessed 15 Jan. 2019.

"Impact on Families of Mass Deportation." Immigrant Defense Program. Accessed 15 Jan. 2019.

"Migration, Separation, and Trauma." Usable Knowledge, Harvard Graduate School of Education, 19 July 2018. Accessed 15 Jan. 2019.

Nowrasteh, Alex. "Criminal Immigrants in Texas: Illegal Immigrant Conviction and Arrest Rates for Homicide, Sex Crimes, Larceny, and Other Crimes." CATO Institute, 26 Feb. 2018 Accessed 15 Jan. 2019.