Damaris Garcia

English 112 21CD

Pallay
P2

A recurring issue in politics is the problem of illegal immigration and boarder

control. Over the last couple of years the numbers of illegal immigrants have grown

resulting in things like over populated areas and an increase in crime. According to the

Department of Homeland Security’s population estimates article, written in February

2009, it was recorded that there were 11.6 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. in

January 2007(Hoefer, Rytina and, Baker 2). In recent years many political figures have

tried to come up with bills that will help reduce the number of illegal immigrants by

making the process of becoming a United States citizen a less tedious and practical. If a

bill were to be passed, to help the situation, do you think that the problems with illegal

immigration would be solved?

In the year 2005, Senators John McCain and Ted Kennedy, created a bill called

the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act (S.1033). This bill incorporates plans

for legalizing immigrants, guest worker programs and, new plans for securing the boarder

("Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act"). This bill was never voted on in the

senate but compromises have been made. The following year, several senators including

Senator Arlen Specter, PA, created the Comprehensive Immigration Act of 2006. Like the

first, this bill intended to increase boarder security and have a guest worker program as

well, but with a “blue card visa program (“Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of

2006”). The final compromise of the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act is the,

Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007. This bill focused on providing a

responsible path to citizenship for the current approximation of 12 million undocumented

immigrants in the United States ("Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007").

Both compromises failed to pass in the senate because of the debate from both

sides. Some negative responses like this one from Senator, Jeff Sessions state the opinion

that passing a bill like this would, “… result in 8.7 million more people in the next 20

years here illegally” (Bash). That creates the problem of over populated cites such as ones

in Texas. On top of the numbers of people increasing, the funding for bills such as those

is incredibly pricey. According to the F.A.I.R (Federal for American Immigration

Reform), an annual net cost for illegal immigrants (after subtracting their tax payments)

to the American taxpayer is approximately $45 billion (“Immigration Issues”). Other

reasons would be the effect on the economy and illegal immigrants working for cheap

and not paying any taxes.

Some political figures support the reforms and want to do something about the

immigration and boarder security problems. The present, Secretary of State, Hilary

Rodham Clinton and President of the United States, Barack Obama, support a path to

citizenship, lowering legal fees on immigrants, and having more boarder security

(Immigration: Candidates View's). Along with public figures supporting reforms, polls

have been taken to see the public’s stand on the matter of Immigration. On April 10-12th

CNN had taken a Poll and 77% of Americans were in favor of “creating a program that

would allow illegal immigrants that are already living in the U.S. to stay and apply for

citizenship if they had a job and paid taxes”. Americans seemed to support the decision

on allowing undocumented immigrants to become citizens, but the government seems to

not want to spend the time or money.

 Works Cited

Bash, Dana, and Koppel, Andrea. "Senate immigration bill suffers crushing defeat." CNN
Web.29 04 2009.
<http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/06/28/immigration.congress/index.html>.

"Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006." Wikipedia. 2006. Web.5 May 2009.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_Immigration_Reform_Act_of_200
6>.

"Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007." Wikipedia. 2007. Web.5 May 2009.
<htt://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_Immigration_Reform_Act_of_2007
>.

Hoefer, Rytina and, Baker, Michael, Nancy, Bryan C.. United States. U.S. Department of
Homeland Security. Population Estimates. United States: DHS Office of
Immigration Statistics, 2009. Print.

"Immigration: Candidates View's." On the Issues (2008) Web.5 May 2009.

<http://www.ontheissues.org/Immigration.htm#Barack_Obama>.

"Immigration Issues." Federal for American Immigration Reform. 03 2005. Federal for
American Immigration Reform. 5 May 2009
<http://www.fairus.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=1601&news_iv_ctrl=1
007>.

"Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act." Wikipedia. 2005. Web.5 May 2009.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_America_and_Orderly_Immigration_Act_(
S._1033)>