Immigration: Analysis post

Not a day goes by that we as a nation do not see or hear an immigrant or the effects that immigrants have had on our nation. Our nation was built upon the ideals and hopes of immigrants. Whether it be the African slaves of pre-Civil War era or the Catholic Irish of the 1900s we are all in some way immigrants or related to immigrants. Today, 25 million immigrants, illegal and legal, are spread about our nation. (http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2000071400&type=hitlist&num=4#NOTE[1]) We can't escape our heritage or our past, so why is it that we are trying to reject or deport those who wish to create a better life for themselves? Both presidential candidates are taking sides to this issue, but as of late it seems this issue has taken a back seat to other issues. So what are the biggest problems of this issue? And what are the candidates doing to convince America that their plan is best for immigrants as a whole?

Today there are over 20 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S. and every year over half a million more come to the U.S. (http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/10/02/20081002immig-population1002-ON.html) ( http://blogs.chron.com/immigration/archives/2008/01/post_69.html) These immigrants are leaving their homes in an attempt to either escape a warring country, escape for other reason, or to better their lives in some way. When they come to America they are presented with long applications, many fees, and many years of waiting in order to become citizens. Would you want to do this all for citizenship? The resounding answer would be a big, fat "NO". This is what many incoming immigrants are saying. Another problem is that all of these illegal immigrants are taking skilled jobs away from Americans. The latest estimates says that over 10 million skilled jobs have been taken away from Americans. (http://www.immigrationcounters.com/index.html) Along with this failing system, those who try to deport illegal aliens are becoming more and more ineffective. In 2006, only 3600 arrests were made against illegal aliens. To other illegal immigrants this is encouraging. They see that this nation is not doing anything to stop them from crossing illegally so they just waltz right across the border by the thousands. To this Obama has said, “The time to fix our broken immigration system is now… We need stronger enforcement on the border and at the workplace… But for reform to work, we also must respond to what pulls people to America… Where we can reunite families, we should. Where we can bring in more foreign-born workers with the skills our economy needs, we should”. (http://www.barackobama.com/issues/immigration/)

The policies of both Obama and McCain are very much a like in many ways with McCain being more moderate in his stance than a normal republican would. Their views can be succinct to say that there needs to be more border control, more crackdown on employers who use immigrants, and an easy process to become legal citizens in the U.S. (http://pewforum.org/religion08/compare.php?Issue=Immigration)

Before becoming the presidential nominee for the Republican party Senator McCain was very vocal about his stance on immigrants and immigration reform. He felt that all immigrants should be given the ability to become citizens in this free nation. But the G.O.P. would not be denied what it wanted. Thereafter, McCain start to conform the Republican view, but still kept some of his more moderate views of immigration. (http://mediamatters.org/items/200804300006) In both 2006 and 2007, he co-sponsored a bill that would strengthen the border control along the U.S.-Mexican border and allow immigrants to become citizens for readily. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_John_McCain#Immigration)
McCain also thinks that a major problem is employers who use immigrants for cheaper labor. A crackdown on employers would not only provide more jobs for Americans it would also bring down the incentive for others to come to the U.S. illegally. (http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/68db8157-d301-4e22-baf7-a70dd8416efa.htm)
For those immigrants who are already in the U.S. illegally, John McCain wants to provide a mixed amnesty for them. Amnesty in its essence is a full pardon which John McCain opposes. McCain's amnesty would allow immigrants to remain in the U.S. but they would have to still apply citizenship and they would have to pay a heavy back tax for being in the country illegally no matter how long the stay was. (http://mediamatters.org/items/200804300006)

Obama's views are very much the same as McCain's. Obama supports a stronger border control, but he also wants to make the hire more workers to work the border. In 2006, an act was passed that would build 370 miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border inhibiting people from just walking into the country. (http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2008091900&type=hitlist&num=8) Obama was one of the people that supported and voted for this act to be passed. (http://glassbooth.org/explore/index/barack-obama/11/immigration/10/) So, Obama wants those trying to get into the country to follow the proper processes of becoming a citizen or stay out all together. With those that are already in the country, Obama wants them to do several things. These things include: "pay fines, learn English, and “move to the back of the line” in order to become US citizens". (http://www.usimmigrationsupport.org/obama_immigration.html)

Now that each candidates' views have been explain do the people of this nation believe that they will follow through with it? According to http://grades.betterimmigration.com/testgrades.php3?District=IL&VIPID=1162 and http://grades.betterimmigration.com/testgrades.php3?District=AZ&VIPID=33 neither one of the candidates look like they have done anything to help immigrants except to spit out empty words. This makes it look like each one is just trying to gain extra votes for those whole will be gullible enough to believe them. Add to this the current economic crisis and most believe that the issue of immigration has completely left the realm of concern. Barak Obama has no had enough experience to do anything about immigration, and John McCain is so on the fence about the issue that neither look like they can do anything substantial for immigrants.

McCain moreso than Obama seems to have gotten a lot of heat on his stance about immigration. I guess this comes from his indecision and his view evolving over the past several months. (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/TheNote/story?id=4051702&page=1) I guess it also comes from the fact that he was the senator from a border state, Arizona, and should be more knowledgable about the issue. (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18549116)

So why is it so beneficial for the immigration policies to be reformed? The reason that is most obvious is that all illegal immigrants could become legal and being legal would mean they would have to pay more taxes to the government. Immigrants already pay taxes but they only pay a fraction of what normal Americans pay. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/04/AR2006060400965.html) Another benefit that might not be as advocated would be that drugs would not so easily penetrate the borders with these new plans.
Another benefit would be that all of these illegal immigrants could have access to health care and Social Security. (http://www.nilc.org/immlawpolicy/CIR/cir014.htm) More citizens would also help in increasing the funding of Social Security. As more baby boomers are retiring, our Social Security is dwindling. When Social Security came out it took a score of men to fund one retired citizen. If society keeps growing as it is, 2 working people will have to supply for a retiree. (http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_donna_po_070427_everyone_will_benefi.htm)

I have said all of this to say that immigration reform could help those who are illegal become legal. Legal immigrants could then benefit and help along such amenities as Social Security and health care. John McCain and Barak Obama have comprehensive plan on how to accomplish this but both have flaws in either their motivation or execution of their plans.