Are Illegal Immigrants an Economic Drain?

Are illegal immigrants a drain on the economy of the United States?
Why or why not? There are many debates and arguments over the question of “Are illegal immigrants a burden on our nations economy?” With these arguments, come many points of views, and many facts and opinions trying to back them up. Personally, I believe that they are a burden on the United States economy. To start off, the United States already has issues in foreign affairs and foreign products that are being imported and bought here for cheap prices, but that is a whole other issue. This just means that the U.S. economy already has issues that it has to deal with and that illegal immigrants just hurt the already struggling economy. There are many ways in which illegal immigrants hurt our economy. Ways through work forces, through using our taxpayers’ money, and many other things. The United States economy has been going through a tough time and this is quite possibly one of the largest issues that it has to deal with. Illegal immigration has a huge impact on the United States economy, and this impact has a very negative reaction on it. One example of why illegal immigrants have a negative effect on the United States economy is through America’s work force. Many illegal immigrants come into the U.S. everyday. Many of these people are looking for work here, due to the fact that they have many family members at home that they believe leaving their home to look for work in America will benefit. By doing so they take away jobs from hardworking American citizens. Illegal alien workers may increase profits for employers, but they are costly to the American taxpayer. Most illegal aliens have very low educational values, few skills, and they work for extremely low wages, often in the underground economy where they pay zero taxes on from their paychecks or earnings. The fact remains that illegal immigration creates an enormous burden on America and its citizens, a burden that Congress has levied upon us through short-term and disorganized immigration policy and succeeding administrations have aggravated by inefficient enforcement of the laws. In the long run, even if these illegal aliens benefit employers, it would help America’s economy more by eliminating these immigrants and giving our citizens these opportunities for occupation. It is said that about $60 billion is earned by illegal immigrants every year. About $45 billion of that is sent out of the United States and back to their home country. This means that our country loses about $45 billion that is just sent out that we will never see again. The sheer size of the impact on the United States economy just due to the workforce makes me sick. This is one of the largest topics that hurt the American economy due to illegal immigrants. Another reason as to why illegal immigrants hurt America’s economy is because they use our own taxpayers’ money to help these illegal immigrants. An example of this is if an illegal immigrant gets hurt here, they do not have to pay for anything. Due to the fact that they don’t have any insurance in America, if they are brought to the hospital for something, then its America’s own money paying to help them. There are many incidents of illegal immigrants getting hurt at jobs that they have stolen from American citizens, and getting major surgery or intense medical care for free, and having every penny of it covered by our tax dollars. Illegal aliens have cost billions of taxpayer-funded dollars for medical services. Dozens of hospitals in Texas, New Mexico Arizona, and California, have been forced to close or face bankruptcy because of federally mandated programs requiring free emergency room services to illegal aliens. Another way that they use our tax dollars is through the jailing and legal system. It is said that at least a half-billion dollars is spent on incarcerating illegal immigrants each year. Criminal aliens are a huge problem when it comes to these illegal immigrants. A criminal alien, by definition is and illegal alien that commit crimes. They are a growing threat to public safety and national security. They are also a huge drain on our limited criminal justice resources. In 1980, our federal and state prisons housed fewer than 9,000 criminal aliens. But today, it is said that about 55,000 criminal aliens account for more than one-fourth of prisoners in Federal Prisons, and there are about 297,000 criminal aliens imprisoned in state and local prisons. That number represents about 16.4 percent of the state and local prison population. These numbers are insane, and numbers like that are clearly going to have a negative impact on our nations economy no matter what. Education also has a huge impact on the U.S. economy when it comes to illegal aliens. The total K-12 school expenditure for illegal immigrants costs the states $7.4 billion annually. That’s a massive number that the United States loses every year. Secondary education benefits such as in-state tuition and grants going to illegal immigrants are costing American citizens millions. It has come to be that, in many states across the country, if a person meets the state's requirements for residency, they can qualify for in-state tuition. It's unbelievable for someone who has an illegal status to be eligible for basically a tuition discount for in-state residents when they're not even a legal resident of our country. This is very disheartening for many young Americans who are trying to get themselves into college and through schooling systems. If illegal immigrants can get tuition discounts when they are not even honest members of our country’s society, then why can’t some young American citizens get tuition discounts? Illegal immigration also takes advantage of our economy even through our own education systems. One last thing about illegal immigrants is that they don’t just affect the American economy. They also affect America’s peace of mind, dignity, safety and many other aspects of American lifestyles. For example, illegal immigrants can be very dangerous. For all we know any of these illegal immigrants, “looking for a better opportunity”, could be very dangerous criminals, or even worse, terrorists. These illegal immigrants could be a great risk to our American citizens and our society, not just our economy. They also bring in many crimes. Many of these crimes have a large base through the drug world. Anybody could figure out that when drugs are involved many other crimes are involved. Other things that could be brought in are gangs, gang violence, other violence, discrimination, and just many social issues. These illegal immigrants can also corrupt many American citizens’ peace of mind in many ways. This could hurt Americans when it comes to their pride in their own country. If the government will let this happen, many Americans may think, “Well what else could be happening that we don’t even know about?” Many citizens are losing trust in the government and in the country’s ability to protect them and help them through things. Although illegal immigration really screws our nations economy, which is not the only issue that this country faces due to these illegal aliens, they also affect our nations dignity, our pride and lastly our peace of mind. Illegal immigration has a very negative effect on our nations economy, but also on our nations people.