The Real Victims of American Immigration

“We cannot be the anti-illegal immigration party. We have to be the pro-legal immigration party,” Marco Rubio emphasized to fellow Republicans at a 2011 rally. “We have to be a party that advocates for a legal immigration system that’s ... good for America and honors our tradition both as a nation of immigrants and as a nation of law.”

Growing up in an extremely diverse Seattle suburb, some of my best friends and closest neighbors were green-card holders or first-generation immigrants. I remember going to friends’ houses and hearing stories of grandparents who worked their entire lives with the single goal that their grandchildren – not even their children – could live in America. Other neighbors told stories of sending money to the other side of the world as they waited for their family to get visas or green cards. Some of my neighbors and friends’ parents work several jobs and still can hardly afford monthly international calls home; some have entry-level jobs at Microsoft that they studied for 40 years to obtain; some received great job offers while studying in American colleges. But despite their different paths, my neighbors have something in common: they worked hard to give their children access to American education and freedom, and they are now among the proudest Americans I know, regardless of the languages they speak at home.

Our strength as a country depends on the ingenuity and labor of our citizens. Since its inception, the United States has attracted the best and brightest minds with the promise of work and freedom. Generations of intelligent, hard-working immigrants from every corner of the planet have travelled here and assimilated into American culture, learning English, studying for citizenship tests and becoming active members of their new communities despite the roadblocks.

Today, our immigration system is clearly broken, with 81 percent of Americans believing that America needs to reform its immigration strategies and policies. In some states like Texas and California, one in every 15 people is undocumented, with the majority of these illegal aliens speaking “little to no English” and living in highly segregated communities without any pressure to assimilate into or contribute to American society.

Though not all illegal immigrants are from Latin America and almost 40 percent of undocumented workers arrived legally and simply refused to leave when their visas expired, illegal immigrants are largely disconnected from American society even while benefitting from American jobs and federal programs. Few illegal immigrants participate in federal programs, yet American taxpayers still lose an estimated $113 billion each year providing education, healthcare and other services to undocumented workers and their families. $53 billion of this tax burden goes towards education alone.

Furthermore, while the 11 million illegal immigrants benefiting from our freedoms and rights while evading taxes and strict immigration procedure certainly hurt all taxpaying Americans, illegal immigration is most harmful to the millions of intelligent, hard-working foreigners attempting to legally immigrate to the United States each year. Many politicians have voiced their frustration at our broken immigration system by declaring that illegal immigrants are taking jobs from Americans, but in reality, most of the jobs they are taking are the jobs sought by other immigrants – many of whom have spent their entire lives working for the chance to find employment in the United States. These are the real victims of illegal immigration.

We need to ensure that it is easier to immigrate to America legally than illegally, while also finding a viable solution for the 11 million illegal immigrants already here. Mass deportation, surprisingly expensive and indiscriminating between undocumented families that have lived in the United States for decades and those who just arrived, is not the answer. Besides, we do not want illegal immigrants to leave. Economically, they present potentially great benefits to our country – we merely need to ensure that they become assimilated into our society as taxpayers and English-speakers. Indeed, if all illegal immigrants became citizens, the United States would make between $5.5 and $10 billion more in annual taxes and working-class wages would dramatically increase.

On the other hand, granting amnesty to immigrants neither invested nor participating in American socio-politics will intensify American social divisions and encourage further illegal immigration. We need to encourage foreigners to immigrate legally, and this must be achieved through a defined and easily navigable route from temporary visa to permanent citizenship in conjunction with a difficult and long process for illegal aliens. It is absurd that our government turns away 40 percent of American-educated, foreign-born math and science graduates after their graduation. Our priority must always be to attract and keep the best immigrants, but we must not forget to help undocumented workers assimilate into our society through education, hard-work and a demonstrated commitment to America through taxation.