Immigration: A Threat to the United States

An alien (non-citizen) who has entered the United States without government permission or staying beyond the termination date of the visa; these are the terms in which one would be considered an illegal immigrant (Hill; Free Dictionary). Illegal immigration is a widely debated and controversial issue focused on in the entire world. The amount of financial burdens when it comes to taxes alone causes an up roar. The death rates of both Americans and immigrants have gone up in the past 10 years. Also, the drug and sex trafficking circulating through the United States is exastorbated by the illegal immigration. Illegal immigration is controversial due to the lives that are lost, negatively modified or put in danger.

People have plenty of reasons as to why illegal immigration threatens life in the United States of America. Some of the more serious reasons are illegal immigrations adds a tax burden on citizens. There are millions of dollars being spent of people who are not legal citizens. Another reason is illegal immigrants have highbred drug rates and drug trafficking. Immigrants try to bring drugs into the country, sometimes succeed, leading our country into drugs. Lastly, illegal immigration increases death rates in the United States. Not only are the many deaths of Americans there are tons of deaths of immigrants.

To begin with, illegal immigration is a threat in the United States because it adds a huge tax burden on the citizens of the United States. One reason as to why is, illegal immigrants drain on tax monies that would otherwise be spent for law-abiding citizens. There are more and more immigrants coming into the United States illegally. There is a process you have to follow, granted it is a very long process, it needs to be done in order to be fair. Between social services, education, medical care, and or low income employment benefits, it takes a toll on tax payers. If you add up all of the costs of the four things I just listed it adds up to 72.1 billion dollars (Brinley; ARRA). When a woman has a child it can cost up to 17 thousand dollars with no complications and if there are complications up 25 thousand dollars (Cost Helper).

In addition, low income immigrants pay little in taxes and receive high levels of government benefits and services. They tend to take advantage of anything they can get. The economy is the worst it has been since the great depression, as for the whole country. The types of benefits they may be able to receive may include medical insurance, food stamps, Section 8, and or social security. There benefits are made for low income households. As time has gone on the factors of not having an education, having kids, and living on own are gradually becoming reasons to apply and receive these benefits (Rector; Heritage.org). Today over 12 percent of the United States is receiving food stamp benefits just alone (Durham; UPI). The percentages of benefits being used in the United States is only growing because everyone is having children one after another (Rector; Heritage.org). It has been said that there is over 50 children born a day in the United States. The solution to this may be to make sure everyone who comes into the United States gets their Visa or also known as Green card. When that happens they will become a naturalized citizen, so the tax payers cannot say anything or feel like they are paying for people who don't deserve to be here.

Another point, illegal immigrants are a threat to lives in the United States is because of the increasing numbers of drug rates and drug trafficking. In a 24 hour period there is 62 arrests due to drug charges. That's just in a day; can you imagine what the number is for a whole year? All over the United States jails and prisons are filling up to the max capacity due to drug related charges. Drug related illnesses, death, and crime costs the nation's people approximately 66.9 billion dollars. That means everyone pays one thousand dollars annually to cover expenses (McCaffrey; NCJRS). According to the Bureau of Prisons, at mid-year 1996, there were 93,167 inmates in the federal prisons, 1,019,281 in the state prisons, and 518,492 in jails. 59.5 percent of the federal prisoners and 22.3 percent of the inmates in state prisons were drug offenders (BoP). Upon getting arrested for drug trafficking, it is more likely for men to have types of drugs in their system than women. When groups are caught, there is usually one leader of a group. He or she is the one who distributes the drugs, charges what to sell them for, and decided how much each person gets.

Additionally, drug related shootings and deaths are more frequent. Illegal drug use is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans each year. 21,597 homicides committed in 1995, 4.7 percent of them involved drugs (Durham; UPI). The impacts of drug deaths are more common in abuse of the drug. In 2008 alone seven million people starting at the age of 12 and up were addicted to or abused them. Approximately 1.8 million people checked into a rehab centers for abuse a year. When people think of the most used drug, eight out of ten people will tend to agree marijuana is the more commonly used drug. But shockingly it's not. The most commonly abused drug is heroin (37 percent), the marijuana (27 percent), and followed by cocaine (22 percent), and lastly stimulants (13 percent) (McCaffrey; NCJRS). Solutions may vary for this issue. When the people, immigrants AND US citizens are coming across the border, their belongings, cars, everything needs to be checked, thoroughly. Yes, it may take more time, but it will eliminate all of the drug issues. High School students are getting into drugs and smuggling and it is getting them killed.

Thirdly, illegal immigration threatens life to the