When one considers illegal and legal immigration, it is easy to get caught up in the emotional details. From a purely economic standpoint however, the costs of illegal immigration in the US is something to consider. On one hand, individuals argue that immigrants add to the workforce.
Even though they add to the workforce, you should know that the costs of illegal immigration do not equally balance the benefits. The current economic climate in the United States makes it necessary to make changes to the illegal immigration policies.
Just because many immigrants are working for low wages does not necessarily mean that our economy is benefiting. A large majority of illegal immigrants do not pay taxes, ultimately hurting our economy more than their work helps.
On average, most illegal immigrants do not have the necessary experience to get a high paying job. Instead, they usually work as part of the underground economy. Because they are working for less than reputable businesses, they are not going to pay taxes like a legal United States resident.
Another thing to consider is that the rate of immigration has increased over the past few years. Since 1986, when the government granted legal amnesty to the current illegal residents, more and more illegal aliens have crossed the border. While it is difficult to put specific numbers on the costs of illegal immigration, there are hypotheses.
Most of the calculations are based off 1996. In that year, most estimations of the effect put the cost to American taxpayers around $20 billion dollars (annually). The number of illegal immigrants has practically doubled since then and you can also take inflation into account.
With these calculations, that puts the costs of illegal immigration in the US somewhere upwards of $45 billion to the US taxpayer on an annual basis. If you factor this knowledge in with the way the current economy is going, then you can even add around 10 billion dollars.
Because many immigrants have so much to offer America, we need to support policies that encourage legal immigration. This will help our security and economy, not to mention the emotional appeal from many advocates of immigration reform.
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Johanna is a columnist who focuses on high-profile national political issues. She has been following the costs of illegal immigration for the purpose of this article, and she recommends that if you would like to learn more about the illegal immigration in the US you can visit their website at FairUs.com.
