Olvera 1

Berenice Olvera

Professor Courtney

English 2010

7 December 2018

Misconceptions of immigration in the United States

As of 2015 it is reported that there are about 40 million

immigrants living in the United States that were born in another

country. We currently have more immigrants than any other country

in the world. (Lopez) It is estimated that about 11 million additional

immigrants are undocumented. The Hispanic community accounts

for 17% of the total US population, this is expected due to having

Mexico and other Latin American countries as our neighbors south of

the border. (Flores) The topic of immigration has been in the for front

of the news for a couple years now due to the recent rhetoric against

immigrations.

Our current administration has a strong opinion against

immigration specifically, illegal immigration. Many people in the country seem to have similar

feelings towards the issue. Some feel that the American people agree due to loss of jobs or

wanting a feeling of security and secure borders. (Ip) These feelings are shared by the people in

the communities that we all live in.

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Most American families just want the dream of the white picket fence in a neighborhood

where they can feel safe, as well as a job where they can support their families. Anything or

anyone that gets in the way of this dream can be seen as the enemy. The current rhetoric

regarding immigrants can make someone live in fear and anger. There is the misinformation that

immigrants are criminals, negatively affecting our economy, and are taking our jobs. I will

explore the facts of each of these three common misconceptions.

There was recently a college student murdered in Iowa by an illegal immigrant from

Mexico and the story made national news. The media began to run stories stating that murders by

immigrants happen often. Political pundits on popular opinion shows were stating that this is

what happens when we let immigrants into

the country. The college student’s family

began to speak out and said that the girl’s

murder was a tragic story but did not reflect

the Hispanic community of Iowa. (Mosher)

Currently only 0.85% of illegal

immigrants and only 0.47% of legal

immigrants account for the population of people that are incarcerated compared to native-born

Americans which is 1.53%. If you subtract the illegal immigrants in prison due to immigration

violations the number goes down to 0.5%. (Gomez) Although, some researchers might argue that

the reason the number is so low is because the criminals get deported or are released into a

sanctuary city. However, another study that can be used is the 800,000 illegal immigrants that

applied for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals also known as DACA. Since it began only

0.27% of people had to be removed from the program. (Gomez)

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The requirement to apply for DACA is to have a high school diploma or a veteran and

cannot have been convicted of a felony or major misdemeanor. The DACA program has

contributed to the economy they are paying taxes and about 6% of them

have started their own businesses that provide jobs to U.S. citizens.

(Napolitano) Most of the people in the program are students and are

pursing college degrees. If the program stays it would be accurate to say

that these people will continue to be a contributing member of society

specifically contributing to the economy as well.

Between the years of 2007 and 2012 is predicted that about 40% of

illegal immigrants left the state of Arizona and went back to their home

countries. During this time there was strong police enforcement against

illegal immigrants. Economists from opposing political views agree that during this time the

economy in Arizona declined. Arizona is home to agricultural businesses who depended on them

to work their fields due to them leaving they were left with a worker shortage. Economists

believe there was a 2% decline every year since the immigrants left the country. (Davis)

This brings to the forefront another popular debate that immigrants are taking the jobs of

hard-working Americans. In the case of the Arizona farmers that lost their workers, many of

them opted to purchase robots and machines to do the job instead of hiring American workers to

do the job. They felt like it would be a better long-term investment to hire an operator for the

machine. Doing this is reducing the available employment overall at their farms.

A study that was released by the white house states that 83% of jobs in which people

make less than $20 will eventually be done by machines or robots. (Horsey) Some experts from

the tech capital, Silicon Valley, agree that eventually most jobs will be performed by robots as
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well. Some suggest that it’s best to focus a career on technology since most companies will need

someone who knows how to fix the robots that they purchase. Notice if you go into the newer or

remodeled McDonald’s they now have touch screens that can help you place your order and take

your payment.

Some argue that immigrants are taking the jobs that no one wants, they are jobs that are

essential for the current lifestyles that we live. Due to the

nature of why they came to our country in the first place it

can be said that they are more willing to do those jobs. It

can be debated that most Americans aren’t willing to

work in the hot sun for long periods of time, while still

trying to meet a goal of at least 52 pounds of tomatoes a

day. Many farmers have come out to say that Americans don’t want the jobs that they have

available and would rather have a legal immigrant worker who can take the job. There are

programs such as Communidades Unidas that serves the Hispanic community and makes sure

that the community is educated on labor laws. This is to make sure that even though they are

working less desirable jobs they are also aware of what their rights are.

In conclusion, although it is popular in the media right now to hate immigrants or blame

them for our shortcomings there are many areas where it can be proven otherwise. The notion

that they are all criminals can be argued due to the small number of immigrants that are

incarcerated. Researchers suggest that we will all see long term positive effects of immigration to

our country due to their contribution to our economy. The statement that immigrants are taking

our jobs can be debated, there are many jobs that are being taking over by robots or simply not
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taken by Americans. It has been a trend to blame immigrants whenever we are in economic lows,

despite this trend we owe it to ourselves to be educated in these issues and not live in fear.
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Works Cited

Gomez, Alan. "No....Immigrants Don't Commit More Crimes than US-Born

People." USA TODAY, 23 Aug. 2018, pp. A.1. SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks-sirs-

com.libprox1.slcc.edu.

Kramer, Paul A. "Trump's Anti-Immigrant Racism Represents an American

Tradition." New York Times, 22 Jan. 2018. SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks-sirs-

com.libprox1.slcc.edu.

Engelbrecht, Cora. "Fewer Hispanics Report Domestic Abuse. Police Fault

Deportations." New York Times, 04 Jun. 2018, pp. A.!2. SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks-sirs-

com.libprox1.slcc.edu.

López, Gustavo, et al. “Key Findings about U.S. Immigrants.” Pew Research Center,

Pew Research Center, 14 Sept. 2018, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/09/14/key-findings-

about-u-s-immigrants/.

Ip, Greg. "What Drives Anti-Immigrant Feelings." Wall Street Journal, 30 Jun. 2016, pp.

A.2. SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks-sirs-com.libprox1.slcc.edu.

Davis, Bob. "Illegal Immigration's Thorny Economics." Wall Street Journal, 10 Feb.

2016, pp. A.1. SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks-sirs-com.libprox1.slcc.edu.

Flores, Antonio. “Facts on U.S. Latinos, 2015.” Pew Research Center's Hispanic Trends

Project, Pew Research Center's Hispanic Trends Project, 18 Sept. 2017,

www.pewhispanic.org/2017/09/18/facts-on-u-s-latinos/.
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Mosher, Dave. “Mollie Tibbetts' Death Is Being Used to Push Debunked Ideas about

Illegal Immigration and Violent Crime.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 22 Aug. 2018,

www.businessinsider.com/undocumented-aliens-violent-crime-murder-statistics-data-2018-

8?IR=T.

Napolitano, Janet. "We all Benefit if we Protect the 'Dreamers'." Washington Post, 13

Aug. 2017, pp. A.21. SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks-sirs-com.libprox1.slcc.edu.

Davis, Bob. “The Thorny Economics of Illegal Immigration.” The Wall Street Journal,

Dow Jones & Company, 9 Feb. 2016, www.wsj.com/articles/the-thorny-economics-of-illegal-

immigration-1454984443.

Horsey, David. "Robots, Not Immigrants, are Taking American Jobs." Los Angeles Times

(Online), 31 Mar. 2017. SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks-sirs-com.libprox1.slcc.edu.

Kushma, John. "Op-Ed: Immigrants are Only Taking the Jobs we would rather Not

do." Deseret News, 11 Jan. 2018. SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks-sirs-com.libprox1.slcc.edu.