The Immigration And Naturalization Service - 1169 Words

Thousands of illegal immigrants smuggle themselves across the United States border each day. The Immigration and Naturalization Service, or the INS, concluded that the United States is currently a place to call home for a population of approximately twelve million illegal immigrants (Hayes 16). An American who has never been to Mexico, for example, may wonder why these people risk their lives to live in the United States. With the jobs, education, welfare, and unemployment compensation the American government has to offer, the United States appears as a lifeboat for these poor and uneducated immigrants (Hayes 16). The American dream is what all citizens of the United States strive to achieve. Everyone wants to get an education, a†¦show more content†¦Employers are able to make money because production is fast and cheap for them. The Pew Hispanic Center concluded in 2001 classified an estimated 5.3 million workers in the U.S. as unauthorized workers in the labor force. These jobs include 700,000 restaurant workers, 250,000 household workers, and 620,000 construction workers (Murphy). This is a whole lot of cheap labor, and without it the U.S. would suffer. If 620,000 construction workers were gone, home improvement projects across the nation would quickly be hard to find. With a large number of these immigrants also earning wages working on farms, Americans would find much of their produce rotting in fields due to the lack of workers (Murphy 2). The positive effect of these immigrants on the nation’s labor force is well supported by Americans; however, the opinion of those rejecting these workers is accepted and taken into account as well. The main argument of Americans rejecting the idea of immigration is supported by the rising unemployment rate in America. There are hundreds of American natives who are unemployed. Harvard sociologist, Christopher Jencks, states, â€Å" The reason that Americans will not take jobs washing dishes, cleaning hotel rooms, mowing lawns, and picking fruit is because immigrant labor has driven the wages down† (Taylor). Not only are the wages being driven down, but the working conditions as well. Without immigrants working it will open opportunities for low skilled