How Does Illegal Immigration Affect The Economy

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One of the most talked about topics in this presidential election has been about illegal immigration and what to do with the 11 million undocumented workers within the United States borders. While both candidates have very poignant views and ideas as to how to solve this problem, neither are accurate and neither would be beneficial to the United States economy. While it would cost trillions of dollars to expel all undocumented aliens from the country, it was also cost millions to grant them amnesty. There is no precise solution as to what the government should do to fix the immigration problem, all we know for sure is that illegal immigration negatively effects the United States people and economy. One of the main arguments against …show more content…
Many labor economists have determined that undocumented workers within the U.S have lowered the wages of native-born workers, specifically adults without a high-school diploma, by up to 7.4 percent. Because the lower class is desperate to work, they have to be willing to accept any pay they can. This pay is often minimum wage and usually by no means enough for a family to live off of. Not only does this create a bigger divide between the lower and upper class, it also means more households are applying for government regulated social welfare programs such as Medicaid and food stamps, both of which are paid for by the U.S tax dollar. The more households that apply for these programs, the more people are going to be taxed. Besides this, native-born Americans are already paying for undocumented immigrants to attend public school and use hospitals, all of which is being paid for out of U.S citizens pockets. In 2010, the average illegal immigrant received about $24,721 in government benefits but only paid on average $10,334 in government taxes. This means that in total, there was an average annual fiscal deficit of $14,387 per household of undocumented works that was being paid by U.S taxpaying citizens. Not only does this hurt the law abiding U.S citizens by taking hard earned money out of their pockets, it also adds to the …show more content…
These benefits from programs such as Obamacare, Social security, and Medicare will provide $9.4 trillion in benefits. However according to the study by the Heritage Foundation, illegal immigrants will only pay $3 trillion in taxes over their lifetimes leaving a fiscal deficit of $6.3 trillion that will paid by U.S citizens tax dollars or by increasing the national debt. This is mainly because undocumented immigrants have low levels of education, with some not evening completing a high school degree. As many as 47% of immigrants age 25-64 have not completed high school and more than 29% have not even completed past the ninth grade. Even if granted amnesty, most illegal immigrants will remain poor which means the government and upper and middle classes will have to spend more money on welfare programs to support 11 million more people. It is estimated that for every $3 in benefits received, undocumented workers will only make $1 making the net annual cost per unlawful immigrant household $28,000. This is a lot of money to make up for, especially with the trillions of debt already racking up. The issues with immigration is that there is no sure fire solution to the problem. Deporting 11 millions of illegal immigrants could cost upwards of trillions of dollars but leaving them alone also negatively effects the economy. Granting amnesty

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