Research Thesis No. 1
Principle of Economics
Friedrich Hayek
Research Report No. 1
December 2011
Two sides of a coin:
Exploiting two sides of illegal immigration effect on U.S
By
Yeonkyung Compean
Two sides of a coin
Exploiting two sides of illegal immigration effect on U.S
By Y. Compean
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract3
Chapter One – Introduction4
I. Statement of Research Interest4
II. Definition of the Research Thesis4
III.Expected Findings and Significance of Research5
IV.Methodology6
Chapter Two: Background Informations7
I.Definition of the Illegal Immigrants7
II.Historical Background of the Illegal Immigration8
III.Demographic background of illegal immigrants.10
Chapter Three- Issues raised by illegal immigrants &
collaterals13
I. Issues regarding illegal immigrants in United States and
analysis13
Chapter Four- Conclusions 20
I. Conclusion20
II. Appendix & Bibliography23
December 2011
Comments are welcome
Two sides of a coin:
Exploiting two sides of illegal immigration effect on U.S
Abstract
This dissertation examines the turmoil and strife of the
controversial issue of illegal immigration in United States.
History of United States began and ends with immigration to U.S
soil. Incessant immigrants from all over the world have built what
is called the United States nowadays. However, at the same time,
issues regarding new immigrants started to rise after 1795, among
original population regarding admittance of new population. People
who could not meet the requirement started to land on U.S. under
the radar of U.S. government and their status in U.S. was and is
what is called ‘illegal immigrants.’
Original population began to worry about scarcity of their
resources including remaining number of job openings, wages, and
public resources. In addition to the resource issues, people’s
concern spread to other social issues such as crime. Since,
officially, illegal immigrants were not under control of the U.S.
government, people started to fear that illegal immigrants might
engage in unlawful activities more than those of people who are
under government’s radar.
In this thesis, the purpose is opted to disclose whether
people’s concern regarding issues mentioned above is based on
legitimate reasoning or just a pure myth of unknown.
In order to uncover the socioeconomic role of illegal immigrants
within the United States, analogical methods will be used to
generate the result as well as to assess legitimacy of rationale
behind known aspects of following three major issues:
· Change in wages and job distribution with corresponding
Impacts
· Government spending & public costs on illegal
immigrants
· Illegal immigrant population engaged in crime
Listed issues will be assessed in an analytical manner to deduce
explicit notion in conclusion part of the paper.
Yeonkyung Compean
University of Rochester
Chapter One
Introduction
I. Statement of Research Interest
Issues regarding illegal immigration have been controversial in
our society including being one of the most controversial topics of
political issues. Known sides[footnoteRef:1] of the issue regarding
illegal immigrants’ effect in the U.S society has been
controversial over a century. [1: Illegal Immigration Statistics.
"Illegal Immigrants Pros and Cons – What You Should Know." 15 July
2010. Illegal Immigration Statistics. Illegal Immigration
Statistics.
http://www.illegalimmigrationstatistics.org/category/pro-illegal-immigration-statistics/.
1 December 2011. .]
After adopting Immigration Act[footnoteRef:2] of 1924, (Pub. L.
68-139, 43 Stat. 153, enacted May 26, 1924) throughout 1900’s, the
U.S. government’s ceaseless effort to legislate restrictions on
constant influx of immigrating population to U.S. began. [2:
Goverment, U.S. "The Immigration Act of 1924 (The Johnson-Reed
Act)." 1924. U.S. Department of state - Office of the historian.
Document. 1 December 2011. .]
It is expected that illegal immigration has impact on U.S
economy. Like any other issues, there are two major streams to the
core of the issue, also known as “pros and Cons” or “yay or nay,”
but the reasoning behind both sides varies. On this reports, scope
of the range will only be pertaining to those issues regarding
economic issues. The goal of the research paper is to show result
from studies on each major points[footnoteRef:3] regarding economic
effect regarding illegal immigration in U.S. [3: Wage and Impacts,
crime rates, net cost in terms of social services, (education,
public service, tax issues) Job distribution, change in Supply and
Demand, and subfields accordingly.]
II. Definition of the Research Thesis
This thesis will analyze some of the issues over amnesty towards
illegal immigrants in regards their effect on U.S. economy. In
order to analyze these issues, first, I will study issues regarding
economic and social concerns regarding illegal immigrants. Then I
will compare research data and statistics regarding illegal
immigration issues and socio-political economic situations. Then, I
will compare the gathered data and statistics over major issues
those will be specified in latter chapter in order to have better
understanding in first, whether illegal immigration regarding
subject matter has impact on U.S. economy and second if reasoning
behind each claims had any fallacy in the process of establishing
results. The results of this research will yield information that
can help develop future policies to benefit the U.S. population
including both illegal and legal citizens and the U.S economy issue
in general.
Scope of the research is to analyze socioeconomic effect
generated by illegal immigrants within United States because I
believe that if we find adequate conclusion to each issues, not
only will we find a way to have better understanding in issues
objectively instead of being led to biased conclusion. The result
of this thesis will also help to find a way to understand the U.S.
economy in regarding field. The information might also give
somewhat relative ideas to countries that are also having illegal
immigrant issues, such as Switzerland or E.U.
In addition to examining some of the major controversy, this
thesis will also provide some background information over issues
regarding illegal immigration in United States. This information
will be followed by a profile on social situation of United States,
sketching the cultural and political side of some major
claims[footnoteRef:4] and explanation of the implications and
consequences of illegal immigration. I will also discuss the role
of the U.S. government’s control over policies on immigration and
unintended consequences derived from it. Finally, I will conclude
the thesis by stating analytic result and supporting reasons. [4:
Wage and Impacts, Job distribution, Crime rates and Cost to the
public which are listed in Chapter 3.]
III. Expected Findings and Significance of Research
It is true that there are numerous approaches even within a same
field and result can vary. However, this thesis will focus on using
economics approach to topics. The outcome will depend on data and
statistics which can easily be presented in numerical system. The
analysis on outcomes will be pertaining to the interpretation of
numbers from data, which will also be shown in graphs and
charts.
First, it is very easy to commit fallacy of
composition[footnoteRef:5] and division[footnoteRef:6]. It is true
that most social science fields are hard to make definitive
conclusion since it requires human behaviors which are impossible
to be foreseen. Therefore, researches conducted in social science
field are rather eclectic. For this very reason, conclusions from
same data can draw various conclusions and can easily be biased
towards their own consideration. Second, an often time, syllogistic
fallacy of the undistributed middle[footnoteRef:7] is commonly
committed by many. Making logical chain links from data needs to be
examined thoroughly to avoid such mistakes. To avoid mistakes, the
thesis will not provide any other assumptions or ideas which are
not accurate data. As it was mentioned earlier, research will
conclude in eclectic manner by leaving possibilities for other
viewpoints and not imposing any personal opinions derived from
data. [5: fallacy of composition arises when one infers that
something is true of the whole from the fact that it is true of
some part of the whole, fallacy of division occurs when one reasons
logically that something true of a thing must also be true of all
or some of its parts.—. Wikipedia. n.d. Wikimedia Foundation,
Inc.,. website. 23 November 2011. .—. Wikipedia. n.d. Inc.,
Wikimedia Foundation. website. 13 August 2011. .] [6: van Eemeren,
Frans H and Rob Grootendorst. "The fallacies of composition and
division." 1992. www.illc.uva.nl/j50/contribs/eemeren/eemeren.ps.
Report.] [7: The fallacy of the undistributed middle is a logical
fallacy, and more specifically a formal fallacy, that is committed
when the middle term in a categorical syllogism is not distributed
in the major premise. It is thus a syllogistic fallacy.—.
Wikipedia. n.d. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.,. website. 24 November
2011. .]
What I expect my findings will also uncover is that illegal
immigration issues in United States has been encountering
additional obstacles, namely, the policies that might lead the
issue to face unintended consequences in addition to consequences
that are already derived by major issues in U.S. economy including
social aspect as well.
To understand the difference in premise on each side, examining
each viewpoint’s reasoning and data used in their development of
argument. To stay within the scope of the range of the paper, I
will narrow down data that are relevant to social and economic
issues only. It is to be expected that some political viewpoints
are inevitable to discuss since the subject matter is adjacent to
political issues but on this thesis, political issues will be
excluded when evaluating validity in reasoning behind arguments of
each sides.
To demonstrate ration developed from data, given
procedure[footnoteRef:8] will be used to evaluate its aptitude of
its annotation regarding topics as a tool for precaution. [8:
Referring to methodology in IV, in Chapter 2.]
All in all, I expect my findings will provide sufficient
conclusion by making adequate logical connotation between provided
data and topics.
IV. Methodology
The methodology for this thesis involves a straightforward
socioeconomic approach that the scope of the range might interface
with some political issues. For the purpose of the dissertation, I
will analyze the numbers in data in strict scientific manner which
is will conclude analytic result impartial from personal standpoint
and disregard other factors that might interfere with analysis.
Assuming resources from public data are impartial and
untempered, following steps will be considered to compute analytic
result from given data.
1. Make notion for background data related to the subject in
numerical terms such as ratio, or percentage.
2. Contemplate data into affiliated categories by background
intersections– i.e. timeline, ethnicity etc.
3. Relationship between data can only be created when the
comparisons are within the same category.
4. The notion of logical reasoning should be clarified to
evaluate accuracy in result.
5. Empirical evidences might be consideration but not in
absolute degree.
6. Relationship between supply and demand must be presented in
graphs.
Chapter Two
Background Information on illegal immigration and
socioeconomics
Predicament of Unite States
I. Definition of the Illegal Immigrants
The terminology ‘Immigrants’ can be ambiguous since United Sates
is a land of immigrants. It is important that we clarify what we
define as ‘immigrants’ on this thesis. To define range of the
research, it is important to know what we define as ‘immigrant’
here. The concept ‘immigrants’ has started with the history of the
United States but we will limit our use of term within certain
range. For the purpose of defining the range of the research scope,
the following rules are applied:
1. The historical timeline will be limited to after the concept
of ‘National Citizenship[footnoteRef:9]’ has established in 1790.
Not the ones granted by state[footnoteRef:10] level. [9: The
original [1790 Alien Naturalization Act] provided the first rules
to be followed by all of the United States in the granting of
national citizenship.] [10: Under the Articles of Confederation
[Enacted in 1781 and Replaced by the Constitution in 1788], the
question of citizenship and the naturalization of immigrants
remained with the individual states.]
2. Term ‘illegal immigrants’ will be limited to the after
immigration exclusion era[footnoteRef:11] begun, starting from May
6, 1882. [11: —. "Chinese Exclusion Act." An act to execute certain
tready stipulation relationg to the Chinese 6 May 1882, Enrolled
Acts and Resolutions of Congress 1789-1996; ed.: 2. Document.]
3. Events that are not relevant to socioeconomic approach will
not be specified regardless of its importance.
To eliminate possibilities of inexactitude, scope of time period
regarding the research has been extended to the furthest possible.
However, it will not consider irrelevant timeline might be
disregarded with adequate explanation, as thesis proceeds.
Aside from historical terminology, the usage of the term,
illegal immigrants, have certain attribute. Also known as illegal
aliens, undocumented resident or undocumented aliens etc., the
conventional usage of term applies to a person who is:
“Considered an ‘alien’, a ‘non-citizen’ who has entered the U.S.
without government permission or stayed beyond the termination date
of a visa”[footnoteRef:12] [12: Farlex, Inc. The free dictionary by
Farlex. Ed. Gerald N. Hill and Kathleen T. Hill. 1981. Farlex, Inc.
Dictionary. 2005. .]
Illegal immigrants can be divided into three major
categories.
1) Those that entered the country illegally meaning that they
did not pass through proper inspection at the border or entry –
i.e. underground tunnel, over the fence.
2) Those that stayed beyond the authorized period (with expired
visa) after their legal entry.
3) By violating the terms of their legal entry – i.e. working
without residency card or work visa. (H-1 VISA)[footnoteRef:13]
[13: National Research Council. The New Americans: Economic,
Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration. Ed. P. James Smith
and Barry Edmonston. Vol. 1. Washington D.C.: National Academies
Press, 1997. 1 vols. Books.]
II. Historical Background of the Illegal Immigration
As briefly mentioned above, historical aspects of illegal
immigrants have changed through timeline as well as their
contribution to our society. As a country of immigrants, it is hard
to distinguish between immigrants and non-immigrants since our own
“The Founding Fathers” were not properly equipped with
documentation that meets the standard of our government today.
However, after the U.S. government have formed, it was necessary to
seek the nation’s best interest which includes allocating scarce
resources to people who resided within the nation. In the process
of classifying subjects to the U.S. government’s duty, the notion
of ‘Citizenship to the United States’ was first regulated in Alien
Naturalization Act[footnoteRef:14] in 1790, later bona fide by 14th
Amendment proposed by 39th congress[footnoteRef:15]. [14: United
States. "1790 Naturalization Act." The public statutes at large of
the United States of America / by authority of Congress 1845-1867,
8 v. ; 25-30 cm ed.: 755. Serial. 1789 to 1845. .] [15: Amendment
XIV, Section 1, Clause 1: All persons born or naturalized in the
United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are
citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they
reside.]
The U.S. government’s attempt to control immigrant population
began with President John Adams, who enacted four
acts[footnoteRef:16] regarding alien population and the U.S.
government was invested with the power to punish/deport
Aliens[footnoteRef:17]. [16: An Act to Establish an Uniform Rule of
Naturalization, An Act Concerning Aliens, An Act Respecting Alien
Enemies, and An Act for the Punishment of Certain Crimes against
the United States] [17: See the reference page for the resource
regarding all four Acts above mentioned.]
Starting with Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, the immigration
exclusion era began. The Civil Rights Act of 1866, granted U.S.
citizenship to all persons born in the United States "not subject
to any foreign power." On Mar. 28, 1898, Citizenship was extended
to those of people who were foreign-born decedents[footnoteRef:18].
Problem using back door to illegal entrance to U.S. soil became an
issue starting 1920[footnoteRef:19]. In 1924, the Immigration Act
was enacted as well as formation of the first U.S. border
patrol[footnoteRef:20]. The issues with illegal immigrants have
stayed within the society ever since. [18: UNITED STATES V. WONG
KIM ARK, 169 U. S. 649 (1898)] [19: "The Chinese exclusion laws
greatly hindered Chinese immigration into the United States, but...
they did not serve as the total barriers that exclusionists hoped
they would. An estimated 17,300 Chinese immigrants entered the
United States through the back doors of Canada and Mexico from 1882
to 1920. U.S. Bureau of Immigration reports and newspaper accounts
indicate that they entered the country through Seattle, Washington;
Buffalo, New York; San Diego, California; San Antonio and El Paso,
Texas; and numerous other points along the northern and southern
borders of the United States."- Erika Lee, PhD at America's Gates,
2003.-Lee, Erika. At America's Gates. reasearch paper. University
of North Carolina. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina
Press, 2003. Book report. .] [20: —. U.S. Border patrol: U.S.
custom and border protection. 1 May 2010. webpage. 5 June 2009.
.]
Figure 1.
(Source: self-creation)
Illegal immigrant population has shown steady growth in time.
After exclusion restrictions, people entered U.S. through various
route. Although the census does not keep a separate track on
illegal immigrant population, using similar method[footnoteRef:21]
that is used today can be applied. However, the data itself should
entirely be separated from today’s issue due to IRCA in
1986[footnoteRef:22]. The illegal immigrant population prior to
1980 is not considered in todays’ census. The following
data[footnoteRef:23] is provided only as a point of consideration
but the issues regarding illegal immigration – jobs and wages are
not entirely separated from those of todays. [21: Parcel, Jefferey.
"Estimating the number of undocumented aliens." Brief. Bureau of
Cencus, 1986. Scan.] [22: Under Section 249 of the INA, the
registry provision, qualified persons who have resided continuously
in the United States since prior to January 1, 1972 may apply for
LPR status. Additionally, persons who had resided continuously in
the United States since prior to January 1, 1982 as unauthorized
residents were eligible to adjust for LPR status under the
Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986.] [23: Barabba,
Vincent P. Historical statistics of the united states;. Analytic
report. U.S. Department of Commerce. Washington D.C: Bureau of the
Census, 1975. Document.]
As we can see, populations with no papers are decreasing
gradually until 1950 after government’s restriction over
immigrating population was reinforced. However, interesting point
is, total population of immigrant seems to be increased gradually
even throughout the Great Recession.
III. Demographic background of illegal immigrants.
Total population of illegal immigrants
According to DHS office of immigration statistics, by 2010,
number of illegal immigrants amount to 10,790,000[footnoteRef:24].
To understand the issue over illegal immigration, it is important
to know their demographic background. With DHS data, countries of
birth of illegal immigrants are divided into 11 categories. It is
noticeable that Mexican population is the biggest out of all other
categories. All other shares of South American countries combined
seems the major groups of illegal immigrants in U.S these days.
[24: Hoefer, Michael, et al. Estimates of the Unauthorized
Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: January 2010.
Annual Report. U.S. Government. Washington D.C: Office of
Immigration Statistics, 2011. Document.]
Figure 2.
(Source: DHS Statistics)
Figure 3.
(In ten Thousands)
(Source: DHS Statistics)
According to the DHS office of immigration statistics, method of
deduction was used to estimate the respective
amount[footnoteRef:25]. The detailed number of population changing
over 10 year period is listed in Figure 3. Total number of
increased population is 2,330,000, increased by 27.5%. Immigrants
from East Asian Countries are rather decreased while others
increased. [25: Total foreign-born population living in U.S. –
Total foreign-born population with legal status living in U.S.]
Occupational fields shared by unauthorized workers
Figure 4 is a list of occupational fields shared by the illegal
immigrant labor force and the total amount of labor force
population. The total ratio of population of illegal immigrant who
are engaged in labor market is 69.16%. It can be interpreted into
wage terms such as; about 30% of illegal immigrant populations
are:
1) Engaged in labor market with unreported income.
2) Not considered to be a working age.[footnoteRef:26] [26: In
general, ages between 16 and 65 is considered since minors are not
legally eligible and populations over age of 65 are likely to be
retired. In this particular case, it seems appropriate to consider
wider range of ages based on their preexisting illegitimate status
to job market as illegal immigrants.]
3) Stay-at-home individuals.
4) Students and others.
(Comparison regarding portion in population and labor market
will be noted in Chapter 3.)
Demographical area of illegal resident
The fact that where they inhibit is a relevant to the topic
including crime rates, etc. It seems that illegal residents are
highly populated in certain area more than others. In figure 5,
general illegal resident area can be seen on a map[footnoteRef:27].
[27: Based on 2008 population census]
Interesting point is, between the most populated area and its
subsequent area has a huge gap in population. Also, out of 4 states
that are high in population, 3 states are near to southern border
than other borders of United States. Another point is that New York
States is the only state that is mostly populated but not facing
towards southern border line. California, New York, Miami and Texas
are preferred area of residency.
Chapter Three
Issues regarding illegal immigrants and other collaterals
I. Issues regarding illegal immigrants in United States and
Analysis
Change in wages and job distribution with corresponding
Impacts
a. Issue
To clarify disambiguation, issues regarding wage can be narrowed
down to one category. Regarding the job fields that are occupied
with illegal immigrants, people within the same labor market for
similar skill are worried that they might also have to lower their
wage due to competition with illegal immigrants.
Theoretical idea of the concern is, if the demand remains
constant, depend on the supply, the curve will be shifted resulting
lowering equilibrium point as a whole. Basic idea is, by having
illegal immigrants, supply of labor force will be increase. Then,
the supply curve shifts to right and create new equilibrium point
of (Q2, P2) instead of (Q1, P1). P is for the price, and in this
case, it is their wage. However, Q is increased in amount which
stands for number of jobs in labor market.
In a same sense, by lowering the price, also the curve itself
will be shifted and create the same consequence. It seems like a
compelling idea but for this curve to be applied in the market
system; all other factors must remain the same.
For instance, a person named A was looking into construction
business. He wanted to open his own business but the labor cost
seemed too high and was waiting for his chance to open his own
business. When he found eligible illegal labor force, and decided
to open his business, he will create more demand. In result, demand
curve will also shifted and equalize the effect.
For their theory to work perfectly,
1) The number of jobs available must remain the same. Therefore,
if one person gets hired, the other must lose the opportunity.
2) Amount of jobs created within the same field must be equal to
the amount of jobs taken.
If there were only limited jobs and business available and there
must not be a substitute for their choice. In other words, a
dishwasher must remain as dishwasher and if the opportunity is
lost, he will not have any other choice but to work with cheaper
wage or remain unemployed. Therefore, range of supply must be
limited to within certain boundary.
To analyze concern, first average wage of each job must be
computed. Occupations that hire illegal immigrants are listed in
figure 4, in Chapter 2.
Here are average wage of each occupation shared by illegal
immigrant labor forces. As we can see, the average wage of given
fields is below average wage of Americans not limited to lists
above. The wage listed above is to those of labor forces who are
legally eligible for the job. Since illegal labor forces are
unregistered workers, average of their wage is incomputable.
Looking at each occupation’s field, none of the job is in high
wage occupational section is listed. According to Bureau of Labor
Statistics, listed jobs within United States are about 800. Despite
all other choices, only about 30 job choices are listed.
First, if we only look at the share of listed labor market,
illegal immigrants are taking more than a half of the percentage.
Are we really losing jobs to illegal immigrants? To answer that
question, we have to look into the type of jobs they are working
and how many Americans are willing to compete with them. The total
number of labor force within that job market is 13,352. Since the
number is including illegal immigrants, total number of Americans
will be 6,097 and all numbers are in thousand.
The entire civilian labor forces that are employed are 148,615
including illegal immigrants. The percentage of labor force within
the job market is little less than 9%. Now, in a sense of
competition, number of illegal immigrants must be overruled.
141,360 is the number of American labor force. Now, about 4.3%
of the labor market is working within the field. Considering the
supply and demand curve again, we should see how the theoretical
job market will change if we eliminate cheaper labor.
Since the theory was that demand curve will not shift, the
supply will stay at (Q1, P1). The factor remained same, we should
look at Q. Number of jobs are decreased. In other words, people who
hired them before are not hiring anymore. Why? Under the
assumption, if one is lost, the other must replace its place. How
can there be a replacement when the half of the workers is gone?
Are Americans working twice much?
These are factors we should also consider. What happened to
businesses that does not have enough employees? In this case, the
competition over scarce resource seems to happening in-between
business owners and potential employees. Whose point are we
considering more important? Do business owners pay less tax on
operating cost when undocumented employee is hired? If yes, whose
net loss is bigger?
Also, where will American workers be hired if the business runs
out? It is true that they have broader opportunity in population
concentrated area. Is there an ultimate winner to this problem? I
will have further explanation in the following section.
b. Analysis
Like I mentioned at the beginning of the thesis, there are
always two sides on every issue. In this case, there are people who
think illegal immigrants are helping the economy while other argues
that they cause more problems than they benefit the economy.
First of all, concerning whether illegal immigrants are
eliminating job opportunities for Americans, we should focus on the
fact that the market is not a zero sum game. Other people’s gain is
not the loss on my behalf.
Let’s go back to the part that I discussed how many factors
there are to be considered to evaluate the labor market. The reason
is that consumers to sellers are also sellers to consumers, meaning
market circulates.
For example, let’s say, in a hypothetical situation, an illegal
immigrant took a job from an American. By taking a job in America
he will be forced to spend money on necessities such as housing,
food etc. In that sense, he is consuming goods from an American
market. Therefore, he is contributing to our economy at the same
time he is benefiting from it. Though in reality, it is far more
complex than the situation above since we have to consider every
market he/she is engaged in including government’s net cost.
Second, regarding people’s concern over wage seems somewhat
irrelevant since most of the job does not require high standard
employees, it is inevitable that it will always be lower than other
jobs that requires higher standard. There is a lowest margin due to
government policy. In other words, wage cannot go beyond minimum
wage.
Some jobs on the list are already near minimum wage and the
choice is up to the person who takes the job. In the end, in a free
market system, we all get a chance to decide.
Government spending & public cost on illegal immigrants
a. Issue
Are illegal immigrants free riders in the society? To answer the
question, we will need to look into tax problems since public costs
are mostly done by our tax.
According to Federation for American immigration
reform[footnoteRef:28], costs of illegal immigrants are
$28,645,400,000. However, the problems with their numbers are
somewhat arbitrary. On their report, they argue that costs of
education of child with an illegal immigrant parent or both should
not be considered as government aid for U.S. citizens although they
are U.S. citizens. Also, they have included expenditure on Hispanic
low-income families assuming they are illegal immigrants. Their
argument for it is that language can be deceiving. (Percentage is
not based on total amount. Therefore, it should be disregarded
here) [28: Martin, Jack and Eric A. Ruark. The fiscal burend of
illegal immigration on United States Taxpayers. Informational.
Federation For America Immigration Reform. Washington DC: FAIR,
2010. PDF.]
Source: FAIR, numbers in hundred thousands
Figure 7.
Also, they argue income tax earning, IRS[footnoteRef:29]’s
report on Average $6.25 billion dollar is wrong as well as a 2004
study by the CIS put the estimated tax payments collected by the
federal government from illegal aliens at about $15.9 billion in
2002[footnoteRef:30] since their assumption is that illegal
immigrants are using fake SSN and filling income tax return but
they do not have data. [29: Statement of the honorable Mark w.
Everson, commissioner, internal revenue service, testimony before
the house committee on ways and means, July 26, 2006.] [30:
camarota, steven a., “the high cost of cheap labor: illegal
immigration and the federal budget,” op. cit.]
As oppose to FAIR, Economic Report of the President says earning
from their Medicare taxes, SSA taxes as well as their income taxes.
However, they do not gain any benefit in return since it requires
identification matching. Which viewpoint is more accurate?
b. Analysis
Problem with the issue deciding whether illegal immigrants are
net cost to our society does not seem very ambiguous on where to
draw the line. However, if we draw strict line between illegal
immigrants and U.S. citizens as their official status, the claim on
the expenditure reduces great amount. Also, they cost estimate was
all family based, public assistance decreases as well.
For the general Expenditures, there was no explanation that is
logical to explain how they came up with that number. Their
explanation was based on government spending on general expenditure
was 44.8%; they felt that it was necessary to put large number that
takes 60 percent of their estimated cost.
Since there is no logical explanation on their claim, it seems
that the amount should be disregarded due to its irrelevancy. Also,
on cost regarding law enforcement, they own report states that
Byrne grants does not have a relationship with illegal immigrants
but they assume that illegal immigrants use them as well.
Therefore, it was included in their estimation.
In result, more than a half of their estimation is not based on
known facts and even with the rest amounts, costs for homeless
people, low income family, and Hispanic family are not equivalent
to cost for illegal immigrants.
These seem to be a good example of a logical fallacy. It is true
that 60 percent of illegal immigrants are Hispanic decedents. Also,
we can learn that illegal immigrants’ job list shows us that their
average income might be lower than that of average Americans’.
Nonetheless, logic does not flow backwards. For instance, it is not
true when you say; all superman actors have dark hair and strong
physical appearance. Therefore; all brunette guys with masculinity
body shape are superman actors.
It is inevitable that part of our government spending will be
used for illegal immigrants since they are a part of our society
but for the “free-rider” argument, my position is skeptical about
their stand.
Research result from FAIR is based on lots of assumption. On the
contrary, government estimated numbers do not projects any thoughts
or assumption but just figure amount of number as a data. However,
there was no estimated cost report that is spent on public sector
that went to illegal immigrant population only.
It is hard to figure out whether they are free-riders or it is
other way around. Failing to a logical output does not necessarily
prove their argument wrong. Despite their fallacy to prove such
claim, the claim itself might stand still. Collecting all details
is impossible due to lack of information. Therefore, the question
should remain unanswered until proven fact comes into our
hands.
Crime rates caused by illegal immigrants
a. Issue
The following picture must seem familiar since it is almost
identical to the one that is in Chapter 2. Comparing the area
preference, choice of illegal immigrants’ does not seem too
different from that of Americans’. It seems that proving high crime
rate on areas with high population of illegal immigrants’ residency
will only prove Americans are also capable of committing
crimes.
Here is some information regarding crime stats regarding illegal
immigrants:
1) the undocumented immigrant population doubled to about 12
million from 1994 to 2005, the violent crime rate in the United
States declined by 34.2% and the property crime rate fell by
26.4%[footnoteRef:31] Although data released in September 2007 by
the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) indicates that the
violent crime rate has increased for two consecutive years since
2004[footnoteRef:32] [31: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of
Justice Statistics—Data Online, “Reported Crime in United
States—Total,
1960-2005”{http://bjsdata.ojp.usdoj.gov/dataonline/Search/Crime/State/statebystaterun.cfm?stateid=52}.]
[32: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime in the United States,
2006, September 2007.]
2) Anti-immigrant activists have pointed to estimates by the
U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) that one quarter of all
federal prisoners in the United States is “criminal
aliens.”[footnoteRef:33] [33: U.S. Government Accountability
Office, Information on Criminal Aliens Incarcerated in Federal and
State Prisons and Local Jails (GAO-05-337R), April 7, 2005, p.
2.]
What does all these data suggests?
b. Analysis
It is very hard to build co-relationship between two data in 1).
It is committing a logical fallacy by enumerating two irrelevant
data as if they are interacting together. However, without putting
them together as if they mean something, each data separated from
one another does not have any ground to be linked.
For 2), it is hard to tell whether the information is only
limited to illegal immigrants. Unlike common belief, people who
have rightful residency within the states are entirely different
from those of people who are here without any documentation.
There are other data suggest two entirely different outcomes.
Nonetheless, as I looked closely into it without being misled by
their intentions, there was not much of data that concludes neither
‘illegal immigrants’ population is less likely to commit crimes”
nor ‘illegal immigrants are heavily accountable for U.S. crime
rates.’
Parties argue their points should be weigh more importantly than
the other. Although, their data suggests that it is insufficient
amount of research materials to build relationship in-between. To
be exact, 1) we would have to uncover data that are unreported as
well. In addition to 2) clarify two groups of legal and illegal
immigrants distinctively.
Although there is not sufficient amount of data to build
correlation, it is clear that crime rates are not moving along the
illegal immigrant population rate. In result, knowing that there is
not an ultimate relationship between to rates is the conclusion
that we can get from data above. The least interpretation we can
make from data above is that illegal immigrants’ population is
separate from those of crime rates within U.S.
Chapter Four:
Conclusions
I. Conclusions
The purpose of this thesis has been to explore some of the
controversy over amnesty towards illegal immigrants in regards to
job loss and gain. The preceding chapters have presented data over
some controversies and the effects in our society. As for the
analysis, these different factors that have been researched over
the American society have different results depend on the point of
view. Then I examined research about the history of illegal
immigration regulations, the socio-political economic situation,
and issues raised by illegal immigrants and collaterals. Examining
this specific relationship in terms of population size, job count,
job distribution, and wages has shown us the different parties that
illegal immigrant employment harms and benefits. The results of
this research yielded information that could help provide amnesty
towards illegal immigrants and also it might be a concern to
specific group of people within our country.
In result, as the title suggests, every issue have two sides of
a coin and it is up to us whether we will embrace the consequence
and chose to co-exist with them with some benefits we gain or to
shun them down and have separate ways of our own. Either case, it
is suggesting that America is offering a lot of dreams that other
countries do not.
II. Appendix & Bibliography
Appendix a.
+
Bibliography & Reference
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{http://bjsdata.ojp.usdoj.gov/dataonline/Search/Crime/State/statebystaterun.cfm?
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Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime in the United States,
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U.S. Government Accountability Office, Information on Criminal
Aliens Incarcerated in
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7, 2005, p. 2.
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