17 Undocumented Immigration in Illinois

There are both advantages and adverse effects from immigration. For example the unwanted jobs that Americans do not want are filled by hiring undocumented workers and there is also a higher GDP, but some of the larger issues are that states are spending billions of dollars a year to pay for illegal immigrants children to have a proper education along with meal expenses, and medical expenses, and some of the minor issues are the lack of acceptance from others, sometimes there is not a common language, and not all of the undocumented workers are skilled for the tasks. If illegal immigration was stopped it could have a large effect on American workers and their jobs, it could cause companies to shut down and then lead to damaging the economy. But then again if the illegal immigrants became legal it would help the United States economy. There are about 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States and around 8 million of them are undocumented laborers. The low employment rate is a driving factor in employers hiring these workers. Many industries benefit from hiring these low wage workers. They are most commonly found to be working jobs such as construction, farming and childcare. Around 15 percent of construction workers are undocumented. One of the issues Americans had with illegal workers is that they have safety concerns about their security. Some Americans believe that the boarders should be closed because the illegal immigrants are taking the Americans jobs, but in many circumstances the undocumented laborers are hired because the employer has so few workers and the Americans do not want these sorts of jobs. These immigrants will take just about any job and work harder than most Americans would to keep it.

Illinois has one of the top 10 states for the largest population of illegal immigrants. There are about 500,000 that reside in the state. About 52 percent of those are male and 49 percent are female.  In the state around 24 percent of the population is under 18, while 11 percent of undocumented individuals are. In the nineteenth century there were many European immigrants because it’s farmland and cities. In the twentieth century many of the immigrants in the state of Illinois were from Latin America and Africa. In 1920 the Mexican immigration to Illinois pick up. This was due to the Mexican Revolution. The violence caused the immigrants to flee. Then there was World War I. this took the Illinois residents away from their work to serve in the war. This then gave opportunity for the immigrant of them ended up in Chicago. rants to come in and fill their positions. Many of the jobs were agricultural and factory work. There were signs of Chicago adapting to the immigrant’s presence like the bilingual signs being placed in public places such as city trains. At first the immigrants took the place of American workers for war related absences, but later they were being recruited because of the shortage of American workers, their willingness to do jobs that Americans did not want to do, and their cheap labor. Now many of Illinois’s illegal immigrants originate from Mexico, almost 72 percent of the immigrants. Many of them have been able to keep their native language. Many Americans believe that the immigrants moved to their country and should have to speak English. This was also a point that was mentioned in Citizen Illegal when Olivarez said, “they build condos across the street & ask the Mexicans to speak English.”(Olivarez, 35)

 Majority of the undocumented immigrants live at or around the poverty level. Again, this was a common theme in Olivarez’s poetry.  One in seven of the individuals who live in the state is an immigrant. One in eight of those are a native-born resident that have one or both immigrant parents. In Illinois there is a variety of education levels among the immigrants. Quite a few of the residents have at least one member in their family who is undocumented. Of the whole immigrant population, 24 percent make up the undocumented population. Undocumented immigrants make up about 3.5 percent of Illinois’s population. As for the percentage of undocumented laborers in Illinois, they make up around 5 percent of that. Over half of the undocumented workers are between ages 25 and 44. The undocumented immigrants paid significantly less state and local taxes than the rest of the residents.

Immigration is a considerably large controversy in the United States. Something that sets this dispute apart from the previous ones is that there is more concentration on illegal or undocumented immigrants now that there has been in the past. Illegal immigrants refer to the movement of individuals into a country, in this case the United states, violating the laws of immigration that the country has. These individuals do not have the legal right to live in the country. These individuals should be more knowledgeable about the standards of becoming a legal citizen in the United States. Our current president has made great effort to close the boarder. Illegal immigrants cost the United States citizens billions of dollars every year.  Usually political leaders are in agreement about the influence immigration has on economy. In a way the economy has begun to rely on them. Undocumented immigration is complex because there is more than one reasonable side of the debate. From an economist’s point of view there Is no doubt that immigrants are beneficial to the United States economy. Some say that illegal immigration should be allowed where it could fix some of the issues. Joshua Hoyt wrote an article about how industries are using undocumented workers for low wage workers. He also talks about the affect these undocumented workers have had on the economy. In the article Joshua Hoyt mentions that that the demand for undocumented labor that causes a significant increase in the taxpayers’ burden would go away by legalizing illegal immigration. (Hoyt, 2004) While Hoyts article talks mostly on how immigrants can help the economy, there was another article quite the opposite. Saper wrote “The report also said the incarceration of convicted illegal aliens in state prisons and jails and uncompensated medical outlays for health care provided to illegal aliens each amount to about $1.4 billions annually” using this as evidence that immigration is not always beneficial to the economy. (Illegal aliens cost California billions)

There are several ways to dispute about immigration, whether you agree or disagree there are benefits and disadvantages to this topic. Most all economist come together and agree that even though not all immigrants are here legally, the economy generally will benefit. Compared to California or the other states that ranked above Illinois in the top ten states for having the largest population of illegal immigrants, in Illinois there is a high demand for low wage jobs in the industry rather than it being just a high number of individuals being in the state. Being well informed on the topic of undocumented labor helps to better understand the role of ethnicities and how they have changed throughout centuries in Illinois.

Works cited

Hoyt, J. (2004, May 10). Why businesses should speak out on immigration workers.

“Illegal Aliens Cost California Billions.” The Washington Times, The Washington Times, 6 Dec. 2004, www.washingtontimes.com/news/2004/dec/6/20041206-102115-6766r/.

Jordan, Miriam. “8 Million People Are Working Illegally in the U.S. Here’s Why That’s Unlikely to Change.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 11 Dec. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/12/11/us/undocumented-immigrant-workers.html.

O’Brien, Matt, and Spencer Raley. “The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Taxpayers: Federation for American Immigration Reform.” FAIR, 27 Sept. 2017, www.fairus.org/issue/publications-resources/fiscal-burden-illegal-immigration-united-states-taxpayers.

Ridder, Karen. “Illegal Immigration Statistics for Illinois.” Newsmax, Newsmax Media, Inc. Newsmax Media, Inc., 14 Sept. 2015, www.newsmax.com/FastFeatures/illegal-immigration-Illinois/2015/09/14/id/691540/.