Sarah Grimsley
Illegal Immigrants
America is the place where people all over the world come to fulfill their dreams. America is one of the most diverse places in the world. For some reason, Americans today are so unaccepting of immigrants, especially those who are over in the U.S. illegally. If you think about it, everyone in America, except Native Americans, is a descendant of an immigrant. When most people hear the words “illegal immigrant,” they automatically think of a criminal, someone who came over here to sell drugs and make money. While this may be true for some illegal immigrants, it’s definitely not true for all. Three myths that most people tend to believe about illegal immigrants are that they all snuck across the Mexican border, they don’t pay taxes, and they are all criminals.
MYTH 1: ALL ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS SNUCK OVER THE MEXICAN BORDER.
According to the article “ Myths and Facts About Immigrants and Immigration,” “Between one third and one half of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. have overstayed their visitor, student, or work visas.” This meaning that most of illegal immigrants were given permission to come to the United States for a certain amount of time by the U.S. Government, but have overstayed their time. Work and student visas are more common than most people think. Many immigrants start going through the process of becoming an American citizen while being in the U.S. with some type of visa, but the process of becoming an American citizen is very lengthy. Illegal immigration is often something that occurs once the immigrants have lived in the U.S. legally for some time and have stayed longer than they initially agreed to stay. The assumption of “jumping over the border” cannot be generalized on all illegal immigrants, only a small fraction of immigrants take this route into the United States. Also not all illegal immigrants are from Mexico, a lot of illegal immigrants also come from Canada and different parts of the world.
MYTH 2: ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS DON’T PAY TAXES.
Many people think that illegal immigrants don’t pay taxes at all. While some may not, this is not true for most. According to the article “Immigration Myths and the Facts,” “More than half of undocumented immigrants have federal and state income, Social Security, and Medicare taxes automatically deducted from their paychecks. Undocumented immigrants also pay property taxes—even if they rent housing.” While most Americans think that illegal immigrants don’t pay taxes, most pay the same taxes as they would if they were an American citizen. “According to the SSA, undocumented immigrants paid $13 billion in payroll taxes into the Social Security Trust Funds in 2010 alone” (Immigration Myths and the Facts). As you can see, illegal immigrants pay a lot more money in taxes than you probably expected and are taxed just as heavily as law-abiding citizens in some instances.
MYTH 3: ALL ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ARE CRIMINALS.
We, as humans, are really bad about putting labels on people before we have even been given the opportunity to get to know them. Most Americans think of illegal immigrants as criminals, outlaws, and rebels. Like mentioned before, yes, there’s always going to be one rotten apple on the tree, but that doesn’t mean that every apple on the tree is rotten. According to the article, “Myths and Facts About Immigrants and Immigration,” “ Study after study has shown that immigrants—regardless of where they are from, what immigration status they hold, and how much education they have completed—are less likely than native-born citizens to commit crimes or become incarcerated.” Immigrants come to America to fulfill their dreams in hopes of building a better life for themselves and their families. Didn’t our ancestors come to America as immigrants many years ago for those same hopes and dreams? They don’t come to America to look for trouble, they come to get an education, to find jobs, and to get a fresh start. They come to America to experience what the true “American Dream” is all about.
America would not be what it is today if immigrants from all over the world did not come to one nation and unite as one. Immigrants are what made America. When Americans hear the word “immigrants,” they should have a positive attitude towards it, not a negative attitude towards the idea of immigrants coming to live in the United States. We, as Americans, should want these illegal immigrants to gain citizenship. While the process may be very lengthy, we should encourage these illegal immigrants to gain citizenship instead of trying to push them out of the country. So next time you hear the words, “illegal immigrant” don’t jump to forming negative thoughts that will corrupt your mind, but instead think of the positive attributes immigrants bring to our country. Remember all Americans, except Native Americans, are descendants of immigrants.
Works Cited
“Immigration Myths and the Facts” U.S Chamber of Commerce, 14 April 2016, https://www.uschamber.com/sites/default/files/documents/files/022851_mythsfacts_2016_report_final.pdf . Accessed 6 October 2017.
“Myths and Facts About Immigrants and Immigration.” Anti-Defamation League, 2017, https://www.adl.org/education/resources/fact-sheets/myths-and-facts-about-immigrants-and-immigration. Accessed 6 October 2017.
Getty Image, Odyssey, 2017 https://www.theodysseyonline.com/5-facts-undocumented-immigrants. Accessed 25 October 2017. (picture)