As both of my blogs demonstrate, I stand for immigration. My ideals would appeal to a more liberal standpoint. Immigration has been a hot topic for years now. It has been a key component in both our country’s political parties: Democratic or Republican. The Republican party, known to be the conservative party, is known to advocate for less immigration flow in the country. Many of its politicians have been very open in their opposition to immigration. Our current president, Donald Trump who is Republican, has made several comments on the issues regarding illegal immigration. He has advocated for an increase in deportation. However, his ideals do not represent every Republican, but he does reflect many other American citizens’ beliefs. Although there are many reasons to stand for the immigrants in the country, it is unreasonable to argue that we should grant citizenship to every single immigrant in the United States or that we should have our borders open to everyone. The needs of the American citizen should be the priority such as safety, economic security, and stable laws.
I have never really looked into conservative sites. This is because when it came to researching immigration in the past, it was easy to come across sites that advoacted for immigration. The Federalist is a well known news page that is known to demonstrate many conservative perspectives. One of the articles that hit an important point regarding immigration is “Why Mass Illegal Immigration Probably Cost More Than You’ve Been Told.” It is written by both Willis L. Krumholz and Robert J. Delahunty. Krumholz is a University of St.Thomas graduate who works in the financial service industry. Delahunty is a professor of constitutional law in the University of St. Thomas. Both authors have a wide understanding of this subject considering the article discusses the finance aspect of the economy along with the law aspect of immigration. A big pro that is always presented for immigration is the economic gain recieved from workers that happpen to be immigrants. However what is usually ignored is the cost of illegal immigration weighing down on the overall economy. Although immigrants are not completely able to recieve every benefit provided by the federal government as an American citzen, they still recieve ones that are not counted for. An example that is provided in the article is public education. Public education is able to function due to taxpayers. “According to a 2017 study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, federal and state governements pay nearly $135 billion annually to cover the cost of an estimated 12.5 million illigeal immigrants and their 4.2 million citizen children present in the country” (Krumholz & Delahunty). This statistic reflects that many immigrants do not pay taxes but children attend public schools. However, this statistic may demostrate an overestimate of illegal immigrants and may not count for other contributions that are given by illegal immigrants.
Another news site that I chose to give me more insight on the right-side media would be the PJ media. It is known to cover various conservative opinons and commentary. I came acorss the article, “Assessing Trump on Immigration.” This is written by Mark Ellis who is the author of A Death on the Horizon. This novel happens to center political upheavel and cultural intrigue. He breaks his article into “truths” which convey a lot of common arguments. One intersting truth he speaks about is “If you are an illegal immigrant who stayed out of trouble with the law, except for the crime of illegal entry, you’re probably home free.” This is meant to debunk many arguments made from the liberal standpoint that many illegal immigrants are acutally not in this “massive” danger of randomly being deported. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE , an agency within the Department of Homeland Security, is known to rally many illegal immigrants with the purpose to deport them. Under former President Barack Obama’s adminstration, he pushed for the group to target undocomented immigrants who had committed serious crimes within the U.S. However due to Trump’s zero tolerance policy, Trump pushed ICE towards rallying anyone who is an illgeal immigrant. Due to the push, many Democrats have viewed ICE to be a part of Trump’s big picture plan on extreme harsh immigration policies ( Nixon, Ron, and Linda Qiu.) In Ellis’ argument, he claims that many illegal immigrants are safe from deportation but there are many testimonies that say otherwise. For starters, many drivers tend to find themselves in a checkpoint. This is where you’re usually checked by the police and asked for your license. Obviously, illegal immigrants will not have their license. The law they were breaking was driving. However it is not these extreme, dangerous actions that ICE should be targeting yet these are the actions that are done that cause an automatic deportation.
An article made by the Orange County Register, tells the story of a DACA recipent named Osny Sorto-Vasquez Kidd. An agent from ICE dressed up as a police officer and claimed to be a dectective. She approached him with the claim that she was looking for a dangerous man. “But the photo was apparently fake. And the woman wasn’t a detective. She was an agent with U.S Customs and Immigration Enforcement, and she arrested Kidd, an immigrant with temporary protective status, and took him to an immigration detention center in San Bernardino.” (Kopeteman). This story reflects the direct extremes that ICE has taken to arrest people who seem “suspicous” of being an illegal immigrant. This young man has a status in this country yet he still is targeted. This proves to show that an action does not have to be done in order to be targeted. Ellis claims illegal immigrants that are not committing crimes are safe at home. If someone who has some form of protection still is messed with, it is no surprise that someone with no status is in deeper trouble?
There are many grey areas when it comes to the overall immigration issue. There is a lot to work on. Both conservative and liberal bring very important points that should be taken note of. I identify more with liberal standpoints but there are many conservative points made about immigration that I agree with. American citizens should always come first in both an economic and safety standpoint. As a country, we do need to control our borders. We need to secure a system that provides us with more legal immigration. However, we need to be consious of immigrants being humans too. Their lack of status does not mean that it is a ticket to disrespect or degrade them. It is time to see both sides with an open mind to ensure a stronger immigration system.
Works Cited
Ellis, Mark. “Assessing Trump on Immigration.” Pjmedia.com, PJ Media, 23 Apr. 2020,
https://pjmedia.com/columns/mark-ellis/2020/02/26/assessing-trump-on-immigration-n380020
Kopetman, Roxana. “Lawsuit Targets ICE Practice of Posing as Police.” Orange County Register, Orange County Register, 17 Apr. 2020,
Krumholz , William L, and Robert J Delahunty. “Why Mass Illegal Immigration Probably Costs More Than You’ve Been Told.” The Federalist, 16 Aug. 2019, https://thefederalist.com/2019/08/13/mass-illegal-immigration-probably-costs-youve-told/
Nixon, Ron, and Linda Qiu. “What Is ICE and Why Do Critics Want to Abolish It?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 3 July 2018,
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