“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” For a country of immigrants, the United States doesn’t seem to have a very well defined notion of what to do regarding the millions of undocumented immigrants currently residing within its border. There are an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, whether they be visa overstayers or those who crossed the border or anything in between. There are those who advocate for deportations and stricter immigration laws, whether out of economic fear or safety concerns. However, there is a stronger argument to be made that we should incentivize more immigration and create more pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, because immigration of all forms is beneficial to the United States.
Firstly, we must consider how difficult it is to legally enter the United States. Thousands of potential immigrants must wait months if not years to be granted the ability to legally enter the country, and even then, it might take more time for that to come to fruition. The wait time for a green card in 2018 was nearly six years and is trending towards being even longer. The increasingly long wait times can leave potential immigrants in situations where they are separated from their families, or worse, left in unsafe situations in their home countries.
Many undocumented immigrants are fleeing violence and poverty in their countries in the hopes of finding a better life in the United States, the richest country in the world and the land of opportunities. The Founding Fathers declared this as a nation with the core belief that all are entitled to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Many immigrants coming to American hope to achieve the age-old American dream of working hard to succeed in life and support their families.
“Give me your tired,” The New Colossus cries. They are tired of waiting, and we owe them the opportunities in this country that millions of immigrants from past generations have had. Not doing so goes against the values America represents.
Moreover, undocumented immigrants contribute significantly to the economy. The strawman of the “scary immigrant coming to take your job” is old and silly. Most Americans believe that immigrants fulfill jobs that native-born Americans won’t do, such as jobs in the agriculture industry. It’s also been found that undocumented immigrants “start new businesses at twice the rate of native-born Americans.”
Even though they are ineligible for most federal public benefit programs, undocumented immigrant men are more likely to be in the workforce than US born men. According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, “the IRS estimates that undocumented immigrants pay over $9 billion in withheld payroll taxes annually. Undocumented immigrants also help make the Social Security system more solvent, as they pay into the system but are ineligible to collect benefits upon retiring. In 2010, $12 billion more was collected from Social Security payroll taxes of undocumented workers than were paid out in benefits.”
People who work in a country and pay taxes to its government, even when they are not able to benefit from the taxes they pay, are honest, hardworking people. These undocumented immigrants deserve citizenship, as they should be able to reap what they’ve sown. This all goes to show that the financial concerns surrounding undocumented immigrants is unfounded and even works against the interests of working American citizens.
The plea “give me your poor,” however, attests to the fact that the notion that immigrants should earn their way into the country through their economic impact should not be the defining feature that “lets them in.” There are millions of native-born Americans who are living in poverty or are homeless, and their socio-economic position does not make them any less worthy of being US citizens.
Additionally, the safety concerns raised by some when talking about undocumented immigrants are nearly baseless.
The Sentencing Project, a research organization who advocates for immigration reform, has found that Immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than native-born citizens, and that higher levels of immigration in recent decades have likely contributed to the historic drop in crime rates. In a country where crime rates are steadily dropping and where the government spends around $100 billion annually in policing, crime from undocumented immigrants should not be something that concerns anyone.
Objectively, the best way to decrease illegal immigration is to increase the capabilities of legal immigration and helping undocumented immigrants through pathways to citizenship. If the definition of what is considered illegally immigrating changes, and if more undocumented immigrants are given documents, then they will finally be able to reach their fullest potential as Americans.
When undocumented immigrants are given documents or citizenship, what they can do in the country and for the country is drastically increased. They can more easily obtain driver’s licenses, apply for more skilled jobs, and benefit from the taxes they pay. When these immigrants are given the ability to produce more, and therefore consume more, they will help the United States’ economy much more than they currently do. Additionally, they will no longer have to hide from the authorities and will be able to live freely in the country they call home. As the Center for American Progress says, “the sooner that legal status and citizenship are granted to the unauthorized, the greater the gains will be for the U.S. economy.”
The “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” are waiting for us as Americans to provide them the freedoms that we take for granted every day.
And we mustn’t wait any longer.