Ilegal Immigration into Texas

Marilyn Bujang
Pennie Boyette
English Composition 1301
27 September 2014
Illegal Immigration into Texas Immigration is the action of coming to live permanently in a foreign country. Illegal immigration is regarded as the unlawful entry of any foreign national across another national border. It can also be referred to as the process whereby, foreigners gain entry into another national border in the ways that contravenes the immigration laws of the targeted country. The United States has forever been known as the land of the free, and the nation of opportunity. Over a million immigrants take up residency in the United States each year. However, not every immigrant comes into this country through legal procedure, and most of these illegal immigrants are poor and uneducated people. They might be brought here because of human trafficking, smuggling or other methods. The United States welfare system has difficulties supporting the huge numbers of immigrants coming into the country each year. A majority of the immigrants are from poor countries, and come to the United States looking for work. This is especially true of illegal immigration in Texas. Texas has many illegal immigration problems. To begin, it is impossible to say exactly how many illegal immigrants are living in Texas precisely because no authority documents their entry into the state. Statistics show that there are approximately 11.2 million illegal immigrants in the United States. Most immigrants leave their countries due to the harsh conditions faced there like malnutrition, lack of jobs, less education or they leave to look for greener pastures. However, they face numerous problems when they get to the United States. For example, they are often not able to obtain a social security number; hence, they can neither apply for any job nor get a driver’s license. They are also not able to get health insurance. As a result, they have to pay huge amounts of money for health care. Some of these illegal immigrants struggle to seek asylum while others marry American citizens to get documented when they get to the United States. . These immigrants will have to live their lives hiding because if they are caught, they will be deported back to their countries. Some of them end up going back to their countries due to the many problems faced as undocumented immigrants. Also, according to United States government records, over the last sixteen years, more than six thousand people died while attempting to cross the United States border illegally from Mexico, and found themselves in a dangerous environment. Even under these conditions, immigrants continue to enter Texas illegally. For example, immigrants from Central America cross the border in south Texas, where temperatures are soaring. In south Texas, the Rio Grande River that marks the border with Mexico is fairly easy to cross. However, once they are across, the undocumented immigrants find little water, heavy brush, and many small creatures that bite them. In addition, Texas harbors many illegal immigrants, especially Mexicans. About sixty two percent of illegal immigrants in Texas are Mexicans. Texas Governor Rick Perry said Wednesday on “Hannity” that President Obama needs to act now to stop the surge of illegal immigrants flooding across his state’s border, calling it “a humanitarian crisis that he has the ability to stop”, (Texas Immigration Choices). Governor Perry promises to secure the border, and take Texas’ approach to government nationals. Other Texas lawmakers share Governor Perry’s stance. “Undocumented immigrants crossing the border will unleash criminal activity nationwide if the government does not crack down on them”, a Texas lawmaker claimed. What is probably more accurate, though, is that illegal immigrants are less likely to commit crimes because they are aware of the fact that they are undocumented, and do not want to commit any crime that will draw attention from the government. That is, they know that if they are caught in any crime, they will be repatriated. Moreover, various reports have demonstrated that many of the country’s lowest crime rates can be found in places with the highest immigration rates; that America’s crime rate dropped radically between the mid-nineties, and the early twenty-first century, just as immigration was booming; and that the incarceration rate of native-born men is higher than that of immigrants. But there are problems with these reports. Few of them differentiate between legal and illegal immigrants; the former are often well-educated people who have been vetted by immigration officials and their prospective employers. Lumping them in with illegal immigrants might sharply skew the statistics. On the other hand, some of these illegal immigrants are very dangerous. It is surprisingly difficult to determine what portion of the prison population is made up of people who are here illegally. According to the Federation American Immigration Reform (FAIR), about eighty two serious crimes committed by illegal immigrants have been recorded from January 2013 to May 2014. As a result, the crime rate among undocumented immigrants could be considered underreported. Furthermore, international students in the United States are legal immigrants, but as soon as they finish with their studies, they have to go back to their countries. The majority of them will not want to go back, and would, at that point, become illegal immigrants. Even as legal immigrants, they still face almost same problems as the illegal immigrants. For example, in Texas, international students do not have work permit so they cannot work. The only place where they can get a job is on their school campuses. Also, these international students cannot apply for financial aid, and will have to pay out of state tuition which is extremely expensive. Also, they cannot get a driver’s license, which makes it difficult for them to go to school especially in many parts of Texas, where there are no public transportation. The money they make from the jobs at their campuses cannot be enough to pay their tuition and all their bills, and as a result, most of them end up dropping out of school. Generally, Texas has many problems with illegal immigration, and the Texas government is trying to deal with these numerous problems. Texas needs to watch the border patrol to ensure the rights, liberties, and freedom that it offers are going to well deserving people and not to illegal immigrants. If immigrants wish to come to Texas, they should complete the process rightfully and legally.