How much longer will Arizona have to suffer from illegal immigration? Peter Katel wrote that “While illegal immigrants only make up about 5 percent of the U.S. work force, critics of the nation's immigration policies say illegal immigrants take Americans' jobs, threaten national security and even change the nation's culture by refusing to assimilate” (Katel par. 1). We will look at how Arizona is dealing with illegal immigration. Even though illegal immigration is not a major issue in most states, Arizona is dealing with more crime, overcrowding, and additional cost.
One important example of why illegal immigration is an issue in Arizona is the increased crime rate. Arizona’s crime rate has increased with all the troubles that come along with illegal immigration. We recently had an Arizona rancher murdered on his ranch by suspected illegal immigrants. We also have illegal immigrants buying stolen identities from cyber-criminals. These individuals print out new, fake social security numbers and photo identifications for the illegal immigrants. In some cases these identification cards are stolen and the names changed. Arizona also deals with human trafficking across the borders. This is also tied into the drug smuggling. They create tunnels to sneak drugs and people across the borders undetected. Terrorism is also a major concern for securing our borders since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Overcrowding is another example of how illegal immigration is hurting Arizona. Arizona deals with inaccurate census reports and finds that our schools have too many children and not enough teachers. Many of these children learn English as their second language. We also deal with the same situations at our hospitals. Emergency rooms are overcrowded, we don’t have enough doctors, and there is a language barrier. All of this is created due to the amount of illegal immigrants in the state of Arizona.
“The number of illegal immigrants in the country has topped 12 million, making immigration once again a central topic of debate. Moreover, with undocumented workers spreading far beyond traditional "gatekeeper" states such as California and Texas, complaints about illegal immigrants have become a daily staple of talk radio. Enacting tougher enforcement policies has become a dominant theme in the 2008 presidential campaign, particularly on the Republican side. Just in the past year, states and localities have passed hundreds of bills to crack down on employers and illegal immigrants seeking public benefits. But Congress has been unable to act, despite a bipartisan deal brokered last year by the Bush administration. A new administration and the next Congress will likely face what has proved so far an impossible task — curbing the number of immigrants without causing labor shortages in key economic sectors such as agriculture and hospitality” (Greenblatt par. 1).
Most importantly the cost associated with Arizona dealing with illegal immigration is...
