Understanding Illegal Immigration: Navigating the Complexities of Immigration Laws and Their Impact

"Illegal" isn't an adjective one would take lightly—it's a contentious term that polarizes public debates about undocumented immigrants. Similarly, any single narrative about "illegal" immigration is suspect precisely because the people whom commentators are trying to label as "illegal" are human beings. These are our neighbors, our friends, and family members. Every migrant's story is different. Each complex human being has a unique narrative. Describing someone as "illegal" undoubtedly reduces their humanity to a stereotypically "criminalized" narrative.

Causes of Illegal Immigration

Poverty and economic factors in the country of origin: Many people simply WANT A GOOD JOB! They are living in poverty and cannot make it financially in their home country without some drastic change. Often, the only obvious opportunity to change their situation is to look for work abroad. There simply aren’t jobs available, and the local ones certainly don’t pay enough for one to support a family. Immigrants do jobs that help every American maintain a high standard of living and pay taxes that support all levels of government. If their labor were removed, everyone in the country would notice and would suffer a reduced standard of living.

Family reunification (in the U.S.): For poor families, economic factors and family reunification go hand-in-hand, as they comprise the "push-pull" paradigm that has formed the cornerstone of understanding why immigrants come to the U.S. Immigration due to family reunification is one of the most visible forms of immigration that everyone is aware of that occurs regularly.

Violence and persecution in the country of origin: While many immigrants residing in the U.S. have come due to family reunification, many immigrants have come to the U.S. as asylum-seekers (and refugees) because there's simply "something" bad going on in the country of origin. Whatever that "something" may be, the person doesn't feel safe in their homeland and wants another shot at life by living in another country (like the U.S.). "Bad" events can be political instability/ongoing civil war, human rights abuses due to violence (domestic violence/gender violence/LGBTQ+ violence), general violence like gang and cartel violence, etc.

Defining Illegal Immigration

"The forms that irregular migration can take vary and can include regular border-crossing, visa overstays, and illegal entry. The first is a practice done by people present who have failed to follow proper guidelines or enter through legal ports of entry (also known as border crossings). Those who overstay their visas form the group of people who stay in the US after their legally authorized period of permission. Irregular entry is a crime under 8 U.S.C. 1325 and involves the act of crossing the border illegally.

The term alternative method of entry is used here thereby doing away with the sensationalist and stigmatizing word—used primarily in the global North to describe this group of people—"illegal aliens" ("Chasing the dragon." 2014). Here too, language discourse is apparent as it fits the narrative of US versus them, and the image of the immigrant as a threat to the imagined community.

The legal definition given by a state in defining what legal and illegal immigration consist of (Koser, 2016) can often be quite parochial practices and other country-specific issues. For example, residency rules, asylum claims, or visa-related matters are all diverging practices. Notions of discourse are wide-ranging, such as: the fines; the amount of time to be spent in a detainment center; and discourse divided again into subcategories—for instance, asylum seeker, economic migrant, short-term visa holder."

Impacts of Illegal Immigration on Society

Undocumented workers provide labor in many industries, such as agriculture, construction, and hospitality. They often take jobs that cannot be otherwise filled, which drives the economy. Others start small businesses. These employers not only contribute to the economy but also create jobs for U.S. citizens. The combined buying power of undocumented migrants and the jobs created by those who start businesses (or those who take undesirable jobs) keep the U.S. economic engine going.

The second most cited reason for the economic consequences of illegal immigration involves costs. Many leave their shoes in the Rio Grande in the hope of better medical treatment in the U.S. Some want the best in medical technology, while others may need the outstanding trauma units available. Those who live within the U.S. use American healthcare and education with little or no reimbursements. Yet, while they avoid certain taxes, the problem of policing illegal immigration further eats into the budgets of police forces at all levels of government and causes contention within many communities.

Cultural differences of other countries. In those areas that may have the most to offer the cultural landscape at large, what will happen when Hispanic cultures efface the unique local tradition? Another issue within this top 10 list is that of social problems. Visitor workers and undocumented workers share homes, often having as many as eight or more per household. These homes, often not the best to begin with, become rundown and lack proper sanitation. In the short term, these homes often are a source of disease.

Potential Remedies and Solutions

Proposed solutions fall into several categories. For example, some advocates suggest making it easier for undocumented immigrants already in the U.S. to obtain legal status—basically, amnesty. If the goal of immigration reform is to solve the various problems that illegal immigration causes, this could meet the test. Pathways to citizenship, if that is the eventual goal, provide stability and provide the benefits that any other citizen would have, including a much less exploitable worker. (Of course, that also means that the fully protected, fully salaried worker might lose jobs to citizen applicants where that wouldn’t have happened before.)

Legal status also likely implies some sort of functioning guest-worker program. The U.S. had a Bracero program from 1942 through 1964, although there were many serious problems with it, including rampant collusion and recruitment of low-wage workers in Mexico, who were then all but enslaved when they arrived in the U.S. It was little more than a government-organized human-trafficking program. In fact, that may still be an issue today; as this article suggests, even now, the visa system ropes workers into jobs with shady employers who cheat them out of wages with little fear of the workers blowing the whistle. The Bracero program led to a ratcheting-down of farm worker wages as each season’s crop of labor was hired, a practice that the United Farm Workers and César Chávez famously fought against.

Another program place above, at least for the purposes of this essay, is the LOTM concept of System D, or the huge underground network of illegal (and by extension, cash) work that exists in the U.S. What, after all, is work being done for cash but a way to avoid paying taxes (on both sides) and, frankly, exploit low-wage workers while still allowing them to make, for them, good money? Is there an argument to be made that a functioning System D is actually required for the overall health of the economy? If so, could more generous legal immigration, or at least an expanded ADA policy, into the U.S. hurt our economy rather than help it? If a large part of our low-wage (and not so low-wage) work relies on that work being done under the table, as it were, and if more immigrants in the country with potentially improving status (from illegal to legal) were to move that work out of it, we might have a problem on our hands.

Those who presumably would want the immigrant who’s working under the table to be able to do so legally will cry racism and exploitation. Those who are willing to use the country’s economic health as an excuse for keeping illegal immigration are likely to try and convince everyone else that any reforms will hurt the economy.

Unauthorized border crossings occur largely for one reason: people around the world find themselves in situations so desperate that they feel they must leave their homes. These situations vary, but can often be characterized as saturated with war, persecution, economic or environmental unrest, etc. For some people, "home" has become such a treacherous place that they have no choice but to run away and seek refuge someplace else. What do they think about when they step outside of their front doors and begin their treacherous journey to a new place? I think the prominent idea that runs through their minds is the hope that they will one day arrive somewhere better than the home they just left.

Understanding why unauthorized border crossings take place so frequently means that people all over the world have to step outside of their homes and start running on the journey toward a better life. The simplest possible conclusion that could be drawn from this proposition is that the world that refugees and migrants live in must have deteriorated into a disgusting pit of human suffering. These people do not embark on these journeys lightly; they are driven by grotesque situations of last resort to start the walk across the border and into a new country.

The important proposition in question that will be discussed in this article concerns the point of view that will be taken in order to adequately argue against this proposition. I will argue against this proposition from a particularly human perspective that understands the simple feeling of compassion. I will turn this feeling into a political agenda and exploit it across the ever-ambiguous international imaginary that delineates immigration law.