US IMMIGRATION DEBATESummary of Key Issues

9TH GRADE GLOBAL ISSUESMAY 2014

The Key Issue: Unauthorized / Immigrants in the USA

• There are approximately 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the USA.

• More than 60 percent of the nation’s 11 million unauthorized residents have lived here more than 10 years. They have deep roots in workplaces and communities. Many have U.S. citizen children. (Source)

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/02/24/at-the-crossroads-for-immigration-reform/

• Significant numbers of talented, educated young people graduate from U.S. high schools and colleges, yet cannot legally join the workforce because they are unauthorized.

Key Issue:The High Cost of Protecting the Border

• Spending for enforcement at the nation’s borders and inside the country, along with biometric screening of all foreign-born travelers arriving at U.S. airports, reached nearly $18 billion by fiscal 2012.

• That is 24 percent higher than the $14.4 billion spent for the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Secret Service, U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

(Source: http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/02/24/at-the-crossroads-for-immigration-reform/)

Immigrants are positive for the US economy:(http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/02/24/at-the-crossroads-for-

immigration-reform/)

• Twenty-five percent of high-tech firms launched between 1995 and 2005 were created by immigrants.

• Twenty percent of small business owners are immigrants.

• Sixty to 70 percent of graduate students in critical technology fields are foreign-born with visas that expire after graduation.

Arguments Against Immigration ReformSource: http://www.bustle.com/articles/20180-why-immigration-is-good-7-common-arguments-against-reform-debunked

1. Increased immigration drives down wages for low-skilled, native-born Americans. 2. Immigrants have the potential to take US jobs from US citizens, when the unemployment rate is still high in the USA.3. Offering a path to citizenship would reward people who broke the law.4. If we keep letting immigrants in in record numbers, white Anglo Saxon Americans will eventually be a minority.

Arguments Against Immigration Reform

5. Immigrants reap the benefits of the US education system without pay for it

6. Immigrants will make Social Security even worse than it is now by collecting more in benefits than they pay into the system.

7. Immigrants hurt American culture because they don’t always speak English.

The White House-Obama Administration Case for Immigration Reform

Best Website:• http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/immigration

Organizations, Groups, Individuals for Immigration Reform

Great Website:http://www.fwd.us/

Economic Impacts of Immigration Reform:

• http://www.voanews.com/content/the-economics-of-immigration-reform/1855855.html

The Conservative Arguments Against Immigration Reform

Best Website:• http://www.heritage.org/issues/immigration

Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/05/hispanic-immigration-and-poverty/361523/