Illegal Immigration Outline
Thesis: Illegal immigrants are sometimes portrayed as thieves of American jobs and
resources; however, most illegal immigrants are justified in their movement and are not
malicious freeloaders but hard working people looking to support their families.
I. Illegal Immigrants come to the U.S. to provide for their families
A. Immigrants are contributing to the U.S. workforce.
1. About 90% of the nation’s undocumented immigrants are
working. (Campbell 3)
2. If employers are able to keep wages down by hiring illegal
immigrants, then presumably they pass on these savings to consumers in the form of
lower prices. (Campbell 2)
B. Illegal Immigrants take jobs that Americans don’t want.
1. Washing dishes, harvesting grapes, roofing houses, scrubbing
hotel rooms- these tasks are increasingly performed by Hispanic workers. (Campbell 3)
2. They were filling up newly-created jobs and filling vacancies as
native-borns moved up in the queue. (Campbell 3)
3. They played a major role in rebuilding the city when no one else
would do the dirty work. (Gonzales 2)
II. Conditions in Mexico are becoming more dangerous
A. Drug gangs are threatening the safety of Mexico
1. Nearly 200 people, most of them U.S.-bound immigrants, were
killed in Tamaulipas last spring after being seized by gunmen believed to be tied to the
Zetas drug gang.(Ellingwood 2)
2. The Mexican Army rescued 61 immigrants from a safe house in
Piedras Negras. Mexican authorities say the immigrants were being held for ransom and
forced to work for the cartel.
B. Jobs are scarce in Mexico, so immigrants come to the U.S.
1. Long-standing back-and-forth migration has been thrown off as
the U.S. downturn dried up jobs…that once drew legions of Mexican workers.
(Ellingwood 1)
2. The income gap between the U.S. and Mexico is the largest
between any two contiguous countries in the world. (Huntington 2)
III. The U.S. has a very large Hispanic population.
A. The history of the U.S. contributes to continuing immigration
1. Americans like to boast of their past success in assimilating
millions of immigrants into their society. (Huntington 2)
2. Almost all of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada,
and Utah was part of Mexico until Mexico lost them as a result of the Texan War of
Independence and the Mexican-American war of 1846-48.
B. Immigration is increasing the Hispanic population.
1. 46.5 percent of Los Angeles residents are Hispanic. (Huntington
2)
2. It is estimated that by 2050, Hispanics will constitute up too 25
percent of the U.S. population. (Huntington 3)