Bill Osborn
Mr. Currin
Block 1
3/25/09
English 11
Rough Draft
The United States has always been considered the land of opportunity since the 1800s
when immigrants starting settling in the country. However, in recent years the immigration rate
has increased drastically and herin lies the present problems affecting the United States.
Immigration is doing more harm than good to the United States and its citizens. At risk areas
include homeland security, race relations, population, environment, and the economy.
Something needs to be done soon to curb the intake of immigrants before the United States loses
control of the situation.
One major problem with immigration within the United States is the threat to homeland
security. Everyone will recall the nineteen immigrants who were also terrorists and their attack
on the World Trade Centers on September 11, 2001. These terrorists were allowed entry into the
United States, where some even attended schools here. All the while on American soil, they
carefully were planning their attack on American, the country that welcomed them with open
arms. Even today, eight years later, the risks of allowing future terrorists to enter the U.S. is
great. Everyday, immigrants are wanting access to this country some trying to get in illegally by
sneaking past our border patrol or by false documentation. This brings about a desperate need
for tightening security at the borders and regulating immigration. According to Senator Robert
C. Byrd, the United States enforcement of immigration at the borders is still at risk, “Since
September 2001, an estimated two million new illegal immigrants have successfully beaten our
border and interior security” (2). The United States Government has to do something to prevent
this kind of infiltration of immigrants into the country. The nation and its citizen’s security are at
risk. The United States needs to regulate immigration inside America’s borders before it’s too
late.
Another negative effect of immigration on the United States is that uncontrolled
immigration threatens race relations. In Los Angeles, police are predicting what they think will
be a race war between immigrants, mainly between the Hispanics and Blacks. According to
Lance T. Izumi, “it appears that uncontrolled immigration is playing a key role in the building
racial conflict” (2). With more and more immigrants entering society, the street gangs in
California and elsewhere have fresh, new members. The influx of blacks that are involved in
gangs has slowed down; whereas, just the opposite is true for Hispanics which has increased
drastically. These Hispanic gangs are becoming even more popular with Central Americans and
Mexican immigrants entering the United States looking to make a fast, easy buck through drugtrafficking. The uncontrolled immigration is devastating the social aspect of the United States’
internal society as well as California’s and other urban areas. With uncontrolled immigration
hurting race relations, human nature prefers familiarity which is obviously not what immigrants
like. Human nature prefers and requires their common values. The common values keep social
tensions low and at a minimum. The uncontrolled immigration is a threat towards many people
like the ones who prefer familiar and common values. According to Saskia Sassen, “the United
States and other wealthy nations often view immigration…as a national crisis that requires strong
police action” (1). Immigration needs to be controlled and soon as it is a definite threat to the
United States and its citizens.
Immigration’s effect on the population and environment of the United States is another
area of great concern. People who are from and originate from less technologically advanced
countries enter the United States, which is an advanced nation, and they do severe damage to the
environment. Immigrants cause more damage to the environment of the United States at a faster
rate than native-born citizens. This increase of pollution, over-crowding and energy shortages
can all be blamed on the over-whelming addition of immigrants to the country. These and more
negative effects are detrimental to the present and delicate condition of the environment.
According to Karen F. Balkin, research shows that the damage from immigrants to the
environment is tremendous:
Immigrants in the United States use up fresh water -- a rapidly shrinking resource
-- at a rate that is 63 percent higher than the rate at which they would be using it
in their home countries. Further, immigrants from undeveloped nations triple
their energy consumption and their carbon dioxide production when they come to
the United States. Thus, proponents of immigration restriction claim, the current
high rates of immigration contribute significantly to America’s -- and the world’s
-- ecological problems. (1)
The more immigration is allowed into the United States, the more damage to the environment it
will cause. Additional immigrants to the United States will cause an over-abundance of chaos,
not only environment chaos, but also cultural chaos. With more and more new immigrants
entering the country everyday causing living conditions to become over-crowded eventually a
clash and dispute between the cultures will erupt. According to John Vinson, “Many natives,
feeling like foreigners in their own country will experience a deep sense of alienation, a
psychological condition characterized by anger and sadness” (2). The U.S. Census Bureau
estimates that the population of the United States will grow to over 400 million people in the
next several decades due to immigration (Byrd 2). Limiting and regulating immigration will
prevent over-crowding and other environmental issues from arising.
With that being said, all of these critical negative impacts resulting from immigration is
also a burden on the United States economy. Each year over a million new immigrants settle in
the United States. The astronomical costs to the United States and its citizens is unbearable from
the influx of immigrants ranging from $11 billion to $22 billion. This major increase to the
United States population due to immigrants is affecting everything from schools, health care,
transportation, energy networks and more. Not only is the United States economy effected, but
the countries from which these immigrants originated from are effected as well. Immigration is a
contributing factor to the loss of tax revenue for the countries they come from. For example, one
million people from India have immigrated to the United States, thus contributing to its countries
loss in tax revenue. According to Louise I. Gerdes, “Although this number comprised only 0.1
percent of India’s population, the immigrants’ U.S. earnings were equivalent to 10 percent of
India’s national income” (1). This has hurt India as well as the United States, as many U.S. jobs
are being taken over by immigrants and the cost of having them in the country is mounting.
In conclusion, immigration has many negative effects for the United States. Immigration
is detrimental to the United States resulting in damaging the economy, causing race and culture
conflicts, threatening the security and borders, increasing the population, and harming the
environment. It’s time the United States takes a stand against letting any more immigrants enter
the country. Enough is enough.