Immigration Debate Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Immigration Debate - Essay Example This essay Immigration Debate discusses the issues of illegal immigrants and the corresponding US laws. Traditionally, immigrants to the U.S. were less likely than those born in America to collect welfare. This historic arrangement has radically changed over the past three decades. Today, immigrant families are at least 50 percent more likely to receive federal benefits than those born in this country. Additionally, immigrants are more likely to adapt their lives to rely on the welfare system and studies have shown the longer immi ¬grants stay in the U.S., the more likely they are to be on welfare. To further aggravate the situation, when an illegal immigrant becomes a citizen, he can legally bring his parents who also have the right to become citi ¬zens. Approximately half of current illegal immigrants do not possess a high-school level education. Welfare use among this group and for low-skill immigrants granted amnesty is three times the rate for the U.S. born citizens. The hea ted rhetoric of the immigration debate has caused many to become fearful that their standard of life will dramatically decrease if the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants are permitted to stay in the country, so much so that there is a growing movement to disallow citizen status to the children of illegal immigrants born in the U.S. The 14th Amendment addresses this issue. â€Å"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside†.