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| Yes | 65% | 36 votes | Total: 55 votes | |
| No | 35% | 19 votes |
Yes
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Add to FavoritesIn every country there is always a swell of illegal immigrants flooding - causing chaos within their communities, cities, and so forth.
In America, the topic of Illegal Immigrants have always been discussed since people started coming over on boats from Europe to New York. To some people, illegal immigrants are quite usual to illegal jobs - people pay for slaves to work in "sweat factories" for hours on end for hardly any money. They know that their slaves won't leave because they are in the country illegally and therefore will not bring any attention to the illegal transactions that could be occurring.
There are also illegal immigrants that pay criminals for identities that were stolen such as passports, social security cards, national insurance numbers, and so forth so that when they enter the foreign country, they won't be hassled by immigration. These sort of people usually think through their plans for entering a foreign country, where they're going to live, how they will provide for themselves, and so forth. Sometimes, they have friends or relatives helping them come over illegally and that is where they get their funding.
The biggest reason why landlords should report illegal immigrants to the authorities is to ensure that no illegal immigrant that they come across is a terrorist. Since the 9/11 attacks and the 7/7 attacks, governments are becoming more concerned about their country's security and that means taking extra precautions to ensure that everyone who is in their country is there legally and that they are not causing any danger to anyone. Terrorism seems to be starting to be the popular crime against countries these days and frankly, it's just not right. It's almost as bad as genocide.
An illegal immigrant is a person who enters a foreign country illegally and that within itself is wrong - due to their entry being illegal, it makes them an automatic criminal and criminals need to be persecuted.
Many illegal immigrants come to a foreign country to try and have a better life than the one that they have in their homeland but what they don't understand is that the grass is not greener on the other side. If they actually get away with entering a country illegally and actually get to work in a sweat shop, they will be more imprisoned then when they were in their own country for a few reasons: 1. They will be property to the person who owns the shop, 2. It would take forever to have enough to set themselves free 3. They won't be able to get any other work due to the fact that they aren't legally in the country 4. they'd probably never get the money to return back to their homeland and they'd feel like they ended up back where they started and yet again dream of going to another foreign country.
The only way to get to a foreign country legally is to go through the system and that is the best way to try and find a better life for oneself.
Learn more about this author, Themis Libra.
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No
There are millions of illegal immigrants in this country. After food and water, shelter is the most important survival need. Since few individuals, regardless of legal status, will voluntarily to live without a roof over their heads, there is a need for hundreds of thousands if not millions of housing units for the illegal immigrants in this country.
There has been a belated public recognition that large numbers of generally poorly-paid illegal immigrants have a huge impact on social and governmental services. Couple this larger need for services with less taxes paid in to support these services, and there are now calls for something to be done to reduce or eliminate the population of illegal immigrants.
The need for housing being a universal constant, one of the proposals that has been put forth is to require landlords to check the visa status of all of their tenants and to report it to the government. On the surface, it seems to be a reasonable follow-up to the employment checks that are supposed to be performed already. It will cover a majority of the population 'they' are concerned about. Plus, since a landlord is already performing identity checks, it is just a simple additional step for them to take.
Both of those are important points. Renting is the most common form of habitation for immigrants of all types, but especially so for illegals. Thus, checking renters for legal status will reach most of the illegal immigrant population. Quality landlords do check who they are renting their property to. They want to verify that they are renting to responsible individuals who will pay the rent on time and will not destroy the property.
Mandating particular checks and requiring that information be turned over to the federal government will have a chilling effect on the rental market. It will be an added cost to landlords that effectively reduces the number of potential renters they will see. It would also be dangerous for the illegal imigrants who are seeking to rent. By reducing the stock of decent and safe rental property open to them, they will be forced into crowded, substandard housing. This substandard housing will directly increase the amount of social services demanded by the illegal immigrant community - in terms of emergency health care and increased criminal activity. Both of these are categories that are funded by legal citizens and residents. While this will make their lives less pleasant, it will not induce many to return to their legal country of residence.
Forcing landlords to check the legal immigration status of their tenants will ultimately have a minimal impact on solving the problem it is aimed at. Simultaneously it will increase the costs of community services. This is a bad idea. The funds and efforts would be better spent on enforcing existing employment laws - as the state of Arizona demonstrated in 2008. A crackdown on employers led to a significant reduction in illegal immigrants living in that state. It worked because it addressed immediate reason why those individuals had come to the state - by reducing the attraction, they reduced the problem.
Learn more about this author, Jack Thornton.
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