by Rebecca Mikulin

Created on: August 03, 2008   Last Updated: April 29, 2009

Illegal immigration is a topic imbued with more controversy than oil in the Middle East. Yes, it's that bad. Because of the variety of standpoints on the subject, I have often had cause to consider the many issues surrounding illegal immigrants. What's really bothering people, and how can those problems be dealt with?

When broaching the subject of illegal immigration, most detractors seem to wonder how people can live in extremely cramped quarters and work for minimal wages. Often these workers live as cheaply as possible so they can send their earnings back to their families in their country of origin. What may seem a pittance in the U.S.

can be enough to allow those families to live just a little higher on the hog "back home."

People from these higher-paying countries feel that the immigrants are taking their jobs away and making it impossible to find a decent job, but frankly that's just not true. Sure, someone with no social security number, often poor English skills and no documented skills (such as a degree) could "steal" the job of some high school kid who wants to work at McDonald's. Generally these kids "must" work so they can buy that awesome new system for their clunker vehicle to try to impress peers of the opposite sex. For the most part, illegal immigrants do not take the kind of jobs that the average US

citizen can make a comfortable wage on. Personally I do not feel that this, seemingly the largest problem people have with illegal immigrants, is really an issue. These are the people that fill the less-desirable positions in society like the house cleaners, harvest workers and nannies that many legal citizens do not wish to do anyway because they can get a better job with something as simple as a social security number or green card.

One problem I do see with illegal immigrants is that they work here and do not have to pay taxes like everyone else, because as far as our government is concerned they do not exist until the INS finds them. Citizenship is one good way to solve that. The way I see it, these people found a way to come into the country in the first place and, if deported, will likely find a way to come back (at least from adjoining countries, flying in is getting a little more tricky) and still not be paying any taxes. Given the chance, most - if not all - of these people would become legal citizens, pay their taxes and have to work for the same minimum wage the rest of us do. Eventually, they'd be able to go on to higher education and fill

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