by Mark Mylod

Created on: August 14, 2008

Immigration Frustration
The United States has had a history of excluding various ethnic groups since the Alien and Sedition Acts during John Adams term. There are a multitude of the causes for this including xenophobia, foreign policy and economics among others which are basically the same issues that exist today. Our history has a marred and ugly past on immigration and this has been not disputed. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and The Gentlemans Agreement of 1905 have targeted specific ethnic groups being the Chinese and Japanese propelled by discrimination and rationaliztion through economic neccesity. Any ethnic group that arrived in America was faced with the same problems and issues, but now the focus is largely on the Latino community.

The United States has a population of 304,660,969 and its size is slightly larger than Brazil and the estimates are that roughly that between 13 million and 25 million are living here illegally. Nobody really knows the exact number, but the drain on our economy is becoming more and more a reality that we can no longer tolerate or absorb as our educational, medical and businesses suffer not to mention the increasing drug trafficking along the border Arguments made that the economic contributions that illegal immigrants enhance our economy and businesses could not survive without them are superfluous because it has been more take than give to this country. We are going to go through some pretty tough economic times as things are looking grim here and abroad. Rising gas prices, staggering grocery bills, bailing out incompetent mortgage and banking lenders, irresponsible home buyers and faltering loan corporations and maintaining two wars are leaving us high and dry.
Ultimately, it is our children who will suffer the most trying to keep their heads above water as hospitals are closing down unable to sustain the constant bleeding, welfare benefits being sucked dry, and educators struggle to teach the vast majority of illegal students who have no intention of completing high with a drop out rate of 50%. Neither presidential candidate will address this issue as it is not in their best interest when vying for votes. Americans are the most generous nation when it comes to humanitarian causes, but are turning a blind eye when it comes to their own self interest. We are in crisis and our fragile borders must be secured in conjunction with sound immigration policies that must be implemented immediately, otherwise we are ultimately doomed to losing our status as a strong and powerful country.

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