Used And Abused

Francarlo Resto

Used and Abused

Immigration is seen as one of the biggest issues in the United States currently in the media. The media has painted a negative image of immigrants, specifically Mexicans. With the help of stereotypes such as laziness, big families, and job stealers, Mexicans have suffered from discrimination for many years now because of how they are viewed in society. But ultimately it is the United States fault for this problem.

            Over time I’ve noticed a continuous cycle with immigration from countries in Latin America. The United States was suffering from lack of employment and needed some type of help in agriculture and eventually industrialization. Then once they feel as if they don’t need them, they just replace them with more immigrants. But the need for help after WWI led NAFTA to bring immigrants over to the U.S. because of the crucial need for cheap labor. They saw this cheap labor as an opportunity for a huge increase in profits within the states. The desire for a life outside of poverty, Hispanics sought out the American dream by coming into the states and working at these different farms and industries. They slowly started to bring Mexicans into the country with the Bracero program, which promised jobs and guaranteed minimum wage, which certainly didn’t seem to be true. And once things started to go down hill, they just get rid of the old ones and found fresh new immigrants to replace the old ones. Immigrants started to face harsh treatment with unfair pay and they demanded that they gain those rights and benefits. These benefits couldn’t be obtained because of the strategic plan of the United States to have contractors hire them so that they don’t gain the company’s benefits. This continuous cycle seems to be never-ending with immigration and the United States.

          

  In the work force today, there are many factories and companies that are taking advantage of the immigrants who are just trying to earn enough money to support their family. The companies are having many immigrants who are working on fake papers, which is what’s causing all the commotion within the United States. Since we recently were affected by high rates of unemployment, many citizens knew of all the job opportunities that were being taken away by immigrants who weren’t United States citizens.  But Immigrants hold such a strong presence within the U.S which means that deporting these undocumented immigrants would take way too long and potentially cost a lot of money. According to the Center for American Progress sees that having a reform for the documentation of all illegal immigrants would benefit the United States with a 1.5 trillion dollar increase in the economy. They also claimed that the deportation of all illegal immigrants would lead to a 2.6 trillion dollar loss in GDP over a period of ten years. Seeing as this is true, immigrants are really needed in the U.S and deporting them would be a lost for the United States as well as the immigrants.

           

Sources:

http://www.usimmigrationsupport.org/illegal-immigration-from-mexico.html

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/report/2012/07/06/11888/the-facts-on-immigration-today/