Dear Mr,President,

Immigration is becoming a rising problem in the United States. Although I cannot vote yet, I watch the news about certain issues. I want to write about a topic that I’m passionate about, especially one I see all the time. Although others have strong opinions about this topic, I want people to be more open minded about immigration and how immigration can help better our country.

Immigration affects the United States population dramatically. Statistics by U.S Immigration Law Firm showed that around 484,073 are legal entries into the United States. However there are around 11.5 million illegal immigrants in the United States today. Immigration impacts everyone. It can be both a positive influence or even a negative influence. This affects me because my family is strongly for deporting illegal immigrants. I personally believe that it’s impossible as well as harsh to deport 11.5 million people out of the U.S. It will also cost a large sum of money that the United States doesn’t have, hence putting us in even more debt.

There are many causes of immigration such as war, poverty, unemployment and even religious persecution. Immigration both effects the host country and their home country. The host country could benefit from the cheap labor, as well as increasing wages for those who are more skilled. The working class could also be harmed because it would become difficult for people to find jobs. The economy could also be negatively influenced from the lack of skilled workers. Reducing the undocumented immigrant population by even 50 percent through border control or deportation, would increase the unemployment rate by 1.13 percent, according to a March 2015 by Andri Chassamboulli at the University of Cyprus and Giovanni Peri at the University of California at Davis. That’s over 8 million workers.

Immigration impacts everyone. It’s a positive influence on big businesses because they are looking for cheap labor. Immigrants can also help strengthen our country. Many will argue that immigrants are “stealing” our jobs. Immigrants are more likely to be hired because employers will want to pay them less. Employers want to pay less instead of hiring those who demand $15 per hour for lack of skills or experience.

Many will argue that deporting all unauthorized immigrants will benefit the United States, or building a wall sounds like the next best thing. Most Republicans are in favor of deportation, while Democrats are against it. 72% of Americans say illegal immigrants should be able to earn their right to stay, while 28% say they shouldn’t be allowed to stay. This is important because immigrants are part of our society, they help keep America standing. Without immigrants the supply of works would shrink dramatically, making less workers available. “Removing immigrants would cost 5.1% of America’s working population, that’s 8.1 million workers” (Jeanna Smialek from Bloomberg). Social Security would also take a hit, immigrants contribute over 13 billion dollars in taxes, a Social Security Administration study from 2013 found.

Deporting 11.5 million people is unrealistic and impossible. It is also a terrible idea when you think about the families that are being torn apart. If a child is born in the U.S from illegal immigrants, the child can stay, but the parents would be deported. So what would happen to the child if their parents are deported? The president could help control the increasing numbers of illegal immigration without separating families and wasting money on deporting those who aren’t a threat.

Deportation shouldn’t be our first and only action to take. It’s certainly not the best option either. We need to reach a compromise and consider how deportation will affect the lives and families of those deported. The negative consequences of removing all undocumented workers would be extremely harmful to the employers, the economy, and even the working class. Immigrants also contribute to our society and economy just like everyone else.

Sincerely,

Sydney