Should Illegal Immigrants be Deported Essay Example

For years the United States has been referred to as a melting pot, the land of success among other names. However, in a few years, names such as those may no longer apply. Recently, the US has refused to allow migrants at the southern border to seek asylum in the US. This is illegal under the Document of Human rights. Not only that but the US is responsible for the downfall of some of the government’s that the migrants are coming from. Finally, the US has lied about these immigrants’ impact on crime in America and on their impact on the economy. The US should support more open immigration policies because of responsibility, international law and the strong economic benefits immigration create.

One reason that the US is responsible for immigrants seeking asylum is that the US is partially responsible for the fall into the chaos of one of the main countries that migrants are coming from; Guatemala. In 1952 President Harry S. Truman executed the mission PBSUCCESS. The objective of this mission was to overthrow the Guatemalan President, Jacobo Arbenz, due to the suspicion that he was soft on communism. However, the underlying reason why the United States overthrew the democratically elected president was due to the fact that Arbenz was returning land that belonged to the United Fruit Company to the people of Guatemala and paying the value of the land back to them. This was an essential step in a promising direction for Guatemala. However, the United Fruit Company had been undervaluing its land so that lower taxes would have to be paid. Since Arbenz returned, the amount of money that was on the tax returns the United Fruit Company got pocket money for their lands. This angered some Americans because the United Fruit Company was one of the primary sources of Latin American fruit to the United States. Another reason why this angered Americans, is that at the time, the fruit business and other business that sold produce from South America was booming. By losing these lands, the UFC took a massive hit economically.

The United States executed this mission on the sole reason that it would hurt the American economy and did not stop to think about the problems this would cause for the Guatemalan state. Once overthrown the US replaced the president with a military junta. This action led to a series of US-backed dictators and threw the Guatemalan government into dysfunction that is still seen presently. This is only one example of the US meddling in foreign governments leading to harmful results. Other countries include but are not limited to, Mexico, Cuba, Panama, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Many of these countries make up most of the immigrants that are at the southern border seeking asylum. If the US hadn’t meddled with their governments then there is the possibility that these countries would not be in the state of turmoil that they are in today. 

Another reason why the US should be responsible for immigrants seeking asylum is that the immigrants at the border have every right to emigrate to another country. Article 14 of the Declaration of Human Rights states, “Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum.” The US agreed to this document after World War II. This shows that denying these migrants from seeking asylum is internationally illegal. Therefore by refusing asylum to these migrants, the US is single-handedly breaking a law that was made to solve the problems like this. The US president, Donald Trump recently petitioned Congress for 5.7 billion dollars to build a wall across the US-Mexico border. This ask is extremely controversial and was rejected. Trump has become desperate due to his inability to complete many of the campaign promises that he ran on in 2016. Trump is not trying to combat the problem by building a wall but instead, he is advertising himself and only in the interests of himself. As shown by time itself, constructing a wall makes it very hard for bridges to be put up.

Many people say that the US is being threatened by the migrants attempting to cross the border. They call the migrants rapists and murderers. However, this is incorrect because stats show that in towns that have large amounts of undocumented immigrants crime actually goes down by 40%. This stat counters the argument that the US is putting forward as an excuse to not take in these immigrants. Immigrants not only are not dangerous, but they also strengthen our economy. Immigrants make up thirteen percent of workers in the US and that number increases every year. Therefore, the US has no excuse not to allow these migrants to seek asylum because they are “dangerous” and “steal jobs.” Additionally, politicians say that immigrants receive benefits that cost lots of taxpayer dollars. However, many of those benefits frequently go to white Americans. To add on to that, immigrants pay billions of taxes each year. In 2015 alone, undocumented immigrants paid a collective sum of over twenty billion dollars. Immigrants fund such programs as social security, Medicare and Medicaid. An abundance of statistics shows how immigrants contribute much more to the economy that they take. There is no longer an excuse to refuse these immigrants because of their ‘negative impact’ on the economy.

In conclusion, it is illegal for these migrants to be denied the ability to seek asylum. The US’ show of force at the border is clearly used to scare away these immigrants from seeking asylum in the US. Additionally, the US is responsible for the political dysfunction in the countries of many of the migrants. The US has secretly meddled with many of these countries governments in the interests of aiding their own economy. Then to make it worse, the US continues to say that the countries were in partnership with the Soviet Union. Finally, people claim that migrants are dangerous and could steal American jobs. However, this is easily countered when one looks at simple statistics on how migrants help the US economy and actually decrease crime. Facts will overcome opinions and following international law easily defeats shattering it. In the words of former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”