Illegal Immigratiion for Decades, Congress

Illegal Immigratiion

For decades, Congress has been worrying over the influx of illegal immigrants and the impact it has had on the economic conditions as well as the job market in the country. Policy makers have repeatedly had to answer people concerned about losing their jobs to illegal aliens and thus they have come up with various policies to effectively handle the problem. The majority of these illegal immigrants are Hispanics, most of them Mexicans, who were forced to leave their country because of bad economic conditions and serious unemployment. (LeMay, ed. 1989, 6)

The illegal alien influx was the main driving force behind the passage of IRCA, the law designed to stem the flow of illegal immigrants to the United States by "demagnetizing" the lure of the U.S. labor market.

Ironically the influx of Mexicans to the U.S. is in itself an unexpected result of a prior policy change i.e. The termination of the Bracero program in 1964. This program had been designed to allow employers in the U.S. To import cheap labor from Mexico temporarily to meet labor shortage in the country. This had begun during the Second World War when agriculture lost millions of workers to better jobs in metropolitan areas. However the labor shortage in agriculture was quite pronounced and it was also found in other areas as U.S. economy began expanding rather rapidly. The Bracero program had to be expanded and it went to its peak in mid 1960s. But as it expanded and more and more people began coming from Mexico, organized labor and other interest groups felt threatened and forced the government to terminate the program. The sudden termination however proved ineffective as it had a backlash effect. It certainly stopped the flow of legal immigrants but gave unprecedented rise to the influx of illegal aliens who crossed borders and entered the U.S. In search of better jobs. These were essentially the same people who would have come to the U.S. legally under the Bracero program, had it not been terminated (Muller and Espanshade 1985, 13).

We understand that the worst time was when illegal immigration reached its peak in 1970s and stirred a controversy over the economic impact of immigration, especially connected with illegal aliens. Let's make it clear that U.S. citizens have worried about economic impact of immigration in general too and not necessarily about illegal immigrants but since they have a stronger case against the latter, it is group that is most aggressively and frequently debated.

Interestingly scholars and interest groups have represented both sides of the issue. There are those who underscore the economic burden but then there are others who do not agree. For example a study in 1982-83 had found that illegal aliens were contributing more to the economy than the state was spending on them. (Cited in LeMay, ed. 1989, 10)

There is much confusion in connection with the economic impact. Some studies feel that illegal aliens contribute very little considering the fact that they are usually employed in low paying jobs.

Economists have consistently argued back and forth as to whether or not illegal immigrants are actually driving down wages and making working conditions even worse. Some economist saw it from a different angle. They felt that some employers need to fill the low wage niche as they need to make some profit too and this niche can only be filled by illegal aliens who are willing to work at very low wages. If it had not been for those immigrants, some small firms would go out of business. This is a documented fact. When the Bracero program ended in California, many farmers had to close their business and move. Some went to Mexico while others simply sold their farms because they were unable to employ workers at the minimum wage level. Only lettuce and citrus growers in the state could raise the wages, most others couldn't afford the luxury and went out of business.

Economist Walter Fogel, however, has presented one strong argument against illegal immigrants as he says that the influx of illegal immigrants has caused problems for blacks, legal residents of Hispanic origin as they lost the jobs that were previously available to them.