Running head: UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS IN UNITED STATES 1 UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS IN UNITED STATES 9 Undocumented Immigrants in United States Hassan Almahdi St. Mary’s University Undocumented Immigrants in United States Overview Undocumented immigrants can be defined as those people who were not born in America and have no legal rights that allow them to live in America. Undocumented immigrants are also known as aliens but this is not a legal term and it is widely used among the Americans because of its abusive connotation. It is believed that there are more than 11 million people living in America as illegal or undocumented immigrants in United States and this number has stood steady in the last the last eight years consecutively (Massey & Gentsch, 2014). This has been credited on many things that include stability of the Mexican economy and the gradual economic gains of nations across the world that have witnessed a number of its citizens moving to America to seek employment. Other immigration experts attribute this to the recent signed immigration policy by the Trump administration in United States. This paper will look at some of the issues around immigration in America that impact undocumented immigrants. Undocumented Immigrants The report that was released this year on the number of undocumented immigrants in the United States has remained steady in the last seven years and it has stood at 11.3 million. One reason as to why the number of undocumented immigrants in America has been steady is because of the Mexican economy stability and the improved rules and regulations on immigration in America that have been passed in the last few years (Goldman et al., 2014). The number of undocumented immigrants is likely to go down further in the next few years given the deportation policy that has been passed into law by the Trump administration in the recent past. The policy though controversial has given the immigration department powers to identify any undocumented immigrant and depot them back to their countries. the united states federal government has maintained that the proposed wall on the Mexican American border remain the highest priority of the current administration and this will contribute to the reduction of undocumented immigrants in America (Jiang, 2017). Mexico has been the mother of countries that produce most of the undocumented in American but it reduced to just 49% in 2016 and they have dropped from 6.4 million in 2009 to 5.6 million in 2015. The number has been increasing due to instability among most countries and people have flown to America to seek refuge and asylum. Rules, Regulation and Government Legislation The major reason as to why there are more immigrants in United States in the rules and regulations that must be followed for one to be an American citizen and that allow the authorities to deport already undocumented immigrants ...

1. Running head: UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS IN UNITED
STATES
1
UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS IN UNITED STATES
9
Undocumented Immigrants in United States
Hassan Almahdi
St. Mary’s University
Undocumented Immigrants in United States
Overview
Undocumented immigrants can be defined as those people who
were not born in America and have no legal rights that allow
them to live in America. Undocumented immigrants are also
known as aliens but this is not a legal term and it is widely used
among the Americans because of its abusive connotation. It is
believed that there are more than 11 million people living in
America as illegal or undocumented immigrants in United States
and this number has stood steady in the last the last eight years
consecutively (Massey & Gentsch, 2014). This has been
credited on many things that include stability of the Mexican
economy and the gradual economic gains of nations across the
world that have witnessed a number of its citizens moving to
America to seek employment. Other immigration experts
attribute this to the recent signed immigration policy by the
Trump administration in United States. This paper will look at
some of the issues around immigration in America that impact
undocumented immigrants.
Undocumented Immigrants
The report that was released this year on the number of
undocumented immigrants in the United States has remained
steady in the last seven years and it has stood at 11.3 million.

2. One reason as to why the number of undocumented immigrants
in America has been steady is because of the Mexican economy
stability and the improved rules and regulations on immigration
in America that have been passed in the last few years
(Goldman et al., 2014). The number of undocumented
immigrants is likely to go down further in the next few years
given the deportation policy that has been passed into law by
the Trump administration in the recent past. The policy though
controversial has given the immigration department powers to
identify any undocumented immigrant and depot them back to
their countries. the united states federal government has
maintained that the proposed wall on the Mexican American
border remain the highest priority of the current administration
and this will contribute to the reduction of undocumented
immigrants in America (Jiang, 2017). Mexico has been the
mother of countries that produce most of the undocumented in
American but it reduced to just 49% in 2016 and they have
dropped from 6.4 million in 2009 to 5.6 million in 2015. The
number has been increasing due to instability among most
countries and people have flown to America to seek refuge and
asylum.
Rules, Regulation and Government Legislation
The major reason as to why there are more immigrants in United
States in the rules and regulations that must be followed for one
to be an American citizen and that allow the authorities to
deport already undocumented immigrants in United States. The
regulation that one must follow to become a legal immigrant in
United States are so involving and most of the immigrants have
not been able to adhere to them. The rule that allow American
legal immigrants to invite in their immediate relatives has
contributed largely to the number of undocumented immigrants
in America because the rule requirements have not been
followed to the letter (Jones & Martin, 2017). The requirement
to get a green card as the first requirement towards getting
American citizenship has made it quite impossible for most of
the undocumented immigrants to become legal immigrants in

3. America and if this is changed, it is likely that the number of
undocumented immigrants will reduce in America. The
deportation regulations are also involving and expensive. It is
estimated that the government will have to spend up to $ 12,500
to deport one immigrant to their country. According to the
report that was published by Center for American Progress in
2015 shows that it cost the government $23,480 to deport one
person. the American government should change the law that
require that undocumented immigrants be subjected to legal
proceedings before being deported as this will reduce the cost
of deportation. The laws and regulations on asylum and
temporary protected status are some of the laws that should be
changed so as to ensure that people who come to America under
these provisions are satisfied as so by their countries of
immigration department in United States (Jiang, 2017). The
American authority should pass legislations that target
undocumented immigrants with criminal records even if they are
under limbo status called deferred action or are protected by
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) or are being
helped by Prosecutorial Discretion. the government should pass
laws that are aimed at not only stopping entry of illegal
immigrants in America but it should pass laws that will support
the already signed Executive Order by the trump government
that will ensure that all the undocumented immigrants are
deported to their respective country without being subjected to
legal processes. Most of the movements that have supported the
rights of undocumented immigrants have used the law to halt
the efforts of the government that are aimed at deporting the
illegal immigrants.
Actions that can be taken against Illegal Immigrants
There have been a lot of social petitions and movements have
been formed in the recent past that advocate for the rights of
undocumented immigrants in America. Most of the movements
have been cited by the media and the public asserting that the
recent immigration policies that have been passed by the Trump
administration are oppressive since they do not allow for the

4. immigrants to be hard before an impartial tribunal so that they
can be heard and deported or settled in the American society
based on the legal merits (Goldman et al., 2014). Civil
movements have responded to the immigration policy by filing
court cases against the government which have resulted to court
injunctions on the government efforts to deport the said
undocumented immigrants. Social movements have also
organized public protests against the policy throughout United
States (Jones & Martin, 2017). These protests have been
organized to ensure that all the said illegal immigrants are
legalized and their liberty respected just like other immigrants
in America. Nonviolent social protests are the best ways to end
the current social impediment to the stand between the
government and the social rights advocates in United States.
Apart from the social protest, the government should engage the
human rights activities and the movement leaders and
organizers to come up with the solution on how the issue of
undocumented immigrants can be solved once and for all in
America (Roblyer et al., 2016). Protest cannot bring solution to
the problem because the solute to undocumented immigrants can
only be solved if the root cause of these illegal immigrations is
solved in the process so that there will be no such movements of
people. Nonviolent action will also ensure that all the
undocumented immigrants are treated with human dignity in the
process something that will be different as to how they would
have treated through deportation mechanism.
Arguments as To Why Undocumented Immigrants Should Be
Deported
One of the major reason as to why there is high levels of alien
immigration to America is for the sake family reunification.
This comes as a result of American citizens sponsoring their
relatives who then become American citizens. The idea sound
good and provide the best ground on which immigration policy
should be based on (Chavez et al., 2017). But it makes no
economic gain to American government and government and it
has disastrous consequences. The spouse, children and parents

5. of the citizen may be unskilled or are less educated which may
make them public charge and burden. This will only contribute
to the American labor market being dominated by unskilled
labor force in the world (Jones & Martin, 2017). This has been
the opinion of the Department of Labor, which is mandated with
the responsibility of protecting the employers in America for
more than 20 years now but no one has been there to render the
department a listen ear. Most of the companies that rely on
these labor source that include food processors, cleaning
companies and agriculture enjoy their presence and always want
more illegal immigrants to come to America so as they can
provide the cheap required labor (Roblyer et al., 2016). These
companies could care less about public benefits, unemployment
rates and rest of the pathologies that an excess of alien
immigrants is causing to the American public. An influx of
cheap labor from undocumented immigrants has been the reason
as to why the American wages is low as compared to other
countries such as Switzerland.
Another reason why illegal immigrants should be deported is
the fact that alien immigrants abuse the welfare state that is
offered by the American government. Most of the legal
immigrants in America are allowed access to welfare such as
medical insurance by Medicaid and even government sponsored
housing (Massey & Gentsch, 2014). Given the fact that most of
the immigrants can access welfare has reduced the value of
welfare that is given to the American people something that
contribute to their poor living standards. Some alien immigrants
are not allowed to access welfare which makes them demand for
lowly paid houses resulting to slums in the American urban
centers. Since most of the illegal immigrants can access
welfare, they consume more from the government as compared
to what they can contribute since most of them earn little that is
not even taxable (Chavez et al., 2017). Undocumented
Immigrants also contribute to the economic inequalities that are
witnessed in America resulting to the increasing gap between

6. the poor and the rich in the American society.
It is of course undoubtedly that most of the undocumented
immigrant pose insecurity in America and make American
society more insecure. With the trends in global terrorism, most
of the terrorist groups are using undocumented immigrants to
recruit locals to join their terror groups. Apart from terrorism,
most of the studies have shown that most of the immigrants who
do not get employed are prone to joining gang and criminal
organizations that terrorize the American streets (Massey &
Gentsch, 2014). Most of the female undocumented immigrants
join social practices such as prostitution and drug trafficking
something that increase insecurity and rates of crimes in
America. These are one of the reasons as to why immigration
should be restricted in America. America remains to be the most
open country in the world and if restrictions are not put in
place, then it is likely that law and order may be compromised
given the fact that most of the people who migrate to America
increase the levels of unemployment.
Conclusion
Illegal immigrants can be defined as those people who were not
born in America and have no legal rights that allow them to live
in America. Alien immigrants are also known as aliens but this
is not a legal term and it is widely used among the Americans
because of its abusive connotation. It is believed that there are a
lot of undocumented million people living in America as illegal
or undocumented immigrants in United States and this number
has stood steady in the last the last eight years consecutively.
This has been credited on many things that include stability of
the Mexican economy and the gradual economic gains of nations
across the world that have witnessed a number of its citizens
moving to America to seek employment. Other immigration
experts attribute this to the recent signed immigration policy by
the current administration in United States.
References

7. Chavez, L. R., Flores, E. T., & Lopez-Garza, M. (2017).
Migrants and settlers: a comparison of undocumented Mexican
and central americans in the United States. Frontera Norte, 1(1),
49-75.
Goldman, N., Pebley, A. R., Creighton, M. J., Teruel, G. M.,
Rubalcava, L. N., & Chung, C. (2014). The consequences of
migration to the United States for short-term changes in the
health of Mexican immigrants. Demography, 51(4), 1159-1173.
Jiang, J. (2017). Patrisia Macías-Rojas, From Deportation to
Prison: The Politics of Immigration Enforcement in Post-Civil
Rights America.
Jones, B., & Martin, D. J. (2017). Path-to-Citizenship or
Deportation? How Elite Cues Shaped Opinion on Immigration in
the 2010 US House Elections. Political Behavior, 39(1), 177-
204.
Massey, D. S., & Gentsch, K. (2014). Undocumented migration
to the United States and the wages of Mexican immigrants.
International Migration Review, 48(2), 482-499.
Roblyer, M. I. Z., Grzywacz, J. G., Cervantes, R. C., & Merten,
M. J. (2016). Stress and alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use
among Latino adolescents in families with undocumented
immigrants. Journal of child and family studies, 25(2), 475-487.
Undocumented immigrants
· Undocumented immigrants
· Rules and regulation need to be changed
· Government legislations – Accommodate or Deport.
· Prober action toward illegal immigrants
· Why they should leave & why they should stay.
· Economy views

8. SMC 2302 Final Paper Rubric
Grading Criteria
Points Earned
Points Earned
Points Earned
Points earned
Focus: (5pts)
1. Identify what central issue your paper will examine
2. Provide a thesis statement to focus your research
5 points
The thesis is clearly stated in relation to the larger social issue.
4 points
Thesis can be stated and situated more clearly within the larger
social issue.
3 points
The thesis is unclear and/or confusing.
2 points
The paper lacks any direction.
Research: (10pts)
1. Paper follows APA style notes
2. Describe what factors contribute to this issue and how
3. Discuss how organizations and policies seek to remedy this
issue and how their interpretations of relevant research and
public opinion informs their decision making.
10 points
An in-depth rational evaluation of relevant research is
presented.
8 or 9 points
A moderate depth of evaluation of relevant research is
presented.
6 or 7 points
A superficial evaluation of research is presented.

9. 5 or lower points
No credible research is presented.
Voice: (10pts)
1. Identify any oppressive policies or practices and how civil
resistance and/or advocacy could create pressure for social
change.
2. Articulate what nonviolent social actions are needed and
why they are needed to target the roots of this social issue.
10 points
You clearly explain what actions you propose and why.
8 or 9 points
You provide some explanation for the actions you propose.
6 or 7 points
Explanation for your proposed action is vague and/or confusing.
5 or lower points
No actions are proposed.