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Essay / The importance of immigration reform in the United States
In the past, immigration reform efforts have typically been overshadowed by other events such as national security. Immigration enforcement has been favored over immigration reform because the latter would require both sides to make far more compromises. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) of 1952 essentially provided complex rules regarding immigration to the United States that are still in effect today. It defines qualifications for naturalization, regulates foreign students, manages temporary workers, and authorizes humanitarian protections. Over the years, it has been amended several times to allow greater access to the nation. Currently, the U.S. immigration system is not working as the number of illegal immigrants entering the country continues to increase. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay Many politicians agree that some sort of immigration reform is needed to solve the immigration problem. There are approximately 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States, many of whom come from Mexico and Latin America. President Obama offered a “common sense proposal” for building a fair and effective immigration system for the future. The proposal's four principles include strengthening the country's border security, streamlining legal immigration, creating a means to earn earned citizenship, and cracking down on businesses that employ undocumented workers. On June 27, 2013, the Senate passed the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act. This would allow many undocumented immigrants to obtain legal status and eventually citizenship. Additionally, it would make the border more secure by adding up to 40,000 Border Patrol agents. It would also advance talent-based immigration. New visas are also offered. It would need to be adopted by the House of Representatives before coming into force. Reforming the immigration system in the United States is very important. Many agree that we cannot continue to allow more and more illegal immigrants into the United States. Illegal immigration hurts the economy and much taxpayer money has been used to help pay the costs of illegal immigrants (i.e. medical bills, etc.). Illegal immigrants encourage companies to exploit them by hiring them as cheap workers and paying them extremely low wages. Concerns about immigration reform are that the costs of increasing security will be too high and could lead to higher taxes. Other concerns related to reform include that the new policies could be too restrictive or too unrestrictive and unfair. There is much debate over the best type of immigration reform, such as whether it should be comprehensive or incremental. Furthermore, people fear that the reform is not the right solution to solve the problem and will not be effective at all. While there is general consensus that the problem needs to be addressed and resolved, opinions are divided as to the limits of reform and what would make it unethical or inhumane..