Question One:Do the people and leaders of the United States believe illegal immigration is a problem?

So, the politician and the media recognize illegal immigration as a problem, but do the people of the United States, as a majority, recognize illegal immigration as a problem?I believe these next few polls are evidence to the fact that the majority of the people in this country see illegal immigration into our country as a problem that needs to be addressed. You decide.

“Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling illegal immigration?”

August 31,2010

Approve DisapproveUnsure

12%28%

60%

September 7, 2010

ApproveDisapproveUnsure58%

30%12%

“How serious a problem do you think the issue of illegal immigration is for the country right now?”

August 24, 20100

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

SeriousNot Serious

May 2, 20100

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

SeriousNot Serious

11%

88%

12%

89%

"Would you favor or oppose building a 700 mile long fence on the border with Mexico?”

May 23, 2010

FavorOppose54%46%

"In general, does the number of illegal immigrants currently in this country make you feel angry, dissatisfied but not angry, satisfied but not pleased, or pleased?"

July 21, 20100

10

20

30

40

50

60

AngryDissatisfiedSatisfiedPleased

6%

23%

51%

20%

"Thinking about the issue of immigration, what do you think should happen first? Do you think the federal government should secure the country's borders first, or should Congress pass new immigration legislation first?"

June 30, 2010

Secure borders firstPass new law firstBoth at the same time Unsure

59%30%

6%5%

"Do you think the United States is or is not doing enough to keep illegal immigrants from coming into this country?"

April 15, 2007

Is doing enoughIs not do-ing enoughUnsure

April 24, 2009

Is doing enough

Is not do-ing enough

Unsure

74%

23%

3%

17%

81%

2%

June 6, 2010

Is doing enoughIs not do-ing enoughUnsure

23%

75%

2%

Question Two:How big of a problem is illegal immigration across our borders?

By the numbers:• 11,100,000 number of illegal immigrants in the United States in 2009•11,200,000 number of illegal immigrants in the United States in 2010•275,000 number of illegal immigrants in the state of Maryland in 2010•210,000 number of illegal immigrants in the state of Virginia in 2010•350,000 number of illegal immigrants in the state of North Carolina in 2010•25,000 number of illegal immigrants in the District of Columbia in 2010

Is it location or enforcement?

•In 2009 the state of Arizona had an estimated 375,000 illegal immigrants living within its borders.•The state of Arizona has 359 miles of border to protect.•In 2009 the state of California had an estimated 2,600,000 illegal immigrants living within its borders.•The state of California has 140 miles of border to protect.•You would think that in a state like California, with a border that is less than half the length of Arizona’s border, you would see less illegal immigration than in Arizona.•Instead, California has almost seven times the number of illegals living in Arizona.•The answer to the question: The amount of illegals living inside your borders is not caused by your location but by the way you enforce your border.

Question Three:What problems do the illegal immigrants cause to citizens of the United States?

Vehicle Accidents•Being that the media rarely reports fatal and non-fatal traffic accidents caused by illegals, (usually the media is trying to protect there identity being they’re illegal) it is hard to predict just how many accidents they cause.•Since there are no real statistics on this issue, what we have to do instead is compare the amount of traffic accidents of U.S. citizens to that of illegal citizens.

•For example: the population of the U.S. is 300,000,000; 12,000,000 of that number are illegal immigrants; we must calculate the percentage of illegals in the United States versus the percentage of legal citizens; after calculating we find that 4% of the population is illegal immigrants; there was 33,000 traffic related deaths in 2009; therefore 1,320 traffic deaths were caused by illegals.•There were 11,000 alcohol related traffic deaths in 2009; therefore 440 deaths were caused by illegal immigrants under the influence of alcohol.•All totaled, 4-5 U.S. citizens are killed by illegals in traffic accidents every day.•As bad as all that may seem those statistics were calculated using 2009 numbers. The situation is even much worse today.

Vehicle Accidents

Job Losses•Some common jobs of illegal immigrants would be: cooks, construction laborers, maids, housekeeping cleaners, grounds maintenance workers, and agricultural workers.•That list above proves wrong the longtime myth that “illegal immigrants only take the jobs that Americans workers won't do.”• Using the 11,000,000 illegal immigrants number from before, let’s see just how many jobs illegals are taking from the American people.•If we were to say that 80% of all illegal immigrants in the U.S. have jobs, then illegal immigrants are taking 8,800,000 jobs from U.S. citizens.•Even over the top estimations say that Obama’s TARP program (Stimulus Act) created only 4,700,000 jobs.•We could create twice the number of jobs the Stimulus Act created if we were to crack down on illegals and the businesses that hire them.•Now that is real stimulus to the American people that would cost much less than any bailout or recovery act.

Illegal Substances• The Mexican drug cartels have been responsible for bringing illegal substances into the United States since as far back as 1900. • 70% of all illegal drugs in the United States are smuggled across the border by Mexican drug cartels.•80% of U.S. street meth is smuggled in across the U.S. border by different drug cartels in Mexico.•Don’t hear me wrong, I’m not saying that securing our borders will completely end the purchasing and use of illegal substances in the United States. What I am saying is that securing our borders would considerably cut down on the illegal drugs sold in this country.

Health Care

• When illegal immigrants get seriously hurt we still have to take care of them and consequentially we pay their emergency room bills.• Unpaid emergency room bills cost hospitals, doctors, and taxpayers millions of dollars a year.•There are no exact statistics, which I know of, that say just how many of the unpaid hospital bills are from illegals. However, most of the legal population in the United States is self insured or is insured by the company they work for. That means that most unpaid hospital bills could only come from illegal immigrants.•In many instances the illegal immigrant cannot pay his/her own emergency room bills. This leads to one of two things:1. The doctor and his staff do not get paid for their services or2. the bills are written off to the government and insurance

companies.• How do these bills that are passed on affect you:1. If the bills are written off to the government then you had to

pay for them since everything the government spends is your money (or whoever money they borrowed this week).

2. If a lot of these unpaid bills are passed on to the insurance company that insures you, then eventually your insurance rates are going to go up if the insurance company is to make any money.

• Some major cities like L.A. have already had to shut down large numbers of emergency rooms because of all the unpaid visits.

An Open Door for Terrorists

• One of the things that worry me, when I think about what are some of the potential problems with an open border, is the real possibility of terrorists and their weapons coming across the border without anyone stopping them.•Think about it this way: Could you sleep at night if all the doors in your house were open, the windows too, and the only punishment for those that broke in would be for the police to quietly escort them off your property and leave them somewhere a couple miles away. You would never sleep at night if that was the case. Even though none of that is true about your house, it is, however, the perfect analogy with what we are doing to protect our borders. •There are no reports of terrorist coming across yet, but all it would take is a couple radical Islamic terrorists, with a pickup truck and some sort of weapon and it would be game over. •Some weapons experts have thought terrorists could have the potential to obtain: WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction), or much more likely a NNEMP (Non-nuclear magnetic pulse) bombs. These NNEMP bombs would destroy all electronic equipment within a considerably small range from where they were detonated. It wouldn't be a big deal to lose all communications equipment in a city block but it would be a disaster if terrorists targeted the Pentagon.

“Small crimes always precede greater ones.”- Jean Baptiste Racine

Why are these illegal immigrants so prone to commit crimes after crossing over the U.S. border illegally?

“Where crime is taught from early years, it becomes a part of nature.”

•Many of the illegal immigrants is the U.S. today grew up in Mexico where crime was something they have been used to since childhood. •Some of the crimes they grow up around:1. A large number of families in Mexico make their money either in the smuggling of

people or illegal drugs across U.S. borders.2. Much of Mexico’s government is corrupt including Mexico’s military and its police force.

•Many Mexicans grow up in Mexico where breaking the law is something that they start out doing at an early age.•Also, all illegal Mexican immigrants in the United States have committed a crime; that is, crossing the U.S border illegally.•Once you have broken the law the first time, the second time doesn't seem so bad. That is ultimately the reason illegals commit other crimes once they get here.

What are the crimes?•Illegal immigrants, by my estimates from looking at different statistics, are killing somewhere between 9,500 and 10,500 U.S. citizens every year.•Just about every crime that is committed by U.S. citizens each year, is also committed by illegal citizens each year. •Some of the crimes include but are not limited to: murder, rape, stabbings, robbery, theft of cars and other valuables, possession of illegal drugs, vehicular homicide, and DUI.•Being the fact that they are illegal, it makes it much harder to convict and prosecute an illegal who has committed a crime. •Sometimes U.S. law interferes with Mexico law and illegals must go back to Mexico to stand trial. In that case, the jury in Mexico will probably favor the criminal more than if they had stood before a U.S. jury.

The Cost of Imprisoning Illegal Immigrants is a Rather High One

•The state of California spent over $1,000,000,000 imprisoning illegal immigrants in the year 2009. •In 2009, the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, a program of the federal government that is meant to defray the states costs of incarcerating illegal immigrants, gave out $400,000,000 in assistance to the states. •In 2001 it cost $22,000 dollars per prisoner every year. Today, because of inflation, that number is probably around $27,000. •At any rate we are spending too much on imprisoning illegal immigrants. These people shouldn’t have been in our country, and especially not in our jails.•Illegal immigrants who commit a crime, and must spend time in jail, are the ones who cost the most to the American taxpayers.

Question Four:Why do illegal immigrants, who are risking being caught, want to live in the United States?

Jobs•The primary reason that illegals cross the border to live in the United States is because of the jobs found here.•The jobs illegals pursue in the U.S provide two things that most Mexican jobs do not offer:1. Safer working conditions2. Higher wages because of the minimum wage

laws here in the United States.• Would you rather make $5 today working in

Mexico or make $50 today working in the United States, where working and living conditions are much better. I would rather make the $50 in the United States, especially being that I know the chances of me getting caught crossing the border illegally are slim to none.

• The bottom line is, workers are going to go where the best wages and living conditions are. For now, that is the United States.

Freedom, Protection, and Rights

• The freedom to go where you want to, say what you want, live where you want, own what you want, be friends or not be friends with whoever you choose, practice or not practice any religion you want, buy or not buy what you want (except for Obama Care), and work wherever you want; those are just a few of the freedoms we take for granted every day but some immigrants wish for every day.•There are two things that give Americans protection:1. We have the strongest and best military ever

to exist on the earth.2. We have the best and most honest police

force of any country in the world.• Most importantly, we have the Bill of Rights

that grants us rights and privileges that no other people in the world are guaranteed.

Question Five:Why do we, the citizens and the government officials, not address the problem of illegal immigration once and for all?

Trade Relations

•The United States is Mexico’s primary trading partner.•The United States invests more money into Mexico than any other country in the world.•Since the start of NAFTA in 1994, the trade between both countries has more than tripled.•In 2009, the U.S. exported $129,000,000,000 worth of goods to Mexico.•Trade with Mexico is a very important part of the economy here in the United States. The reason some politician don’t support a tighter border policy is because they are afraid that we will offend the Mexican people and their government.•The truth is Mexico is dependent on the United States for the exports we buy from them and the money we invest into their economy; therefore, no matter how mad Mexico would be at us for closing our borders, and trust me they would be mad, they still could not afford stopping trade with the U.S.

The Overton Window Effect•The Overton Window Effect was thought up by Joseph P. Overton in the mid 1990s. •The Overton Window can be explained like this: It is the window of ideas about a certain issue, that are generally accepted by the public and supported by politicians at a given point in time.• If a politician or a special interest organization wants to move the window toward a different position on an issue, then they must try to make that idea more accepted, popular, or normal. •Different pro immigration groups over the years have gradually made illegal immigration not seem so bad; more normal.•50 years ago the idea of amnesty for illegals was widely unheard of and unaccepted. If a politician had supported amnesty for illegal in the 1950s, then he/she would have been stepping out- side of the Overton Window and would have probably been voted out of office.•This is what’s called “Overton’s Revenge”, when a leader steps outside the window of normal ideas and is consequentially voted out of office. •Think tanks and special interest groups must make an idea popular and acceptable before a politician can say two words about it.•It has taken many years for different groups to make ideas like amnesty for illegals a good thing and it will take many more years for us to bring the popular opinion back to where it should be: illegal immigration being a bad thing and amnesty unheard of.

Question Six:What did our founders and others say about immigration?

George Washington“The policy or advantage of [immigration] taking place in a body (meaning the settling of them in a body) may be much questioned; for, by so doing, they retain the Language, habits and principles (good or bad) which they bring with them. Whereas by an intermixture with our people, they, or their descendants, get assimilated to our customs, measures and laws: in a word, soon become one people.”-George Washington (letter to John Adams, 15 November 1794)

Thomas Jefferson

“The first consideration in immigration is the welfare of the receiving nation. In a new government based on principles unfamiliar to the rest of the world and resting on the sentiments of the people themselves, the influx of a large number of new immigrants unaccustomed to the government of a free society could be detrimental to that society. Immigration, therefore, must be approached carefully and cautiously.”-Thomas Jefferson 3rd president of the United States

Calvin Coolidge“Restricted immigration is not an offensive but purely a defensive action. It is not adopted in criticism of others in the slightest degree, but solely for the purpose of protecting ourselves. We cast no aspersions on any race or creed, but we must remember that every object of our institutions of society and government will fail unless America be kept American.” -Calvin Coolidge, 1924.

“The laws should be rigidly enforced which prohibit the immigration of a servile class to compete with American labor, with no intention of acquiring citizenship, and bringing with them and retaining habits and customs repugnant to our civilization.”- Grover Cleveland 

Grover Cleveland

“Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country.” - Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt

Question Seven:Is there a solution?

Let’s ask Cody.