OP-Ed
“Should the United States of America legalize illegal Immigrants?”
by Sammy Nkayamba, Boston University, Boston, MA, posted November 7, 2010

Legalization of illegal immigrants in United States has been one of the biggest debates in the country for several years now.  Recently, President Barack Obama publicized his intention to reform immigration procedures and possibly offer legal status to many undocumented people living in the United States, but many people are opposing President Obama’s proposal.

Regardless of the opposition to this issue, I strongly believe that illegal immigrants should be offered a legal status to live in the United States.

They do play a big role in contributing to this great nation of United States. Instead of unreservedly opposing the proposal, the debate should be about who should and who should not be considered for legalization.

The majority of those who disagree legalizing illegal immigrants, presume that immigrants will usurp job opportunities while many Americans are already unemployed and suffering economically.

Do immigrants really pose a threat to jobs and economic livelihood as many conservatives assert? I highly doubt it.

Obviously, there are job classifications in this country, and in order for someone to cross the bridge into high salary jobs takes hard work at school. An illegal immigrant cannot get admitted into, much less afford to pay for, school bills.

For crying out loud, an illegal immigrant cannot tap into so called "American jobs".

To make it more clear, reports have been flying in the media that in California, farmers are already suffering for lack of cheap labour to harvest their vast crop as the Americans have totally refused to go pick the crop, saying that the job is back breaking in the extremely hot weather, and pays too little. Even after advertising in the media, reports said that only a few Americans responded to the farm help positions advertised out of the needed thousands, leaving farmers suffering with unpicked farm produce which can not last long before going bad, setting off a cycle of economic losses.

So, is this a case of the proverbial "dog in the manger" when Americans prevent poor immigrants to take these jobs yet themselves refuse them? What are the farmers supposed to do while they can not afford to pay $15 an hour for tough daily agricultural farm help?

We should not forget that immigrants actually help the economy of this country to flourish by keeping lower paid jobs such as hotel cleaning, food services, nursing homes, and many other manual labor jobs, in which their wage ranges from 5 to 8 dollars an hour. One can agree with me that immigrants contribute to cheap labor which leads to the flexibility of business, leading to cheaper prices, better quality products and higher profits.

Why do people think that immigrants are a threat to a National Security? What I don’t understand is that whenever you talk about illegal immigrants the issue turns to be undocumented people who live in United States. I must be clear that I am talking about illegal immigrants who entered the country legally with visas, but for some reasons, they overstayed or their cases are pending in immigration.

I’m convinced that the Department of Homeland Security through INS has their records and so they are documented. Why are these people being put in the same boat with undocumented immigrants? I believe those opposing President Obama should take this into consideration. I think it is not fair for these immigrants to suffer the same fate with those who entered into the country illegally and yet continue to live illegally.

Remember, these folks entered into this country with valid visas, although I am not justifying their violation of stay. Immigrants, who are now illegal, came to the United States hoping to have a better economic life. Most of them are fleeing economic, social and political, oppression, unemployment and poverty. 

Also, I completely agree that the Mexican border is a major passageway for undocumented immigrants, so the government should put more effort to protect this border.

Finally, before making the final decision as to whether or not to legalize illegal immigrants, the government must take a step back, recognize and discuss positive effects that illegal immigrants bring to United States, and consider the role immigrants have in shaping the American economy.

After such reflection, we realize that refusing to legalize immigrants will hurt not only the illegal immigrants themselves but the nation as well.

Sammy Nkayamba is a Tanzanian born student at Boston University, Boston, MA
He can be reached at : sammen@bu.edu

Nb. The opinions expressed in this artilce are solely the responsibility of the writer and not necessarily the opinion of AjabuAfrica.com.Publishing the opinion does not mean that Ajabu Africa News endorses the view points of the writter in any way , shape or form.
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