Illegal Immigrants

Undocumented alien, illegal alien, migrant, undocumented worker...

...what do all these terms have in common? They are used to describe an individual who is living in a country illegally.

Illegal Immigrants- a very controversial topic, but one that is (obviously) illegal!

Who are they?

Illegal immigrants are people who either came into the U.S. illegally or entered legally, but stayed past their visa's expiration date. It is estimated that there are around 12,000,000 illegal immigrants in the U.S. Even though illegal immigrants come from all over, Mexico is the largest contributer of illegal immigrants to our country. There are many ways to cross the border illegally. For example people in the Caribbean crossing the Atlantic in homemade boats or tubes, people from South America flying to Mexico and then cramming themselves into boxes to be shipped into the U.S., paying people to smuggle them in. No matter how they attempt in getting into the U.S. they are risking their lives by doing it.

A survey taken by a Pew Hispanic Center in 2005 shows the following break down of where illegal immigrants are from:

57% Mexico

24% Other Latin American countries

9% Asia

6%Europe & Canada

4% Other places in the World.

So why do they do it?

There are many motivations for people to do this. Many want better lives for themselves or for their children. Others leave because of reasons dealing with politics or the economy. Also many come because they are financial need and are desperate to get money to feed their families and put a roof over their heads. Texas, being a border state, gets many illegal immigrants, many people who come here for job oppurtunities to send money back to their families.

How does the U.S. deal with them?

Supposedly, if found out, they are held in immigration detention and then deported, or sent out of the country. One complication of this is when the illegal immigrant's child(ren) were born in the United States, making their children U.S. citizens

...detention, deportation...does this always happen?

Illegal immigration is a sticky and controversial subject, but one that is a huge problem to the United States.

Here's a link to how illegal immigrants fit into Obama's health care plan