Illegal Immigration

by Margaret Haerens

Presents a collection of essays that offer varying viewpoints on the subject of illegal immigration, discussing such issues as the hiring of illegal aliens, civilian patrols, sanctuary policies, racism, and the militarization of the American border.

Genres: Nonfiction

212 pages, Paperback

First published April 30, 2006

Reviews

[Easten Kruser]

Easten Kruser
English 1
Dec,16 2024
Mrs.Kenkel
Illegal Immigration

In this book it talks about how immigrants damage America. In chapter one it talks about how they do affect America. They affect America by some of them being criminals and bringing harm to America. Don't pay any taxes to the government and dont work jobs. There are estimated over 500,000 gang illegal members and there are 580,000 thousand deaths for them. Each year there are 2.3 million immigrants that come into America.
Illegal immigrants Harm America's Economy. Illegal immigrants harm the economy by making all of the house prices going up and. Some of them don't even work and still get paid for the government. They are using forged Social Security cards, stealing someone else’s number. They only pay social security taxes when they have a mainstream job. There is 311 billion in uncollected taxes cited by the baron's study.
Illegal Immigration harms border communities by trashing people's yards and lots of this are destroyed by the border. They are fighting with the officers controlling the border. Some don’t listen to what they say and do not follow the rules. They bring diseases to the U.S and some of them bring illegal drugs.
In conclusion the main parts of the book are that lots of immigrants are coming across the border and someone needs to do something about it. They are harming the economy and damaging America. They are making the government weaker and the people.

[LA · Rating 3 out of 5]

Different cover/edition: red border, statue of liberty foreground

[JasonS · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book "Illegal Immigration" is essentially a composition of essays that is edited by Margaret Haerens. As its title implies, the essays in the book take a side on the issue of illegal immigration. The authors of the essays (or testimonies, remarks, or speeches, in some instances) range from the then president George W. Bush to journalists like Frosty Wooldridge, providing a diversity of opinions from a diversity of people.

The subtopics in the broad category of illegal immigration included whether or not illegal immigration harms America's economy, whether or not illegal immigration is conducive to terrorism, whether or not America should adopt a temporary worker program, whether or not sanctuary laws are a bad idea, and whether or not the REAL ID Act is a good idea to control illegal immigration. Each subtopic had an essay arguing for one side and an essay arguing for the other side, allowing readers to see both sides of the argument and make their own decisions about which side was correct. For example, Mark Krikorian (executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies) argues that the REAL ID Act would help prevent terrorism by illegal aliens because the act would prevent illegal aliens from obtaining driver's licenses which could be used as identification in order to, for example, board a plane or enter a federal facility. On the other hand, Cory W. Smith (legislative counsel for Human Rights First) argues that the REAL ID Act would not help prevent terrorism through its provision that tightens asylum-granting requirements. He bases this claim on the fact that the asylum system is already rigorous and secure; thus, without the REAL ID Act, it would not let terrorists slip through anyway. Furthermore, he claims, terrorists would naturally try to take the path into America of least resistance, which would not be through the rigorous security checks of the asylum application process; thus, the tightening of the asylum-granting requirements would only harm refugees in genuine need of asylum. I thought that a compromise here would be appropriate; keep the REAL ID Act in effect, but remove the provision that tightens asylum-granting requirements. For other subtopics, I usually chose the pro-illegal-immigration side because it seemed like it was (at least partly) America's fault that it was experiencing such a massive deluge of illegal immigrants.

While originally I was interested in the topic of illegal immigration (due to it seeming controversial, with numerous arguments for both sides, as well as due to me already having an opinion on the matter), I must have gradually lost interest (maybe due to being bored of reading and rereading similar facts over and over again, maybe due to how imposing all of the text looked without any visuals to supplement it), because my reading speed plummeted. Nevertheless, the book does explain both sides of the topic thoroughly (which I think is excellent; a one-sided discussion may be informative, but it most likely does not provide all of the facts), with many facts (most of which I probably already forgot). I think that the book is worthy of the time of at least some people. If you are interested in illegal immigration, I recommend this book to you. If you are not interested, don't read it. If you have a fleeting interest, perhaps you should not read it, because soon the abundance of facts will probably bore you to death.

[Dolores · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the book Illegal Immigration by Margret Haerens. The book is about illegal immigration and it gives two different perspective points about it. The author gives opposing viewpoints on wether illegal immigration is good or bad. For example, the author said that illegal immigration is good because it helps the economy, because with all the work they do for little money, it ends up working in the economy's favor. However, on the other hand, illegal immigrants take many jobs up, thus having less job oppertunities for citizens and residents. The book follows mostly that formula where it has 2 chapters debating the same topic. At the end of the book, I concluded that I was against illegal immigration. Although my opinions fluctuated throughout the book, the argue against illegal immigration was just a little bit better. I do not think it is worth it because although there are many good things about illegal immigration, the good things did not make up for all the bad things. I would recommend this book, because currently in America this is a very controversal topic and this book would really persuade you to pick a side. Also, with the two opposing viewpoints, you learn a lot of things that you may not have known before. When i began reading this book, I thought my opinion wouldn't change at all because I was against illegal immigration. However after reading this book, I saw a side that wasn't so bad about illegal immigration. Even though it didn't change my opinion, I now see a whole new side of this topic. This book is a very good, and interesting read for anyone interested in the topic.

[Bagger · Rating 4 out of 5]

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