Should illegal immigrants be legalised in the USA?

Résumé du document

While the Spanish government legalised 600,000 undocumented workers in May 2005 and the French Minister of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy is currently trying to get his bill reinforcing control over illegal immigrants passed through the French National Assembly, the United States, traditionally known as the biggest immigration country ever, is also discussing the statute of the 12 million aliens living on American territory. The House Resolution 4437 (Border Protection, Anti terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005), which aims at criminalizing undocumented immigrants and any people having provided help to an illegal alien, has already been voted by the House of Representatives in December 2005 but is now discussed by the Senators.

Extraits

[...] The intense entrepreneurship in many Chinatowns is often quoted as a perfect example of what immigrants can bring to the USA. Contradicting stereotypes, aliens receive welfare less than native-born Americans. In New York City, the immigrant population uses welfare for among them, while this proportion reaches more than 13% for the whole population. In fact, legalizing undocumented workers would make them participate in the common government and, as a result, pay taxes like every citizen. For sure, the defenders of legalization do have arguments in favour of the paperless immigrants. [...]

[...] Legalizing paperless immigrants would thus ruin unduly the benefits that legal immigrants acquired by entering the country legally. As a conclusion, open immigration does not appear as a very satisfying policy, even for a nation like the USA, which based its success and national identity on successive flows of immigration. There is no doubt that anyone should have the right to try to get a better life, but we must also recognize that only a socially and economically healthy society can give a fair chance to everybody. [...]

[...] Should illegal immigrants be legalised in the USA? While the Spanish government legalised 600,000 undocumented workers in May 2005 and the French Minister of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy is currently trying to get his bill reinforcing control over illegal immigrants passed through the French National Assembly, the United States, traditionally known as the biggest immigration country ever, is also discussing the statute of the 12 million aliens living on American territory. The House Resolution 4437 (Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005), which aims at criminalizing undocumented immigrants and any people having provided help to an illegal alien, has already been voted by the House of Representatives in December 2005 but is now discussed by the Senators. [...]

[...] If aliens were legalized, it would send a negative message to all foreigners tempted to come to the USA: why should they after that respect the legal immigration procedure if they have a chance to be legalized a few weeks after their illegal arrival? It would consequently damage all efforts made until then to distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants and to enforce the legislation on immigration. Ultimately, immigration laws are not as unfair and inhuman as they seem to be. Their existence is in fact justified by the fact that the USA aspires to welcome properly the new comers. Since the national community is unable to integrate an infinite flow of immigrants, their arrival must be controlled. [...]

[...] Given the fact that American society is not only founded on shared economic interests, but also on cultural and philosophical values, it is normal that immigrants must also identify with the USA's values and not only with its economic growth. This aspect is particularly important in the USA, a nation without common ethnic legacy but based on a collective ideology. Legalizing undocumented immigrants would not ensure that these new American citizens share this orientation, unless they were expected to partake in “citizenship classes” like legal immigrants. But in this case, their legalization would be submitted to the same conditions than those for legal immigrants and a selection should be made. [...]