When it comes to immigration in the United States, there is no question that more government intervention is necessary; in order to ensure the safety of all people, whether they were born in America or not. In this policy of immigration, more government is more effective in meeting the needs of the of American citizens. This thesis is supported by the Positivism theory and the Modern Liberalism ideology. Both the modern liberalism ideology and the positivism theory support the claim that bringing in additional government support would “protect people from a sometimes unfair economic system,” (Roskin et. al, 2015, p. 33). With that being said, the government should intervene not by building a wall, but by increasing the number of immigrants allowed to become American citizens annually because all that a wall blocks, is the potential for America to increase its own Gross National Product (Somin, 2017).
Immigration has always been an issue, but now more than ever is America facing the challenge about what to about all the people coming into this country. The answer is simple: let them in. The truth is that American soil did not belong to Americans to begin with since they snatched it from Native Americans beginning in the late 1700’s (Huntzicker, 2013). The Indian Removal Act of 1830, created by the United States Congress, cemented the fact that Americans were claiming what was not theirs and pushing Indians onto reservations unfairly. The argument then becomes that no one is illegal on stolen land so immigrants that come to this country legally or illegally, have as much right to be here as anyone who was lucky enough to be born here in the first place.
The American government technically has been intervening with immigration, but not in a positive manner. Under Trump’s government and their “zero tolerance” policy, their solution is to force children into cages and separate them from their parents (2018, June 20), which is anything but humane, or to try to revoke citizenship for over two million Dreamer Children by rescinding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Act initiated under the Obama administration in 2012 (Ruth, 2017). They want to greet the migrant caravan coming from Central America with military force instead of open arms. Majority of the people are not violent criminals; they are people fleeing horrible conditions, persecution, and even the possibility of death. They are our coworkers, our neighbors, and most importantly our friends and family.
My good friend was top of his class, got into some of the best schools in the country, and has worked since he was fifteen. I only found out a couple months ago that he is a dreamer child, but this did not affect my opinion of him because his entire identity is not wrapped up in what country he was born in. Instead, it is composed of the type of person he is and regardless of all else, immigrants are still human beings just as much as native-born Americans are. The thought of losing him to Trump’s stance on DACA children broke my heart. What the Trump administration fails to realize is that their “zero tolerance” policy should really be the “zero accomplished” policy because keeping out immigrants, leads majorly to a negative impact on the American economy (Monty, 2018).
The common arguments against increasing America’s immigrant quota are that immigrants steal jobs from native-born citizens or are “violent criminals” as commonly argued by Donald Trump. The reality is that they contribute to the overall Gross National Product of the country quite extensively (Somin, 2017). Many immigrants work in service, production, and transportation industries and over half of all agriculture jobs are done by undocumented immigrants (Monty, 2018). These are grueling jobs where workers spend hours in the heat for little pay and many native-born Americans would never consider doing these jobs anyway, yet these jobs still must get done. It should not matter who is doing them.
In fact, these illegal immigrants should be praised for contributing to our country and need to be appreciated for providing people with the essentials they could not live without, such as fruits and vegetables. When immigrants come to America, that means more housing is required, more businesses must be built, and more workers are required to fill those positions (Somin, 2017). Thus, immigration creates a rise in the number of job openings available, not a decrease. In a country full of opportunity, having a worker that is willing to work and an employer that is willing to work with said worker, makes immigration the meeting point for the two (Monty, 2018).
The positivism theory supports the need for more government intervention as an aid to a functioning immigration system to meet the needs of the U.S. Citizens’. The positivism theory is a philosophical belief based on empirical data, while also incorporating scientific methods (Jakobsen, n.d.). When looking back at the history of the country, the benefits received by the immigrants is beyond belief.
