Debunking Misinformation About Undocumented Immigrants

One of the biggest talking points in the upcoming US presidential election coming in November is the border crisis. It seems undocumented immigrants get a bad rep for simply trying to make a better life for themselves and their families. As a son of migrant parents who are here legally, I will only bring up facts and what I've researched on this topic.

Paying Taxes

While a lot of immigrants are not documented in the US, they still pay their fair share in taxes. According to the article by Boundless, “Immigrants in the U.S. contributed more than $330.7 billion in federal income taxes in 2019, and over $492 billion dollars in total taxes (including state, municipal, and sales taxes).” in 2019 alone they paid nearly 500 billion in total taxes.

Crime Rates

This is another big factor. Politicians talk about undocumented immigrants committing a lot of crimes and how “Mexico is not sending their best”. Well, that could not be further from the truth. As explained in this article by Northwestern, “However, in the more recent time period, immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than U.S. born citizens, and 30% less likely relative to U.S. born whites.” The reason people are bringing this up is because of the devastating murder of Laken Riley in the hands of Jose Antonio Ibarra, who came in here illegally. While that situation is horrible, it is disgusting to use that as a talking point and to use the death of a person to try and grasp at straws.

Expired Visas

I still don’t understand how this one never gets talked about. The most common way people come here illegally is by overstaying their visas. This isn’t just in the US too, it’s all around the world. 2022 saw the highest amount of visa overstays ever In one year. Even though they aren’t crossing a border, they are doing the same thing and coming here illegally

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Worldwide Problem

As stated above, this is not just a problem with the US. The entire world is having immigration problems. France recently implemented their strictest immigration law ever in an attempt to try and fix the issue. Now you might be asking yourself why. A lot of it has to do with Covid. A lot of these smaller countries have been ravished and wiped out by the pandemic, so we will continue to see immigration getting worse because of this.

The Border Is Not Open

Contrary to what Donald Trump tells you, the border is not open. Yes, there are significantly more people coming in under Joe Biden’s administration. As stated above this is a worldwide problem, not solely a US problem. Under Biden’s term, they are also deporting a significantly larger amount of people, as stated in this article by The Washington Post, “Biden officials have deported or returned roughly 500,000 people to Mexico and other countries, exceeding Trump’s totals, which averaged roughly 500,000 annually. But Biden’s higher numbers are partly the result of a much greater volume of illegal crossings.”

Next time these politicians give information about the border, do a quick search on it and usually they will either be lying or will over exaggerate the problem. Is there a problem at the border? Yes, there absolutely is. However, it isn’t a new problem that only just developed. This has been bad for over 40 years. The main problem with it is that it takes over a decade to become a legal US citizen. It took my dad almost well over a decade before he finally got his green card. So no, I don’t blame them for coming in here illegally when the legal process takes that long. Also, we should bring that same energy toward people who overstay their visas. If you enjoyed this topic, let me know down below!