Exploring the Security Implications of Illegal Immigration in US

This essay examines the question of whether illegal immigration poses a threat to national security, considering arguments from both sides. It discusses the presence of millions of unauthorized immigrants in the United States, their impact on the workforce, and the perceived link between illegal immigration and criminal activities, particularly terrorism. The essay also analyzes the economic costs and benefits of illegal immigration, highlighting concerns about lowered domestic wages and the strain on resources, while acknowledging the potential for increased national output and tax revenues. Furthermore, it reviews various laws and policies implemented to address illegal immigration, such as the AEDPA, IIRIRA Acts, and the USA Patriot Act, and their effectiveness in securing the borders and reducing illegal immigration rates. The essay concludes that despite potential economic benefits, illegal immigration poses a threat to national security due to its potential to facilitate terrorism, smuggling, and other criminal activities, necessitating stricter border control and immigration policies. The annotated bibliography supports these points with cited research.

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“Is illegal immigration a threat to national security?”

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Immigration is basically people’s movement to a different country of which they do not have
citizenship. Therefore, they take up employment in that country where they moved to get a
temporary citizenship.
According to the data of the Census Bureau there are almost 42.4 million immigrants in
United States. According to the data of 2015, there are approx. 11 million unauthorized
immigrants in U.S. Illegal immigrants’ represents almost 3.4% of the total population of U.S.
Mexicans makes up half of the total unauthorized immigrants in U.S.
It was also concluded that the U.S. civilian workforce comprises of 8 million illegal
immigrants. In almost all the industries there number is more than the US born workers.
States like Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey and California makes up the most of the
unauthorized immigrants which is 59% of the total immigrants. The Migration Policy
Institute concluded that approx. 830,000 illegal immigrants were convicted for a crime and
about 300,000 were undocumented.
Illegal immigration is a serious threat to United States’ national security. Mostly the
undocumented immigrants are a serious issue to the countries security. People claim that the
U.S. Mexican border forms an entrance of criminal activities in the country and easily
connects immigration with terrorism. After the terrorist attack of September 11,2001 new
security policies were documented. The Department of Homeland Security concluded that
immigrants are a threat to the internal security of the country.
The former commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet asked the administration to increase
the border-security as it will stop the entry of illegal immigrants. It was also seen that many
undocumented immigrants got arrested by the local authorities of the country but they were
released soon. It is also seen that illegal immigrants transfers high economic costs because it

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lowers the domestic wages. Hence, economically also it is not viable to promote illegal
immigration.
Many changes in the policy of immigrants were made which included strengthening
employer verification of the employment, by implementing a temporary guest worker
program and improving the border security.
At the same time, many people claims that illegal immigration is not a threat to the national
security and there is no relationship between terrorism and immigration. People also argued
that the absence of terrorist attacks in United States is not because of the increased border
force or because of strict policies on immigration.
Whenever any type of illegal activities takes place in the country, the police searches for
common illegal immigrants rather than the actual terrorists. Due to this, it gets very difficult
for the immigrants to continue their work.The immigrants are also threat to the native
workers because they take over the market especially in the agriculture field because they
work at low wages.
Though the high number of illegal immigrants deform the laws and the resources and is a
more prone to terrorist’s and criminals but at the same time they enhance the economy of the
country. All the immigrants, be it a high-skilled or a low-skilled they increases the national
output and as a result the net economic is benefitted. Apart from this, it is seen that the
immigrants’ families adds more tax revenues in the economy of United States.
But illegal immigrants are a threat as they are undocumented immigrants and hence if they
undergo a criminal activity it is very difficult to trace them. Along with this, they mostly get
involve in wrong activities for example smuggling the guns and devices to other countries.
The countries confidential information is also at high risk because it is very easy for illegal

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immigrants to get the confidential information and leak it to different countries. Most of the
illegal immigrants are workers who work at low wages and hence they take over the jobs of
the native people of America. Mexico is at the highest alert of getting affected by illegal
immigrants because the rate of illegal immigrants in this country is highest. It is observed that
almost 60% of the total undocumented immigrants are from Mexico.
Few laws like the AEDPA and the IIRIRA Acts of 1996 were passed which increased
deportations of the illegal immigrants on basis of their criminal activities. The USA Patriot
Act was also passed after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. This act gave many
powers to the government on deporting the undocumented immigrants. Implementation of
these reduced the rates of illegal immigrants but not to an extent which was needed. Many
common undocumented immigrants were also affected by these laws. Although the
government of United States tried to implement these laws but still they fail to secure the
northern and southern borders of the country.
Although the economy rate is increasing but they also promote illegal currency in the
country. According to the surveys made in 2015, it was also concluded that approx. 416,500
people whose tourist and business visas were expired but still remained in the country for
more than 2 years after the expiration. It was also seen that nearly 409,900 immigrants were
caught by the authorities of United States who were crossing the borders of the country
illegally.
It has been concluded that illegal immigration is a threat to the national security of United
States despite of the fact that it enhances the growth rate and the amount of revenue of the
country. As it creates a security pole in the country and motivates terrorism and attacks. The
United States government is implementing many laws to deport these immigrants and
increasing the border security force so that the number of illegal immigrants entering the

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country gets less. Immigration is also a political issue because it cut downs the employment
rate of native people of the country.
Annotated bibliography
Ting, Jan C. "Immigration and National Security Orbis” vol.50.1 (2006): pp.41-52.Print.
Jan and Ting (2006) give a brief description of the threats which united States have from illegal
immigrants crossing the border. They discussed the illegal ways in which undocumented
immigrants cross the borders and then live in the country. They also described the ways the
border areas are used to smuggle guns and to transfer the confidential information from the
country to another country. They also claim that illegal immigration should be controlled in
order to secure the United States from terrorism. If this is not done, then it will continue to
affect the country in wrong ways.
Tancredo, T. "Immigration, Citizenship, And National Security: The Silent Invasion." Mediterranean
Quarterly 15.4 (2004): 4-15.Print.
Tancredo(2004) also discussed the immigration policies after the 9/11 attacks. The U.S.
Government took an initiative and started examining the visas and also questioned many
foreigners from many countries who were involved in terrorist groups. The screening of visa
applicants and security of the passport documents were on highest priority. Many new
technologies were developed to track visa holders in the U.S. which alerts the higher
authorities about the expiration of visas. The United States is trying very hard to protect the
country from illegal immigrants but still not much measure were taken to secure the southern
and northern borders from these types of entries. Tancredo and Thomas G(2007) accepts that
the northern and southern border will focus on the illegal entry of the undocumented
immigrants. They also said that new technologies must be considered instead of the old
technologies to handle this issue. They also believed that the United States is called as a nation
of immigrants.

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Kerwin, Donald. "The Use And Misuse Of ‘National Security’ Rationale In Crafting U.S. Refugee And
Immigration Policies." International Journal of Refugee Law 17.4 (2005): 749-763.Print.
Donald Kerwin (2005) believes that the illegal immigration should be controlled. This article
shows describes the policy developments after September 11 and its impact on the migrants.
This article argues about the sense of national security in crafting refugee and immigration
policy. It gives a brief description about the changes which were implemented after the 9/11
attacks and a Department of Homeland Security was created. DHS began on 1st March 2003
and it reconstructed the policies of United States. DHS almost comprised of 100 former federal
departments which also included Immigration and Naturalization Service and the U.S. Customs
Service. The main focus after 9/11 attacks was on the temporary visitors and the way they
should follow the rules of visas. The Bush administrations also created a check-in and check-
out tracking system which was also called the U.S. Visitor and Immigration Status Indicator
Technology for all the non-immigrants. Kerwin said that when these systems will be
implemented then all the photographs of all the visitors will be scanned through criminal and
security databases; it will also record the entry and exit of the visitor from the country.
Yee, Vivian. Davis, Kenann. “Here’s the Reality About Illegal Immigrants in the United States.”
Nytimes.com. 2017. 2nd February 2018.Web.
Yee and Davis (2017) described the facts about the illegal immigrants in the United States. This article
gives a brief description on the surveys conducted in the country on the undocumented immigrants.
The results of the surveys were discussed and a report is made discussing the number of unauthorized
immigrants and the number of illegal immigrants involved in criminal activities. The data of all the
countries surrounding United States was taken and it was concluded that Mexico has the highest
number of unauthorized immigrants. Yee and Davis (2017) described the number of surveys which
gave the approximate number of illegal immigrants involved in criminal activities, the number of

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people who overstayed their visas and the number of people who tried to cross the border of United
States illegally.
Cuslar, “Immigration: A National Security Threat?” Cuslar.org. 2014. 2nd February 2018.Web.
Cuslar (2014) discussed the facts and the point of views of various people associated with the
government of United States. Different people gave their views about the illegal immigrants and the
terrorism. The General Chief of the Army claimed that the border security force should be increased
because it’s the border which acts as a gateway for terrorism and immigrants. But few of them
claimed that people are exaggerating this issue and there is no link between the illegal immigrants
and terrorism. Cuslar also described that the common illegal immigrants are getting affected because
of the activities of the government and treating terrorism and undocumented immigrants equal. He
also discussed that the economy of the country is growing because of illegal immigrants because they
pay tax to the country and they outnumber the native workers.
Totten, Robbie J. "Epidemics, National Security, and US Immigration Policy." Defense & Security
Analysis 31.3 (2015): 199-212.Print.