President Obama talks reform with business leaders
U.S. President Obama talks to business leaders to discuss need for commonsense immigration reform in White House in Washington. Reuters

The United States is defined as one of the top countries in the world because of its economic and financial wealth and also for the vast opportunities given to its large population of immigrants. The country's diversity is unique and combines individuals from across the globe. Since the beginning of the world economic and financial crisis in 2008, the need for more jobs has rapidly increased, making job hunting hard for American citizens, investments have declined, the stock markets have fallen, there has been a loss of businesses and less workers in Unions. Many opponents of immigration reform point to economic reasons of why they do not support the bill which recently passed in the Senate but faces a tough road ahead in the House. However, much of their reasoning can be refuted.

A Political History

For politicians, immigration reform has been political issue to appease certain voting demographics. Former President George W. Bush tried to take on reform by installing the "guest worker" proposal. Indeed it caused chaos due to border enforcements and a struggling economy, but throughout the past few years, since 2001, more immigrants have left their countries for the American dream. In 2006, the Border Protection, Anti-terrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and later that year the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act was passed. Neither of these acts provided comprehensive reform. However, in 2009, when U.S. President Barack Obama began his first term, he brought immigration reform to the forefront of his agenda. He started with the proposal of the DREAM Act, which was intended to help immigrant students who came from their country as a child, finished high school, had good grades and has lived in the U.S. for five plus years. This act did make it to Congress but it was not approved by the Republican Party.

Comprehensive immigration reform for the United States was proposed more than a decade ago, though it did not become a focus issue in Washington until President Barack Obama took office. Many opponents of reform believe that it would lead to an economic struggle, but on the contrary by giving immigrants their legal status, it would significantly aid the expansion of America's wealth, reported the New York Times. In the recent world economic and financial crisis, the U.S.'s unemployment rate increased tremendously. Recently it has been declining, but the country's economy is not at its complete recovery, yet. If immigration reform passes through the house, there will be a higher GDP due to the evolution of more jobs and the increase of production in various sectors. According to PolicyMic there would be about 203,000 more jobs in America.

Pros of Immigration Reform

-Serve as a large economic aid in various prospects.
-Larger labor force with welfare benefits for all employees.
-Entrepreneurship would increase and help industrialize the nation more.
-Make the U.S. even more competitive among other large industries worldwide.

Cons of Immigration Reform

-Increase in population
-Fear of native-born Americans of losing their jobs
-Large expense to give legal status to all undocumented in the U.S.

Will The U.S. Benefit Economically From Immigration Reform?

If immigration reform is a great economic aid, what are opponents of reform concerned about? According to the Heritage Foundation, the problem with giving amnesty to undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. is there are many individuals living in their country waiting for their American citizenship (apart from those already in the country illegally). A larger population creates fear in opponents of reform because they believe that current native-born Americans may lose their jobs, but an immigration expert, Alex Nowrasteh, calls this fear "a silly thing." Nowrasteh along with others state that immigration reform will not take jobs away from anyone. Instead, with more employees there would be higher pay for all. On the other hand, if reform were to pass in Congress, opponents are aware that competition would rise but to them that is an issue.

As President Barack Obama took office in 2009, American Unions were in complete opposition to a reform of immigration because they assumed that immigrants would only lead companies to a loss of profit and competition, and create welfare issues for all employees. Now that reform has become more influential in Washington, all Unions want the immigration reform approved by Congress. Unions believe that with documented immigrants, American manufacturing businesses will be able to return from overseas and even create new ones. With unions on immigrants' side they would be provided all working benefits, which include higher pay, health insurance and guaranteed pensions. More jobs mean more income for all employees and richer businesses and of course a wealthier economy. More importantly competition would evolve and make the U.S. more industrialized in many sectors, such as manufacturing and agriculture. As opponents believe competition to be bad, in reality it is a very good thing. Competition does not only lead to more workers but larger and wealthier entities, which would certainly make America more powerful in various sectors around the globe.

The amount of 11 million immigrants would greatly aid the nation's economy by declining unemployment, making unions larger and building new businesses. The creation of more jobs would come from entrepreneurship, which would enlarge, and it would rather give than take away jobs. This would create more economic sectors that would provide benefits to all its workers and increase income per capita, which would increase GDP to about $1.4 trillion USD from $832 billion USD. Immigration reform would generate the implementing of 121,000 jobs annually for a decade, with those given a green card. Getting citizenship within five years would increase the number of jobs to 159,000 per year. If the reform were to pass, immigrants with their new legal status would create 203,000 jobs.

As reform is yet to be approved in the Senate, activists will continue to fight for immigration reform and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Of course with the help of many, including all American Unions, immigration reform may be approved for economic reasons, but surely, like other immigration acts, there will be limitations.

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