America Drives

Páginas: 8 (1999 palabras) Publicado: 12 de junio de 2012
McKenna Neises
Prof. Doersch
March 3, 2012
Final Draft
Persuasive
America Drives Undocumented Mexican Immigration

It is the general assumption that the US implements policies that enforce stricter regulations and stronger enforcement at the border of Mexico in order to discourage the ability and accessibility of entering the US. However, the US has implemented policies that haveactually driven an increase in the number of Mexican immigrants in the US due to the profit that US employers are able to attain. There have been very influential policies such as the Immigration Act of 1917, the Bracero’s program, and NAFTA that have provided opportunities and encouraged the admittance and long term stay of undocumented Mexican citizens to the United States. They have done this throughthe concept of supply and demand, that usually benefits the US economy, and with the idea of cost and benefit.
A study done by the Pew Research Center on Mexican Immigration reports “A record 12.7 million Mexican immigrants lived in the United States in 2008, a 17-fold increase since 1970”. Has Mexican immigration increased drastically simply because they are our neighboring country? Is it truethat the quality of life in Mexico is so poor that immigrants are willing to risk it all in order to attain the “American Dream”? Or is there more to Mexican immigration than simply geographical location and wishful thinking? Year after year there are more and more immigrants entering this country illegally, which seems questionable considering all the talk within the government to increase borderenforcement and remove all aliens.
A policy that served to benefit the US by restricting the number of immigrants entering the US, but ultimately increased the amount of Mexican immigrants was the Immigration Act of 1917. This act was passed during World War I, when American men were becoming involved in the war which depleted the American work force at the time. This was an act that attemptedto restrict immigrants due to their lack of education, physical abilities or job skills- however it didn’t pertain to Mexican immigrants. At this point Mexicans were not being restricted like people from other foreign countries. It is explained in the statistics from the National Agricultural Law Center that “Reportedly, about 73,000 temporary Mexican workers were admitted from 1917 to 1921”(Bickerton 898). This abrupt increase in legal “temporary” Mexican immigration was due to “a loophole allowing the commissioner general of immigration to admit certain classes of workers, including agricultural laborers, for temporary employment” (Bickerton 898). This means that despite the fact that the US was trying to eliminate the number of ‘insufficient’ or ‘unprofitable’ immigrants in the US, itwas also seeking to increase the amount of immigrants who were sufficient and capable of labor from Mexico. The demand for laborers is what made the difference between a legal and illegal immigrant because they were willing to stay after their given duration.
Once profitable workers were found it was both beneficial for the workers and the farm owners for the men to stay and work the fields. TheMexicans were able to earn money and were provided living quarters, meanwhile the owners were able to pay the agricultural workers less than what they would an American citizen and therefore made more profit. The Houston Institute for Culture reports that “From the very beginning, both the wages and working conditions of Mexican workers in the U.S. were well below those of white workers” (Vogel,5). Under these circumstances it made the ‘temporary’ workers program seem more effective and beneficial for both parties. This would be why many illegal immigrants remained in the US and failed to return home.
The Bracero program, a temporary guest worker program, is another implementation from the US government which caused a considerable increase in Mexican immigration to the United States...
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