One reason for migrants from South America is the number of available jobs and the higher wages, in comparison to their home country. Although a risky exercise, if one got across the border he or she had a pretty good chance of securing a decent job that paid decent wages. As for many US citizens, illegal immigrants were also affected by the economic crisis. As people spent less on remodeling their homes and indulging in non-essential commodities, the jobs began to dry up. Leaving illegal immigrants with very low or no income at all.

Illegal immigrants have been hit hard by the economic crisis since they cannot even lay claim to social services or government doles. Hence illegal immigrants have no option but leave the US and head back to their own country. One of the biggest issues they face is that they cannot afford to pay for their basic needs without a steady stream of work. Rent, food, electricity, water all become difficult to afford within a matter of weeks. Therefore the situation faces is along the lines of stay in the USA illegally and starve or go back home and try to find some sort of work. Some studies show that illegal immigrants living in the US has declined by as much as 11% in the last two years. Research also indicates that most illegal immigrants who have been in the US for a long time will probably stay and try to solve their dillemma, although younger, more recent arrivals will return home to try their luck.

With the global economic downturn there is a huge demand for cheap labor and a major source for cheap labor happens to be illegal immigrants. Because of their status as illegal immigrants and their need to find jobs, they compete with US citizens for jobs for much lesser wages. In the past illegal immigrants typically got the hard or undesirable jobs at lesser wages, those jobs dubbed as “jobs Americans wouldn’t do”. However, in recent times, skilled illegal immigrants are being employed for more decent jobs, eliminating Americans as the immigrants are willing to work for much less. Research by the Harvard University indicates that the influx of immigrants from 1980 – 2000 has resulted in a 3.7% wage loss for American workers and that American’s without a high-school diploma are the ones affected the most as they are in direct competition with illegal immigrants.

Illegal immigrants have a significant impact on tax and social security too. The IRS estimates that up to six million illegal immigrants file for individual income tax returns each year. Research also indicates that as much as 50 – 75 percent of illegal immigrant workers pay federal, state and local taxes and that as much as seven billion dollars a year is paid into Social Security.

The process to become a naturalized resident of the United States of America is long, complicated and expensive. In most cases, it involves many hours filling out paperwork, thousands of dollars in application and attorney fees, and years of waiting time between document filings, meetings with INS personnel, and final approval of citizenship. Once the process is complete and the resident alien is sworn in as a naturalized resident, under the Constitution, he or she is endowed with the same rights as a natural-born citizen, with only one exception–they cannot become President of the United States.

There are subtleties to the law which one could argue appear to allow discrimination against naturalized residents. For instance, while a natural-born citizen can live abroad indefinitely in another country of their choosing, naturalized residents who choose to live and work in other countries may see their citizenship revoked on a case-by-case basis, depending on their circumstances. In addition, in recent presidential elections there were instances where State laws imposed more stringent residency requirements on natural residents than those imposed on natural-born citizens.

Perhaps the most common form of discrimination naturalized residents face is job discrimination based on national origin. Due to this country’s most recent and severe economic downturn, it is common for natural-born citizens to cast an accusatory look at people who have come to this country seeking citizenship in order to better their lives through better job opportunities. The higher the unemployment rates rise, the more blame we will see unfairly placed on naturalized residents.

It has been announced that the nation’s detention system for illegal immigrants will be going through many changes so that some improvements can be made. This includes changes to medical care, increase accountability and lower costs.

Currently the system consists of approximately 300+ privately run detention centers. Many county jails also lease part of their space to the government to house these illegals. Approximately 40% of illegals are housed in the prison system. Most of those being held pose no risk to the public and are not criminal offenders. Amnesty International has brought this to light in the media and further state that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency provides horrible medical care that has resulted in deaths. There has been a significant growth of illegal immigrants housed in the system since 2004; the increase was about 20,000 people.

It has also been announced that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency will no longer house illegal families in the T. Don Hutto facility located in Texas. This facility has had lawsuits brought against it by the American Civil Liberties Union who stated that children were detained illegally, were made to wear prison uniforms and only received one hour of schooling per day. Families will now go to the Berks Family Residential Center, a facility in Leesport, Pennsylvania or put into alternative detention programs.

Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said that this move shows Immigration and Customs Enforcement is not serious about deporting illegals. These changes are aimed at gaining greater control over the system that houses about 33,000 a day and has been criticized greatly.