Illegal Immigration... pros and cons(if any at all)

What is the real solution to this problem, the author of the article that I looked at is himself a legal immigrant and as grateful for that as I am. He is focusing his article on the proposal that the former President Bush had put forth to allow illegal immigrants to become legalized and travel back end forth between their home country and the US. The author sites that in the late 90's a bill was going to be put into place that would close up access to America at the boarder and thereby reduce the number of immigrants coming in. I feel that this would only work but for a short while. I agree with the author that when people are desperate they will do whatever they can to get out of their situation. In the article he sites that 1 out of 3 immigrants is caught trying to cross into the US, that to me shows a flaw in the system. The result in the late 90's an influx of 2million illegal immigrants make it to the US.

It is believed that a lot of us immigrants will do the job that Americans choose not to do, so employers will continue to hire illegal immigrants and even pay them under the table. What the author fails to do in this article is shine the light on those that hire these illegal immigrants knowingly or otherwise. That is where the problem lies and this is why illegal immigration is thriving in the US. Many employers find ways to get around the verification of illegal to legal immigrants.

The Bush administration wanted to do the guest worker programme, they proposed that illegals already hear had to pay a fine and then get a work visa for two years and go home to renew that and then come back and work. I agree with the authors views on this that this idea is great because it would cut down on immigrants using deadly and sometimes even fatal methods to cross the boarder and come here. This plan is also though to be disguised as the amnesty plan of the late 80's. I disagree with the author because he feels that the fine the illegal immigrants would have to pay should be reduced to $2000 instead of the $5000 discussed by the Bush administration. The high amount I believe would help deter further illegal citizens and cover some of the back taxes that the illegal immigrants fail to pay when they get paid cash or under the table.

I think that the guest worker programme would have been successful had it been implemented with a few amendments like reducing the amount of time that the immigrants have to be gone. I, as an immigrant know what it is like to come here and make a batter life for me and my family, i have never been illegal in this country fortunately, but I know what a strain illegal immigrants are on the economy. Solutions have to be reached because immigrants play a big role in raising the GDP of the US, but they can only do that if they are documented. I feel that me and the author of this article in the Times magazine are on the same page on much of the issues at hand, because we both see the value of immigrants.

I think that the authors intended audience is people in government and politics, and to the public because we all play a part in what role illegal immigrants play in our societies. Sandy Huffaker / Getty is a photo journalist who has an impressive Bio, his work has appeared in many of the major newspapers. He focuses a lot on immigration even in his photography work.

www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1623140,00.html