106 PART onE • THE AmERiCAn sYsTEm
The demographic Collapse. During the years after Columbus arrived in America,
native population numbers—both in the future United States and in the Americas
generally—experienced one of the most catastrophic collapses in human history. The
Europeans brought with them Old World diseases to which Native Americans had no
immunity. A person who was able to resist one disease might die from another. By
one estimate, 90 percent of the inhabitants of the New World died. For their part, the
Europeans had no idea what caused diseases and did not understand what was happen-at issue
It is impossible to know for sure how many unauthor-
ized immigrants are in this country, but experts put
the figure at about 11 million. The largest number of
these persons came to the United States from Latin
American countries—in particular, Mexico.
How to respond to unauthorized immigration has
long been a controversial issue in American politics.
Some wish to allow illegal immigrants to regularize
their status and eventually become citizens. Others
oppose this, and some even want to send millions of
illegal immigrants back to their countries of origin.NO AMNESTY FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
Those who oppose letting unauthorized immigrants
regularize their status call such programs “amnesty.”
If we grant such individuals the legal right to stay in
this country, we are rewarding people who have vio-
lated the law. That is unfair. Why should the unauthor-
ized find it easier to stay in the United States than those
who play by the rules? Amnesty would only encourage
more individuals to enter the United States illegally.
That, after all, is what happened in 1986, the last time
Congress granted amnesty to a large number of illegal
immigrants. After the law was passed, illegal immigra-
tion did not slow down at all.
Most illegal immigrants are low-skilled, low-wage
workers. They compete against high school dropouts
in America and drive down the wages of our poorest
citizens. Illegal immigration can result in overcrowded
schools and hospital emergency rooms. Conservatives
also note that a majority of the immigrants who would
benefit from amnesty would vote for Democrats if they
became citizens. Even if we let such people stay, let’s
not support a Democratic Party power grab. These per-
sons should not be allowed to become citizens and vote.UNAUTHORIZED IMMIGRANTS
SHOULD HAVE A PATH TO CITIZENSHIP
Those who favor a path to legitimacy for unauthorized
immigrants say that America was built by immigrants,
and we should celebrate immigration, not penalize it.
Pro-immigrant activists observe that the majority of
unauthorized immigrants come to the United States
to work. Even at the height of the Great Recession,
western farmers found it impossible to recruit enough
American citizens to perform such backbreaking labor
as picking fruits and vegetables. The simple fact is that
we have a large number of illegal immigrants because
we rely on their labor. The reason so many of these
workers enter the country illegally is that current law
makes it too difficult for Mexicans and other Latin
Americans to immigrate lawfully.
Illegal immigration, in effect, creates a second-
class pool of workers whom employers can exploit with
impunity. The solution to this problem is citizenship.
Allowing former illegal immigrants to stay and work
without ever letting them become citizens is not an
acceptable alternative. We would still have a subordi-
nate caste of people with an inferior status. We used
to have such a caste—African Americans, first under
slavery and then under segregation. The Fourteenth
Amendment exists in part to prevent such a social
disaster.FOR CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Given current economic conditions, if the United States unveiled a
policy to grant citizenship to unauthorized immigrants, would immi-
gration significantly increase? Why or why not?SHOULD UNAUTHORIZED
IMMIGRANTS BE GRANTED CITIZENSHIP?
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