By Jasmin Jenkins 

Editor

The big complaint about undocumented immigrants in the U.S is that they take up too much space and cost a lot of money due to “stealing” benefits. Undocumented immigrants aren’t the problem, and it’s the way they are perceived by some people to be conniving and no good. A tweet posted by President Donald Trump states “It’s a national embarrassment that an illegal immigrant can walk across the border and receive free health care and one of our Veterans….”. Trump doesn’t continue his thought about the veteran situation. Well my three points will be addressing that undocumented immigrants barely receive any social services and pay far more taxes then some citizens of America do. Finally, I will address an anecdote of a young man wanting to better his life being an undocumented immigrant going to an Ivy league school.

According to an article by Robert Stribley on the Huffington Post, “No, Undocumented Immigrants aren’t stealing your Benefits,” illegal immigrants barely get any benefits. Benefits they can receive are emergency medical care, schooling, and special supplement nutrition program for women and infants.  Yes, to some these are great benefits, but not compared to what they could have. Americans are so uneducated on what illegal immigration is they believe in false news saying immigrants are taking their benefits which is incorrect. Just think about it: if your family was in a hurry to leave their country to be safe or come to a land filled with opportunities, you’d want to see them being helped as much as possible.

Immigrants, legal and illegal, get here and still end up paying far more taxes than some citizens of America. That simply alone leaves me flabbergasted. They pay their taxes mostly through the individual tax identification act, according to Melissa Cruz in “Yes, All Immigrants Even Undocumented Pay Billions in Taxes each year” on the American Immigration Council website. Undocumented immigrants pay the U.S government for benefits they can’t even use every year, so we might as well allow them to have benefits. In this article she writes in April of 2018, she found that immigrants paid $223.6 billion dollars in federal taxes and $104.6 billion in combined states and local taxes. So, if they aren’t considered citizens and still paying taxes, that’s more than enough to want to vouch for them to have some sort of support.

A story run by The Washington Post entitled “I told Harvard I was an undocumented immigrant. They gave me a full scholarship” was about of a young man who was an illegal immigrant who got a full ride to Harvard University. “John Doe” was 16 when he found out he was an undocumented immigrant. His parents had given him the Social Security Number of his little brother and then the school happened to check it and realized that the Social Security Number was invalid.  Doe soon realized to get into a good college was going to be very hard. Through his college search he applied to every Ivy League school then Harvard Admissions Committee voted to send a letter of admission.  That was just one rarity documented and undocumented immigrants have. Illegal Immigrants don’t really get to enjoy many luxuries and must hide away unnoticed. This just goes to show that not all undocumented immigrants come over to commit crimes but to help them grow and live a successful life

In conclusion, I find that undocumented immigrants should be allowed to have social services benefits because they do enough in society to be considered equal, whether that is paying taxes annually or wanting to further their education.  If an Ivy League school can give them a chance, why can’t we. Let’s have empathy and invite a new, better life for people who weren’t as fortunate to start with one.