Upside to Obama's immigration action

Upside to Obama's immigration action

While many are angered over President Obama's recent unveiling of his plans for immigration reform, I believe that we should take a step back and look at the positive side of this action.

People have undeniable reasons to be angered by illegal immigrants: American schools lose funds teaching illegal immigrant children, hospitals lose money treating illegal immigrants, they don't pay taxes, and they increase the heat on the bilingual battle.

But even with these negative effects, U.S. citizens need to realize that illegal immigrants also have an important role in the economy, and granting them citizenship would benefit us overall.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, about half of the hired workers in U.S. crop agriculture were unauthorized. The National Milk Producers Federation projected that if immigrant labor forces were to be eliminated, retail milk prices would increase by 61 percent. If the U.S. were to deport these undocumented workers, our labor force would have a huge shortage and our economy would feel the negative effects. Granting these workers citizenship would allow them to pay their fair share of taxes and benefit our economy.

Another aspect to think about is deportation and the children who would be left behind if millions were to be deported. A nation with millions of minors living in the U.S. without their parents would not be beneficial to anyone.

It is basically impossible to round up all of the illegal immigrants in the U.S., and the effects from doing so would be detrimental to the U.S. economy and society. Americans need to look at both sides of Obama's action and realize that our country is and always has been a nation of immigrants (legal or not) and will continue to be whether we like it or not.

Megan Ozog

Glen Ellyn