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Jason Weinberg, Eun Hyuk Lee, Zach Lang, Eric Schroeder
 * __Immigrants__**

Essential Question: What does it mean to be an illegal immigrant?

Challenge: Can illegal immigrants help the US?

Guiding Questions:
 * How do they effect the economy?
 * How much money do they give to America and how much do they take?
 * How much illegal substances do they bring into the states?
 * How do they exist without SS number, not paying taxes?
 * Can we control the rate of illegal immigration?


 * How do they effect the job market?
 * How significant is the amount of money they give and take from America?
 * What effect does their smuggling of illegal substances have on America?
 * How and why did they come to America?

Activities:
 * Research on internet how they exist and how they got into America
 * Research living conditions in Mexico
 * Talk to people who work with illegals
 * Research their living conditions in America

Costs http://www.personalliberty.com/conservative-politics/government/how-much-do-illegal-immigrants-really-cost-the-united-states/
 * $11 billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year by state governments.
 * Illegal households only pay about one-third the amount of federal taxes that non-illegal households pay.
 * Illegal households create a net fiscal deficit at the federal level of more than $10 billion a year. If given amnesty, this number could grow to more than $29 billion.
 * $1.9 billion dollars a year is spent on food-assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC and free school lunches for illegal aliens.
 * $1.6 billion is spent on the federal prison and court system for illegal aliens.
 * $2.5 billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.
 * About 21 percent of the population of U.S. prisons is classified as “noncitizens” from Mexico, Colombia, Cuba and the Dominican Republic. About 5 percent is listed as “unknown.”

First Draft Solution: Our research has shown that there are positives and negatives to having illegal aliens in America. One of the positives is that employers are able to pay illegal aliens less than minimum wage, since illegal alines don't have to pay taxes, and so employers will spend less on their workers and be able to mak e ing the product s cheaper for the consumer. Another positive is that when illegal aliens come to this country they usually take jobs that most Americans would not want to take since they are unskilled workers. This, however, can be taken another way since, in this economic downturn, there are many legal Americans who are unable to get jobs. Also since illegal aliens do not pay taxes, they cost America approximately 11 billion to 22 billion dollars a year and Mexican Traffickers are responsible for bringing in 77% of the cocaine, 53% of meth-amphetamine's, and 50% of the heroin that enter this country. Overall we believe that illegal aliens are doing more harm than good for America.


 * Final Solutions:**

Solution 1: Why do people immigrate illegally to the US? For many of us, we have lived in America for our entire lives. We take many things, such as clean, running water and reliable electricity for granted. We get upset if our internet is down for a few hours after a big storm! However, hundreds of other countries do not have the luxury of being able to rely on such simple commodities. Take Tijuana as an example. Just south of California, it is surprising how many tourists do not see the squalid living conditions when they go on day-trips there. An expert on poor living conditions, Mother Teresa, even said that it is one of the poorest places in the world! Running water and electricity are rare and much more unreliable than the United States. Bathrooms... Well, let's just say you may have to do some shoveling after using them! Food and gas are more expensive than they are in the US, an unfortunate fact when most men only bring home around $50 after a six day work week. Living in this poverty for your whole life makes the United States look like paradise. And from Tijuana, paradise is so close by. It is tempting for them to take advantage of the free public education for their children and increased number of job opportunities for the adults, sometimes including other benefits such as health care. http://www.teamcasa.org/livingconditions.htm

Solution: What effect does their smuggling of illegal substances have on America? Most people don’t know that when Traffickers smuggle in illegal aliens into the United States they usually are smuggling in other illegal substances such as drugs. Traffickers are responsible for 70% of the cocaine, 53% of the methamphetamines, and 50% of the heroin that enter this country ([|http://associatedcontent.com], effect of Illegal immigration on America). Now obviously the bringing in of such high numbers of illegal drugs is not good for America since it helps feed an unhealthy addiction for many Americans. Also, since such high amounts are being smuggled in it makes it very easy and accessible for most Americans to get these illegal drugs ( [|http://www.deamuseum.org], September 17, 2010 ). Now since the Traffickers are bringing these illegal substances with the illegal immigrants, stopping the illegal immigration would not only stop the problem of illegal immigration in this country but it would lessen the number of illegal drugs entering this country. Due to this reason It would make more sense to try and stop them from entering since from this perspective they are doing more harm than good for America. Solution: How do they affect the job market? Illegal immigrants affect our jobs tremendously. Since most of them are not very educated due to their bad environment in their home country, they usually do the works that Americans won’t do. My research shows that illegal immigrants are the only ones who will do the work at the minimum wages. Because they are illegal immigrants, they are unintentionally forced to work in that condition. There are some advantages and disadvantages hiring illegal immigrants at the minimum wages. One advantage would be able to hire workers with much cheaper wages than American residents; therefore employers highly prefer to hire illegal immigrants than American residents. This actually benefits the consumers too. Since workers are cheaper, the price of each product decreases accordingly. In the other hand, it affects the people who are seeking for a job. It will be hard for them to compete with minimum wage workers. Illegal immigrants are extremely important nowadays in our economy. Without them, we will have an economical crisis Source: http://www.usillegalaliens.com/impacts_of_illegal_immigration_jobs.html

Solution: How significant is the amount of money illegal immigrants give and take from America? In order to decide whether illegal immigrants are beneficial to America one must look at how much they cost the nation. At first glance it may seem as though illegal immigrants only take money away from America, but this is not true. Though they do take somewhere from 11 to 22 billions dollars from Medicare, prisons, courts, and food stamps, they also give to America ([|www.personalliberty.com]). Illegal immigrants as a whole actually pay up to 5 billion dollars, which gives a decent sum of money to the government (www.[|ezinearticles.com]). Obviously this does not cover their costs, but it lessens it. Lastly, many illegal immigrants send some of their earning to their families in their home countries and this amount is so large that it can actually be one of the countries top forms of income (WPSU – Penn State). Overall, illegal immigrants use more by either living here or send money home, than they give to America. Jason Weinberg



**__Illegal__**