Immigrants: Friends or Foes? The United States of America is a country of immigrants. Almost everyone living in America has relatives in Europe, Asia, or Africa, which means we are all descendants of immigrants. Immigrants made this country prosper, and made it a superpower of the world. However, nowadays immigrants are becoming a burden for the United States, especially illegal ones. Illegals from different countries of the world have a tremendously negative impact on native Americans’ lives. While American legislature prohibits entering the country illegally, at the same time it authorizes banks to finance home loans for illegal immigrants! And while illegal immigrants sell their cheap labor power to not so legislative employers, highly skilled native Americans earn smaller salaries and even lose jobs. Every year around one million illegal immigrants enter the United States of America with an intention to stay here for good. This number is growing every year, unfortunately. Taking into account that some illegal immigrants have kids, some leave the country for indefinite reasons, while others die, the net population increase of illegal immigrant in the U.S. constitutes around half a million annually. Immigration and Naturalization Service reported that in 2003 there were minimum 8 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. These numbers, however, are estimates, while real numbers remain unknown; it is illegal immigration after all. The attitude of American public toward illegal immigrants is getting worse each year. There are valid reasons for such a rage. Some of the major reasons include the labor market problem, and driver’s licensing sector problem. American driver’s registry offices are granting driver’s licenses very easily to nearly every applicant wishing to get a license. This approach is becoming an absurd, and is calling more and more protests among American public. This flaw in the licensing system is a real fortune for illegal immigrants, with the help of which they can manipulate with state legislatures, and cheat local authorities. The problem is that officers do not check current statuses of all applicants. In fact, they do not even require anything that verified applicant’s identity (i.e. social security number). This way, illegal immigrants can easily apply, and eventually receive driver’s license. The first part of the problem is that American streets will be filling with bad drivers. If a person committed crime by entering a country illegally, then he or she might commit another crime while driving, which threatens not only his or her life, but also lives of others. The other, and more severe part of the problem, is that those illegals will use driver’s licenses to apply for other more important documents. Having a driver’s license would indicate their valid citizenship, which is actually fraudulent. The second complain from the public comes from the labor competition with illegal immigrants. A well skilled native-born American knows a price for his or her labor hours. Illegal immigrants from Western Europe, for instance, worked for much smaller wages in home-countries, and they wish to receive very small salaries in the U.S, because they are still higher in comparison to the ones at home. Some employers, in turn, wish to hire such workers, and pay them significantly less. This phenomenon results in smaller wages earned by native Americans. Generally, as the “immigration increases supply for workers in skill category, the earning of native-born workers in that same category fall,” reports Center of Immigration Studies. This way, American workers are put in such conditions that they cannot earn money for their skill, and it is the illegal immigration that is the cause of this problem. If these two major problems remain, life in the United States of America will change, and this change will be a negative one. If no immediate action is taken, streets of America will teem with potentially dangerous drivers and criminals, and average salary in skilled labor sector will drop immensely. Hence, every American as a citizen on the United States of America should understand the seriousness of the problem of illegal immigration. In lieu of hiring skilled native-born American workers, employees would prefer to pay less money to lower skilled illegal. Instead of financing a home loan to a model citizen, banks now exhibit tendency to finance home loans to illegal immigrants, taking them for clients, not criminals. Instead of overhauling drivers’ identities, officers at driver’s licensing registry offices approve every applicant and grant licenses to illegal immigrants. Although the United States of America is a country of immigrants, and was founded by immigrants, illegal immigration has become on of the major problems American society faces nowadays. Since we are citizens of the United States of America, world most powerful and most developed country, we should protect it by oppressing illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants bring unsolicited skilled labor competition, and threaten American pedestrians. In general, American society must take this issue seriously, because eventually its effects might expand to American economic and military spheres. Bibliography 1.Chavez, L. Shadowed Lives: Undocumented Immigrants in American Society. Wadsworth Publishing. 1997. 2.Vincendon, E. Illegal Immigrants and Airlines Liabilities. The Canadian Bar Association. 1989. 3.Driver’s Licenses for Illegal Aliens. Issues. The American Resistance Foundation. 2004. 4. Jordan, M. Banks Open Doors to New Customers: Illegal Immigrant. The Wall Street Journal. July 8, 2005. 5. Illegal Immigration. Center for Immigration Studies. 2003.