Undocumented Immigrants
Undocumented immigrants are also referred to as illegal aliens. They include foreign-born individuals who lack legal immigration documents or don’t have a valid visa. These individuals may have entered the US without any inspection, lived in the country longer than the temporary visa permit them, or have dishonored the terms of the agreement they signed during admission in the US (Chavez, 2012). There are several ways an individual can be classified as an undocumented immigrant. Some of the ways include individuals possessing visas that are no longer valid. Several undocumented immigrants may have entered into the US at one point legally with a temporary visa or as a tourist and failed to leave the country once the time they were given has elapsed. A person can also be categorized as an undocumented immigrant when the individual enters the country through fraudulent means. This involves the situation when the person has provided false documents or has altered documents such as marriage or birth certificate, diplomas, visas, travel documents, or passports. Other undocumented immigrants entered the US using border crossing cards. This is a card that allows individuals to cross into the USA for a short time. It mostly permits entry to Mexican citizens upon showing their Mexican passports. The most common means people enter into the US illegally is through the border crossing. Some people cross by themselves using a boat or scaling over the wall. Others hire smugglers, who are legal citizens, to ferry them across the border. The paper provides a detailed discussion about undocumented immigrants in the United States of America.
The population of undocumented immigrants (UI) has continued increasing in the US. The surge in undocumented immigrants has resulted in more controversy in the already polarized discussion between US citizens and policymakers. The number of UI is not only increasing in the USA but also getting more widespread than it had been before. This started in the early 1990s when approximately 85% of the UI occupied the six big states known for their large host of immigrants (Passel & D’Vera 2010). These states include Texas, Illinois, Florida, New Jersey, New York, and California. California harbors nearly 23% of the total undocumented immigrants in the USA (Campbell et al. 2014). Although these six states remain the popular states for the UI, other states that harbored only a small number of these individuals are now bridging the six big states gap. The states that have recently experienced an increasing undocumented population rate comprises Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, and Alabama (Chavez, 2012). As the number of undocumented immigrants is increasing and wide-spreading, the debate about their economic effects also increases. There is a rising concern that the number of the UI workforce is increasing, thus displacing the native labor force and reducing the wages of the Native Americans. However, many states have passed controversial and stringent immigration laws to encounter the growing sentiment that the UI is flooding the US labor force. Some of the countries that have operationalized these laws include South Carolina, Indiana, Georgia, Alabama, and Arizona (Chavez, 2012).
Research on the undocumented immigrants’ demographic statistics indicated that the number of UI population almost tripled in size from 1990 to 2007. The number rose from 3.5 million to 12.2 million, which was the highest record ever (). However, the number declined by 14% in 2017. The UI population in 2017 decreased to 10.5 million; this number accounted for 3.2% of the total population in the USA and has been reducing immensely (Pellow & Vazin, 2019). The recent decline in the undocumented immigrants’ population is largely due to the reduction in the number from Mexico. From 2010 to 2018, 2.6 million UI from Mexico voluntarily returned home. However, Mexican’s still contributes to the highest number of UI residing in the USA. They make 60% of the total number, followed by 20% originating from the Caribbean nations and Latin America (Campbell et al. 2014). As the number of UI from Mexico decreases, the number from Asia and Central America is increasing.
Many undocumented immigrants traveled to the USA to look for a job. Men make the largest percentage of undocumented immigrants participating in the paid workforce. Close to 98% of UI men aged 18-64 are had paid work in 2008 (Passel & D’Vera 2010). The number has greatly declined with time because of the stringent rules that states have placed on the UI concerning the workforce. However, most of them do hard tasks such as construction, food preservation, farming, ground-keeping, building, among other tasks. They make 17% of the construction workforce, 19% are in the ground keeping, maintenance work, and construction field, while 25% of their population work as farmers (Passel & D’Vera 2010). Close to 12% are spread in the service industry and the food preservation industry. In total, the UI make up 5.2% of the US labor force (Becerra et al. 2012). However, only a small percentage of women of undocumented immigrants possess a paid workforce.
The household income of UI is lower than the income of the household of citizens born in the USA and legal immigrants. The median yearly household pay for the undocumented immigrants was $ 36,000 in 2018, while that of the citizens born in the USA was $50,000 (Dubay, Cook & Garrett, 2009). The US citizens’ annual average income is always reviewed upwards when changes occur, whereas the yearly income of the UI has remained unchanged for more than a decade. The typical structure of undocumented immigrants’ household is of a couple and children. The majority of this group of individuals live with their families comprising a husband, wife, and children. Fifteen percent of households of undocumented immigrants have couples with no children, while only 13% of their households hold single individuals who are not married yet (Dubay, Cook & Garrett, 2009).
The UI in the USA has a lower education level than the US-born citizens of the same age group. Forty-seven percent of the UI at the age of 25-64 have no high school certificate because they have not finished their high school education. In contrast, only eight percent of the same age cohort of children born by US citizens have not completed their high school education (Garcini et al. 2019). Twenty-nine percent of UI adults’ in the age cohort of 25-64 do not have 9th-grade education, whereas only 2% of the American born adults have pursued their 9th-grade education (Garcini et al. 2019). The poverty level of undocumented immigrants in the US is higher than that of US citizens. One study indicated that UI’s poverty index is pitched at 25.1% (Garcini et al. 2019).
Most undocumented immigrants who come to search for work in the US are young. According to health statistics, this young UI always enters the country healthier than their colleagues born in the US. However, the status of their health declines over time. The deterioration of the UI’s health status is associated with low access to healthcare services, among other factors. Due to limited access to public health and medical service programs, the UI’s and their children’s health status become poorer. This group of individuals has poor access to healthcare services because many are employed by companies that do not issue health insurance. Additionally, a number of them are in jobs that are low paying and, therefore, cannot afford to pay for their medical expenses out of their pockets (Chavez, 2012). Most of them cannot also afford to pay the charges for private to cover their health. To make the bad situation worse cultural barriers, and fear of being deported back to their countries of origin make them suffer internally in sickness. Other factors that lead to the poor health outcomes of UI in the US are lack of clarity in the entitlement of the government-funded medical programs and lack of proficiency in English (Campbell et al. 2014). Due to the confusion and complexity in the US’s health policies, most of the undocumented immigrants do not understand whether they are eligible for the US medical schemes or not. Poor English command, on the other hand, make them endure the pain since they are not in a better position to demystify their sickness in English.
Many US citizens believe that undocumented immigrants are a great burden to the healthcare system of the US. However, one study established that between 1999 and 2006, the healthcare expenditure from the publicity-funded healthcare meant for the UI and the DI was lower than money spent on the US’s adult citizens (Campbell et al. 2014). The analysis done on the states that provided medical coverage to immigrants also indicated that the undocumented immigrants’ medical expenditure was lower than the American citizens during the same period. The study revealed that the undocumented individual expense per person was $780 and $1,200 in every US citizen (Chavez, 2012). Most undocumented immigrants do not have insurance covers as compared to their colleagues who are documented and the American citizens. Owing to the lack of insurance cover, many UI’s do not regularly seek medication. Apart from the lack of medical insurance cover and financial constraints for medication, undocumented immigrants also suffer discrimination in their workplaces. When they complain of unhealthy work conditions that introduce chronic disease in them, they get threats of being deported or laid off. Some health specialists working with undocumented immigrants indicated that most of the UI working in farms undergo discrimination in their workplaces (Campbell et al. 2014). When they miss work due to sickness or object to unhealthy working conditions, their employers give them threats of deportation, laying off, or reducing their pay. Most undocumented immigrants work in construction, material moving, and transportation firms; others work in roofers and paint firms. These are workplaces that pose high fatality and injury rates to the workforce; they are also vulnerable to diseases and therefore require comprehensive medical care. Grave bacterial and parasitic infections affect these undocumented immigrants making them contract diseases such as Chagas, dengue, and cysticercosis. One study found that diseases such as cysticercosis have been prevalent in the Latino population and is the major cause of epilepsy experienced among many Latinos (Chavez, 2012).
Because of these unprecedented health problems that UI go through, the American Nurses Association (ANA) revisited their position on healthcare. ANA policy emphasizes that one of the basic human rights in healthcare. It should be provided to everyone residing in the US, even if they cannot settle the medical bill. ANA organized a delegation meeting to fight for the undocumented immigrants’ right to health (Cervantes et al. 18). They made their resolutions based on the professional ethics of nursing. Some of their resolutions were providing moral respect to everyone regardless of their life situation or attributes. They also resolved to provide care for all populations, communities, families, and individuals and address health policies that desecrated human rights. The resolutions catered to everyone, including undocumented immigrants. The resolution singled out justice as one of the nursing professional ethics. The delegation was timely and appropriate since it applied nursing ethics of providing care equitably, justly, and fairly to everyone, including undocumented immigrants.
In conclusion, the undocumented immigrants’ population has been increasingly rising in the USA, creating more controversial debates in the country. Most of the undocumented immigrants came from the countries in the Latin America. Mexico contribute to the largest number of UI in the USA. The UI’s level of income is lower than the DI and the US born citizens. In matters education these individuals make the majority of the educated. In the sector of employment the UI majorly work in physically oriented occupations including construction, transportation, building, in farms, and material movement firms. In their various areas of work UI undergo several challenges such as discrimination. The largest percentage of UI live as couples with children while only a small number are single. In the sector of health, many of them undergo challenges because of factors such as lack of medical insurance cover, complex health laws in USA, poor command of English language, and fear of being deported back home. The nursing professional ethics ANA made introduced resolutions that solved some of the undocumented immigrants’ health problems.