Illegal Immigration affects all Americans, even if they do not know it. An illegal immigrant is defined as, a foreigner that migrates to a country for a permanent residence, without authorization from the government and no form of identification. Currently, illegal immigrants make up about 4% of the United States' population. There are almost 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. Out of the 12 million illegal aliens, 59% of them are from mexico, 15% from Central and South America, and 10% are from Asia. Illegal immigrants mostly live in southern states such as California, Arizona, and Texas. Illegal immigrants have and will keep coming to the United States. The United States has to do prevent illegal immigrants from staying. .
Immigrants have been coming to the United States ever since it was founded. Illegal immigration did not exist till 1875, which is when the first restriction on immigration was created. The law was not very restrictive; it only banned convicts and prostitutes from immigrating. The first immigration act, based on raced was the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was suppose to be temporary. Later on the Chinese Exclusion Act was extended in 1892 by the Geary Act. Immigration was getting out of hand when those were put in place. To slow down immigration the United States set up Quota laws. These laws only allowed a certain amount of people immigrate from each country. By the 1920's illegal immigration was a big topic in Congress. Mexican immigrants were the biggest source of illegally immigration. As soon as immigration became a problem, the amount of immigrants decreased tremendously due to the Great Depression. Herbert Hoover was also making very strict laws. A few years after the laws were set up, World War II came around, and the United States had a labor shortage. This caused the United States to set up a program for Mexicans to work temporarily. During the two decade span, over 4 million Mexicans came to work.
