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Kayla Son
6 December 2015
Rhet 110
Professor Goss
Undocumented Immigrants in the Workforce & Other Issues They Face
“Likewise, tremendous infectious disease is pouring across the border. The United States
has become a dumping ground for Mexico and, in fact, for many other parts of the world,” said
Donald Trump (Noman). Immigration: the topic that made many Americans despise Trump. In
fact, in contrast to Trump’s statement, many people may argue that immigrants have been the
building ground for America and has actually been like a “spread of immunity”, as it has brought
culture, diversity, and new ideas and knowledge. As of 2014, there were about 11.3 million
illegal immigrants residing in the United States, making up about 3.5 percent of the total
population. (Krogstad and Passel). As reflected in the statistics, immigrants are a significant
portion of the United States. Although people immigrate from all parts of the world, such as
China, Philippines, and Guatemala, (Hoefer, Rytina, and Baker), Mexicans make up about 52
percent of the unauthorized immigrants in the United States, and a lot of the immigration issues
revolve around the Mexicans. Immigrants come to America because they see it as the land of
opportunity. Regardless of the hardships, they immigrate in hopes of a finding better
employment opportunities, to pursue a higher quality education, and generally to have a better
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life. However gaining citizenships is not as easy as anticipated. Therefore it leads to a lot of
illegal behaviors that make their lives more difficult.
The biggest issue involving immigrants in the United States is the undocumented
immigrants in the workforce. The United States workforce is comprised of 5.1 percent
unauthorized immigrants alone (Krogstad and Passel). It is a sad case for the illegal workers
because they are often the vulnerable victims to abuse, under-paid wages, dangerous working
conditions, and other labor law violations (Work Place Fairness Hidden America). People are
often insensitive to these issues because they believe that undocumented immigrants push
Americans out of their jobs. But in reality, immigrants take the jobs that Americans are not
willing to take or incapable of filling. They are either very high-end, skilled occupations or low-
skilled jobs. Issues regarding immigrants arise because the United States makes it difficult to
gain citizenship due to the influx amount of people wanting to become citizens. This could be
improved by having a recruitment process for potential immigrants and generally expanding the
green card lottery. In addition, overpopulation in many areas is an issue for allowing more people
into America. There is a lot of land that can be developed to be filled with more people.
Nearly 1.2 million people of America’s undocumented workers are employed by farms,
not including those working for restaurants, factories, slaughterhouses, and others (Greenaway).
In conclusion, a lot of America’s food is made possible because of these immigrants. However a
commonly occurring issue is that their workers’ rights are abused because of their immigrant
status. The employers often hold the “deportation card”, and therefore in fear of being reported to
the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, undocumented immigrants do not speak up about a
lot incidents to protect their security. According to a report by The Hands That Feed Us, illegal
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immigrants are more than twice as likely to earn less than minimum wage and twice as likely to
be victims of wage theft than their documented coworkers (Greenaway). Antonio Vanegas, an
undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, was previously a worker at a pita shop back in 2010
at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in D.C. At that time, Vanegas was
paid under the table at around two dollars under the minimum wage. He would work overtime
but was never compensated for those additional hours on the job. Upon coincidentally meeting a
labor organizer from the Good Jobs Nation while working, he joined other workers on a one-day
strike in D.C. to protest against underpaid wages. A few days later, he was stopped by an officer
from the Federal Protective Service while at work. Vanegas said,”What they told me was I
shouldn’t keep working there because I’m undocumented…When I worked at the food court I
