Illegal immigrants receiving social services, for example, food Essay

Illegal immigrants receiving social services, for example, food stamps, welfare, and medical care - Essay Example Most these people come from the South America and Southeast Asia. Majority of these undocumented immigrants head to California, Texas and Florida. The large number of immigrants, whether legal or illegal significantly impacts the economical state of the country. The Federation for American Immigration Reform estimates about $45 billion worth of expenses for providing social services, education, roads, prisons and other services to these unauthorized immigrants (Glicken, p.375). In contrast, studies that focus on illegal immigrants such as a paper published by the American Immigration Law Foundation indicate that unauthorized immigrants does not use public services as much as the legal immigrants (Wepman, p.339). The paper specifically states that a 1987 study as an example that just 2% of illegal Mexican immigrants received welfare and just 3% accepted food stamps (Wepman, p.339). This suggests that unauthorized immigrants are not significantly impacting the social welfare system of the United States. One of the major concerns relating to undocumented immigrants is their use of the social welfare system. Because these illegal immigrants come to the United States without resources or employment, they use the services and public support provided by the United States. ... ill humans and they have the right to live, thus, the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 was provisioned to restrict them from any grants and retirement, welfare, health, disability, food assistance and unemployment benefits but still receive emergency medical services. Undocumented immigrants have clearly impacted the economical and social state of the country. Conservatives believe that these people drain the social welfare as they go about using the legal taxpayers’ money for their social needs, such as medical and food assistance. On the other side of the fence, opposing views believe these people do not so much take a part of the social welfare system as the legal citizens and immigrants do. Because undocumented immigrants know and understand that they are unauthorized immigrants, they do not come forth claiming benefits for fear of being identified, thus risking deportation. That is also the main reason these people are underpaid, overworked and unfairly treated in labor, housin g and education. It is important to understand that illegal immigrants do not actually have the same federal rights as the legal immigrants. Thus, they have a lower chance of using the social welfare system to cover their needs. Yes, they impact the social welfare system in terms of medical services but it doesn’t mean they aim to spend billions of dollars claiming medical benefits. What is important for them is to live and not to die. That’s actually the main reason they come to the hospital, even if they know they are undocumented immigrants, and not to extort money from the state. Yes, there are some groups calling for increased benefits for the illegal immigrants but the state is still in control of who they provide the services for and who they restrict. That’s the reason for the