The United States of America, the the land of opportunities, home of the free. This country has several nicknames all pertaining to forms of freedom that those here are supposably promised. However, this is not always the case. For those that legally live here, it is almost guaranteed, but the people that come here from another country in search for a better life are not given the same promise. Although it’s unfortunate, it is slightly understandable for the people who come here illegally for them to be denied certain things that citizens of the United States are granted. But what about the children of these people that come here illegally? What about the ones who were too young to know that they were entering the States under false pretenses? This paper is about one certain group: Mexican immigrants in the United States. Mexican immigrants make up a part of our country’s population. There’s also specific characteristics about these immigrants, such as their incomes, living conditions, and education levels. Furthermore, a recent decision by President Donald Trump is affecting this group of people in a rather large way.
To begin, immigrants from Mexico comprise a significant part of the United States of America’s population. In 2014, more than 11.7 million Mexican immigrants lived in the United States. This accounts for 28 percent of the 42.4 million foreign born population. This is by far one of the largest immigrant groups in the country. According to the U.S Census Bureau, the amount of those who immigrate from Mexico to the United States has steadily increased for the past 40 years or so. In 1980, the Mexican immigrant population in the United States was approximately 2,199,200 people. In 2014, the population rose to 11,714,500. In just thirty-four years, the amount of Mexican immigrants increased by over 9.5 million! Most of these immigrants settle in California, while others live in states such as Texas and Illinois. The top four counties with Mexican immigrants are Los Angeles County in California, Harris County in Texas, Orange County in California, and Cook County in Illinois. These four counties make up about 23 percent of the total Mexican immigrant population in the United States.
Next, a different characteristic of Mexican immigrants is their income. Mexican immigrants have a much lower average income than those native to America have. The average income for adult Mexican immigrants is $18,952 a year. This is less than half of the annual income regular inhabitants of the United States receive. In addition, Mexican immigrants have very high poverty rates. Poverty among immigrants in general and Mexican immigrants specifically or significantly higher than that of those from the United States. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, 11.2 percent of those from the U.S. lived in poverty in 1999. In 1999, 25.8 percent of Mexican-born immigrants lived in poverty. This is more than double the amount of American natives living in poverty. Since their poverty rates are so high, Mexican immigrants have significantly increased the size of the poor population in the United States. Based on estimations of the three million illegal aliens from Mexico, 972 thousand, 33 percent, live in poverty. Also, 2.1 million, or 71.4 percent, live in or near poverty. Illegal aliens from Mexico have overall higher rates of poverty and near poverty than legal Mexican migrants do.
Moreover, immigrants of Mexico face different housing conditions. With smaller annual incomes than their American counterparts, there is no surprise that it is more difficult for immigrants to find housing in the United States of America. One place where it is increasingly difficult for Mexican immigrants to secure housing is New York. The housing situation among New Yorkers is tough already, but no one has it as tough as the city’s Mexican immigrants. Households of Mexican immigrants are more likely to experience overcrowding. Additionally, Mexican immigrant households are likely to spend more than half of their income on rent than any other immigrant group or the native-born population. Approximately forty percent of Mexican immigrant households are overcrowded, compared to with the fifteen percent average of all immigrant households and nine percent of households in the general population. The relatively poor housing experience of many Mexicans is contributed to the newness of this population’s newness to New York and their low income levels.
In addition to facing difficult housing conditions, Mexican immigrants face major obstacles that threaten their physical and emotional health. Once in the United States, these immigrants face huge difficulties in getting medical care and obtaining needed public benefits and employment benefits. Mexican immigrants encounter many barriers to receiving medical services in the United States. This negatively affects their physical and emotional well-being since no insurance restricts their access to a wide range of health, prevention, diagnostic and treatment services and rehab. According to data collected by the Current Population Survey, the number of uninsured Mexican immigrants has almost doubled between 1994 and 2012, from 3.3 million to 6.4 million. In 2012, approximately 53 percent of Mexican born immigrants living in the U.S. lacked any type of health coverage. The amount of those with no insurance is higher among Mexican immigrants than among other groups of immigrants from all over the world living in the United States. This is most likely related to the high rates of undocumented status characterizing a large part of the Mexican immigrant population. Furthermore, U.S. citizenship is a factor that affects access to public and private health insurance. An analysis of the distribution of the immigrant population by type of health insurance and citizenship status shows that only fifteen percent of non-citizens from Mexico have health insurance through public programs while twenty-two percent have private insurance. For Mexican born citizens, twenty-one percent have public insurance and forty percent have private insurance. Therefore, it is difficult for Mexican immigrants to acquire health care.
Lastly, this recent news affects a certain group of immigrants. In the past month, President Donald Trump announced his intentions of terminating the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. This is commonly referred to as DACA. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals was introduced in 2012. The DACA program was created during the Obama administration in order to help minors who were brought to this country without fault. This policy protects immigrants who would have qualified for protection under the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors act, also know as DREAM. DREAM was introduced with the intent to make a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who came into the U.S. before turning 16. Those protected under DACA are called DREAMers. The DREAM act failed to pass, however the DACA policy reflects some of the DREAM act. It grants the DREAMers renewable, two year deferrals from deportation. It also grants these people permits to work in the United States. According to former Obama Homeland Security appointee Eric Columbus, 780 thousand people currently benefit from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. According to an NBC News and Survey Monkey poll, sixty four percent of adults aged 18 and over support DACA. In fact, there are several benefits to keeping DACA. This program significantly improves the American economy. Placing all workers on a path to a legal status would add a total of 22.7 billion dollars annually to the U.S. gross domestic product. The increase in GDP over ten years would be $281 billion. Therefore, the elimination of DACA would actually hurt America much more than it would help it.
Ultimately, the United States of America, for Mexican immigrants, is not the perfect free utopia that is advertised. Immigrants of Mexico definitely have it harder than anyone else in America. They are the largest group of immigrants in the States and make up a significant part of our country’s population. Additionally, their average annual income is the least when compared to other immigrant groups in the United States and U.S. natives. Mexican immigrants also live in poorer housing and health conditions than everyone else here. Lastly, although the termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals affects all young immigrants, it greatly affects Mexican immigrants. The termination would actually hurt our economy more than it would help it. Although immigrants are being hit by all the hardships listed, they are still incredibly resilient and are a part of our country.