https://www.reddit.com/r/answers/comments/1i926dk/what_are_the_reasons_millions_of_undocumented/
created by michkid1 on 24/01/2025 at 18:23 UTC
304 upvotes, 207 top-level comments (showing 25)
Comment by qualityvote2 at 24/01/2025 at 18:23 UTC*
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
u/michkid1, your post does fit the subreddit!
Comment by AndromedaFive at 24/01/2025 at 18:59 UTC
63 upvotes, 9 direct replies
There's 3 big groups of people that are being talked about when we refer to undocumented people.
1. People who snuck into the US in the dead of night, by foot, in cars, on boats, with no trace or documentation. These people come with nothing more than the clothes on their back. We have no way or tracking or knowing where they're at if they don't report themselves. This is that thing they want you to be afraid of. They want you to think the wall will solve this. But this type of illegal crossing is very small.
2. People who applied to get a tourist visa and overstayed their welcome. We know who they are. We tracked that they came but never left. At one point, we even checked to make sure they were decent people. They were good enough to get a tourist visa. They just over stayed, or otherwise found work here.
3. Refugees who come seeking a better life and protection from their own countries. These people either apply and are invited, or they do step 1 but intentionally get caught at the border. These people are also checked, vetted, and verified before they're let in. We know exactly who they are and what they're doing here. This is that group that people claim were never checked properly but they were and coming in as a refuge is 100% legal.
The weird thing is you say "undocumented immigrants allowed in" well there's 3 answers.
Refugees were allowed in but they're not undocumented immigrants.
Visa overstayed were allowed in, but they're not allowed to overstay.
Last, border crossers are the only ones who are truly undocumented immigrants and those were definitely not allowed in at all.
Comment by maq0r at 24/01/2025 at 18:55 UTC
107 upvotes, 12 direct replies
ALLOWED? Like, here's the part that I guess people don't understand:
The border is NOT a Disneyland attraction. The Border is not something you can close with a sign. The border is THOUSANDS of miles long many of them through desert that cannot be realistically patrolled or closed 24/7.
So is not like they were ALLOWED is that there is no way to realistically prevent them from coming in.
Comment by Amphernee at 24/01/2025 at 19:04 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
It’s kinda like asking how cities allowed hundreds of gang members to kill one another as well as loads of innocent bystanders in the streets every year. Policy failures, greed of consumers, the breakdown of families, and on and on. They’re examples of symptoms of an ill society.
Comment by StrangeBedfellows at 24/01/2025 at 18:33 UTC
232 upvotes, 44 direct replies
Answer: When you make excessive barriers to doing things legally you're going to get people doing them illegally. NO administration in a hundred years has allowed undocumented immigrants. In fact Democrats have been found to do more to affect immigration than Republicans.
Since the Republicans would rather not have an actual immigration policy, all they can do is scream about people breaking the law.
Unfortunately the latest voting block for Trump was uneducated Americans, so nuances like facts escape them.
Comment by ThinkItThrough48 at 24/01/2025 at 18:33 UTC
22 upvotes, 4 direct replies
Because there are jobs and hope for a brighter future in the USA than in their home country. Man is driven to better himself and provide for his family.
Comment by Stujitsu2 at 24/01/2025 at 19:46 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
They allowed it by never enforcing punity on companies that hire them.
Comment by Environmental_Bed316 at 24/01/2025 at 20:28 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Short answer: Apportionment.
Comment by LordFluffy at 24/01/2025 at 18:52 UTC
13 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Many started out legal but their Visa expired. Others are seeking asylum, which if your country isn't in the descent into fascist bigotry, is a positive thing. Some are straight up hired; if you eat pork in the US, there's a good chance an undocumented worker helped get it to you. Others just walk across the border.
Comment by a-horse-has-no-name at 24/01/2025 at 18:58 UTC
9 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Undocumented immigrants aren't permitted but they're mostly used as a tool to look strong in front of voters. These people do jobs that Americans typically don't want to do for amounts that Americans don't want to work for.
These people get rounded up when they get discovered and they get sent back (usually after a stay in a prison). It's theatre and it's particularly cruel to people who just want to work and mind their own business. Immigrants commit crimes far below the average of American citizens. They're not here to have fun, they're here to work shitty jobs and send money to their families.
In reality, the only way to stop undocumented people from coming over here, is to take away their work opportunities. That will never happen though because the people who EMPLOY these people are not punished for hiring undocumented workers illegally. There's never any criminal charges, and any civil fines are less than the money they'd make employing these people, so if a company gets raided, it's just the cost of business.
Comment by NetoruNakadashi at 24/01/2025 at 18:54 UTC
7 upvotes, 1 direct replies
We use them to do a lot of 3D work[1] cheap.
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty,_dangerous_and_demeaning
Comment by Helpful_Fig_1888 at 24/01/2025 at 18:55 UTC
10 upvotes, 3 direct replies
Unless they're paid cash, they pay income tax which is which from their paychecks. Yes, vast majority get a pay stub like you and I. Uncle Sam loves this.
They're much cheaper to employ. Republican business owners love this.
Comment by rollotomassi07074 at 24/01/2025 at 19:12 UTC
5 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Answer: 1964 was the last nationwide election where the Democrat party won the majority of the white vote. They realized that in order to remain a viable political party, they needed to change the demographics of the USA through massive immigration.
Comment by bubbabearzle at 24/01/2025 at 19:10 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Because companies profit by hiring them and paying them a lot less than they would have to pay a legal worker. Also, because the government doesn't crack down on the companies that are using these people as slave labor, instead they crack down on the people who are already being taken advantage of.
'Murrica.
Comment by TScottFitzgerald at 24/01/2025 at 19:59 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
The most obvious reason is that they walked in and never left. Either illegally just by crossing the border or as a tourist or similar visas and just never going back.
Comment by talex625 at 24/01/2025 at 20:14 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
To change population numbers in states that doesn’t require voter ID, especially in swing states. Probably to change the census numbers eventually in 2030.
But, that’s illegal so that’s why no one was going to come out to say it and let it happen quietly. That’s why no one talked about it. Straight up government corruption.
Comment by Direct-Wait-4049 at 24/01/2025 at 20:33 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Because they didn't stop at the border to ask permission.
Comment by BillWeld at 24/01/2025 at 20:48 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
The Left wanted them to counter recalcitrant citizens who resist Marxism. It didn't work.
Comment by greginvalley at 24/01/2025 at 19:00 UTC
7 upvotes, 3 direct replies
"Millions " is a hyper inflated number. And many are here doing jobs that Americans refuse to do (you don't see many Americans picking fruit or doing hard labor). And it's not because the work is hard so much as the employers are not willing to pay the wage that most Americans want. If I can get a guy to dig a ditch at $10 an hour, why would I hire a guy at $20 an hour who is going to bitch the whole time.
Comment by scienceisrealtho at 24/01/2025 at 19:10 UTC
7 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Allowed in? Contrary to FOX "news" talking points, there was never an untenable wave of immigrants flooding through the border. This is confirmed by the actual data and by the folks who drove down there to help stop this crush of people, only to disappointingly find that they were not there.
If you're asking why they want to come here, imaging living in not good conditions with no prospects of improvement for you or your children.
At the same time you happen to live in some proximity to a border with a country that is prosperous and offers the opportunity to give your children a better life and future. Coincidentally, this neighboring country has held the idea of accepting immigrants as one of its fundamental building blocks.
Your country of birth offers no incentives to working harder while neighboring country claims that hard work will bring a better life.
What would you do?
People say "we'll just do it the right way.", but there's barriers to doing it "the right way." You look at your kids and you desperately want to be able to provide them with so much more.
Also, you can earn on average 4 times more money in the neighboring country yet for doing the same work you're already doing.
And I'm sure that's just one example.
Comment by babycam at 24/01/2025 at 19:06 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Another fun point is most illegal immigrants come to the states legally through travel or education visas and just stay because it's beneficial for some reason like money or to be free from family or old country laws.
Comment by NE_Pats_Fan at 24/01/2025 at 19:42 UTC
5 upvotes, 1 direct replies
The last administration was literally flying them in.
Comment by ImperiousMage at 24/01/2025 at 19:54 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
The sort of unspoken reality of undocumented migrants is that the US actually needs them. The farming industry, for example, in the US is only cost-effective because of the use of undocumented immigrants. Previously, when the Mexico-US border was VERY porous, Mexican folk would cross the border, work seasonally, and then return to Mexico for the off-season. Once the border started to become firmer (in the 1950s and again in the 1970s), the ability of Mexicans to move back and forth became more restricted. This essentially locked these immigrants in as they had significant economic incentives to stay in the US rather than return to Mexico and feared not being able to return if they left.
The resulting population had children in the US who are US citizens and who are (generally) sympathetic to the plight of other Mexicans who are undocumented. Further, these people can work legally, which makes them less interested in working on farms (the work is hard, and the pay is crap). This means that the farming industry needs more workers; they remain an economic incentive that continues to draw more undocumented migrant workers. These workers become stuck in the same trap and are heavily disincentivized to leave.
That the US has MASSIVE borders means that it is insanely difficult to close the borders completely. This means that it's nearly impossible to stop migrant workers who are willing/able to circumvent legal methods and can make the hike across that terrain. Once inside the US, these migrants avoid being returned to the other side of the border because of the insane costs (personal and financial) that it took to get into the country.
Comment by Starstruck_W at 24/01/2025 at 20:11 UTC
3 upvotes, 2 direct replies
No one ever officially allowed them in. However Democrats opened the border and turned a blind eye intentionally. They also scammed Us by accepting fraudulent Asylum claims and flying people in from other countries. They did all of this while pretending to secure the Border and fight illegal immigration
Comment by Starstruck_W at 24/01/2025 at 20:12 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
It's amazing here that so many Democrats are claiming that there's no way to secure the Border even though Trump did it before and he's done it again. We can see the lies with our own eyes guys, you can stop it now