Since the New World was first discovered, there has been an enormous influx of people from various parts of the world and differing cultures who have wished to resettle in what is now the United States. Of course, these immigrants have historically arrived in the United States in waves, with different portions of the globe and different ethnicities being represented in each individual wave. Yet, one characteristic that has remained constant over the history of immigration in the United States is the general apprehensiveness with which new immigrants have been welcomed by the established culture and society. Although the issue of immigration amnesty has been debated for centuries, it still remains one of the most hotly contested and influential topics in modern public debate.
             The current wave of immigrants is largely represented by people from Mexico, along with several other Central American nations. Since, unlike in the past, these immigrants are capable of entering the United States over land, a significant portion of them have entered this country without the legal consent of American authorities. The arrival of these illegal immigrants has generated a number of social and economic problems, along with many cross-cultural and cross-racial tensions. According to some, the only reasonable way to address these problems is to crack-down on illegal immigration and stop it at its source. According to others, allowing illegal immigrants amnesty is the appropriate way to handle the social problems that their illegal status has created.
             Overall, many of the problems that have been introduced to the fabric of American life and the United States economy are a direct result of the necessarily covert lives illegal immigrants are forced to live. No one disputes that the existence of so many illegal immigrants in the United States creates a large workforce willing to work for wages far below what legal citizens are afforded by law. The qu...