Legal Rights for Illegal Aliens

Minimum Wage Possibly the greatest draw for employing illegal immigrant labor stems from the fact that they are not required to receive minimum wage. Often, these types of jobs are service oriented or manual labor, and as such, can be easily hidden from audits and inquiring parties. Illegal immigrants maintain no specific rights in requesting minimum wage and their focus in avoiding deportation results in low-paying and even dangerous jobs. Many Americans cite the illegal immigrant population as a detriment to citizens finding gainful employment, however, the types of jobs that illegal immigrants occupy often fail to attract American labor. Although the argument remains that illegal immigrants should not be entitled to any specific set of rights due to their illegal status, certain exemptions require consideration to insure the safety of the American border and general populace. One such consideration that often receives a high amount of debate is the granting of identification cards to illegal immigrants. If the federal legislature can come up with a plan to allow illegal immigrants to receive an identification card without facing automatic deportation, the safety of American citizens would automatically grow. The primary worry concerning undocumented immigrants revolves around the inability to know what type of people are entering the nation. These individuals could be criminals, gang-members, or terrorists. Driving Privileges Potentially, both American citizens and illegal immigrants could be feeling what some perceive to be the ill effects of the REAL ID Act. The measure, passed by Congress under controversial circumstances, would link driver's licenses with a national database, creating a de facto national ID system. A majority of the American populations are perceived to be critical of this law, which has yet to go into full effect, citing concerns about the security of their confidential information over interstate connections and within a central, susceptible means of storing specific information. Illegal immigrants and their advocates, meanwhile, decry the REAL ID Act's requirement of legal status to get a driver's license, which could effectively turn police officers into immigration officials in the event a detainee is found to be an unlawful resident of the United States. If and when states do adhere to REAL ID provisions, this will be a real issue for illegal immigrants. Until that point, though, there are already obstacles for undocumented aliens who seek driving privileges. For one, most states do not offer driver's licenses to illegal aliens, and even those that do offer driving privileges may insist on issuing separate cards that allow for separate driving rights for foreign-born applicants. Furthermore, the American public is currently decided against issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants; as much as 75% of Americans are in favor of denying them to illegal aliens.